Now I am sure that every photographer has a different interpretation of what makes a timeless classic and I certainly don’t want to over analyse this as part of my job is to capture what I see, without consciously thinking about it. It’s about the anticipation of a moment, it’s about observing people, their mannerisms, the emotions. I suppose it’s a bit like a golf swing, once you start thinking about what you are doing you are in danger of losing it (or so golfers say).

Would it need to be in colour or Black & white? I suppose the majority of “classic” photography for me have been Black & white but this may well be just that older journalistic photographs (older as in before Digital, yes it did exist!) tended to be in B&W. I still think it is true that BW removes colour as a distraction and allows the viewer to concentrate on just what is happening in the image. However, colour whilst maybe not as pure visually can also add to the overall truth of the photograph, the historical accuracy. Sort of like how do we know what colours dinosaurs were without photographic proof So I suppose colour or BW shouldn’t make that much of a difference.

It needs to present emotion, authentic emotion. As a consequence it can’t be a cliched, posed photo. It needs to be an event, a situation that creates itself and the photographer is just there to capture it.

It cannot be shackled with a gimmick, a look, a fad. Instagram photos with their myriad of one click filters are fine now but what will they look like in 30 years time. Remember that once upon a time someone thought that making photos blurry around the edges and using soft focus would make it look dreamy. Ask yourself what you think of those pictures now.

So, a timeless classic to me is something that can be looked at now and in 30 years time it will conjure up just the same emotions as when first viewed. You will immediately get that same feel, that tingle from the picture.

Of course not every picture I take will be put forward as a timeless classic but it is certainly what I am aiming for. You can take a view here of a selection of my wedding photography and judge for yourself…..

david page photography – wedding photojournalism

Part of my income from photography comes from selling images to businesses and magazines via agencies who represent me. Occasionally I get the odd e-mail direct from businesses or publications who have seen some of my work and then ask if they can use my photographs to help promote their business or product, there is no initial mention of payment. It doesn’t happen often but when it does I politely inform them of the payment terms to use one of my images. Sometimes the subsequent e-mails manage to make me raise a smile. They range from “we thought you would be pleased that we wanted to use your photo”, “we don’t normally pay for photos”, “we thought the publicity would be good for you”……..

So whilst following this theme I am thinking of walking down to the nearest restaurant and asking for a free meal. And just before the restaurant owner throws me out I will gently explain to them……….. “I don’t normally go out to restaurants to eat as I grow all my own food and really enjoy cooking. But when I was walking past your open door the smell of the food was absolutely fantastic so I thought you would be pleased that someone wanted to eat the food you had so lovingly prepared. If I enjoy the meal I will tell everyone I know that your food is the best food I have ever tasted and you will have customers queuing outside. Unfortunately they might not expect to have to pay pay though. ”

The house and grounds were converted by the Bride and Groom, friends and family into various traditional English favourites.  We had a small stone outbuilding turned into the Dancing Dog pub complete with pictures of the Queen and bags of nuts. Another small stone building became “toute sweet” an old fashioned childrens sweet shop complete with boiled sweets in jars served in brightly coloured paper bags. Childrens paintings were titled and framed and proudly displayed in the “Tate mini gallery”, yep you guessed it, in another small outbuilding. The wedding reception was a picnic in the garden complete with picnic blankets, wicker hampers stuffed to the gills with yummy food and of course champagne! Tea, cake and scones were served in the afternoon followed by the “human horse jumping contest”. First time I have ever seen a bride carried on the back of the groom over an obstacle course dressed in the most stunning wedding dress! A most wonderful relaxed and original wedding. Good times? Oh yes !

A little gallery of some photos from the story of the day. oh and by the way a little bit of shameless self publicity the picture of Vicki with the beautiful veil won 10th place in the international WPJA (Wedding photojournalist Association) competition for the “bride getting ready section”, May 2012.

As with most of my weddings it all started with an e-mail. Jen and Jed were organising their own destination wedding in Aquitaine, the venue, a lovely complex of 3 rural gites with swimming pool was booked. The celebrant was booked for the service and they just needed a wedding photographer to tick all the boxes on their list. I knew we were all going to get along famously when we shared a glass of wine over a video conference call to chat through the final details of the celebrations and their 30 guests!

Before we begin this story it has to be said that, although not guaranteed, summer in France normally brings blue skies, wonderful light and hot weather. So it was with some apprehension that I set off for the drive to the wedding under leaden grey skies and not an insignificant amount of rainfall!

Nothing was going to spoil Jen and Jeds wedding though and the weather, although a bit wet to start with, soon turned to sunshine later on and picking fresh flowers in the rain for the bouquets became part of the memories of the day. I can honestly say that there are some weddings where the emotions of the day bring a little lump to my throat. This was one of those weddings. With Jen and Jed so evidently very much in love there were times when I was getting a little bit choked up! That’s probably the last thing my clients want to see, a weeping photographer

Anyway what better way to tell the story than in photographs. I have selected a few snaps from the day in the slideshow below. Click on the icon bottom right hand corner to view on full screen and enjoy.

I love photography and I love my work, I can’t wait to get back from my weddings and see what is in the camera. The apprehension, the excitement of watching the days events unfold before my eyes captured in split second moments. Amazing. Never ceases to enthral me, never ceases to motivate me for the next wedding. So, I am writing this half way through processing last weekends wedding and as I sit here with a smile on my face reliving the days events it becomes more clear to me about what exactly photojournalism is. Well at least what it is for me

First of all a wedding day is not just about this documentary style of photography. It could be, but it is just that there are other elements that are important as well that cannot be ignored. It is nice to have group photos to ensure that everyone who was there celebrating the day is captured on film for future family generations to see. It is nice to have the bride and groom photos, together, their day, their way, their photos of them captured as they are on their special day. It is nice to have beautiful images of the detail of the day, the table layouts, the food, the decorations, the personalised bits and pieces that make it unique. But the thing that really, really brings it all to life for me are the fly on the wall, photojournalistic, reportage, candid, documentary, unguarded, natural, the as it really happened moments. Not easy to capture but oh so rewarding when they are. You see people as they really are at that split moment in time, no camera smiles, no inhibitions just the natural emotion of the moment.

Some pictures you can look into the picture and see things that only the bride and groom, the family will know are there. Little items, people maybe, the place, the food, a table ornament, something special to them that in 10, 15 years time will bring a flood of happy memories back to the couple. That’s what this style of photography is about to me. To record the day as it actually happens and pick out those moments, those events, those goose bump emotions as they naturally happen. Weddings really are a one off day and I feel so lucky to be able to be there, share the moment, take the pictures and capture what happens in a realistic and hopefully somewhat artistic manner for all those times in the future when the wedding album is brought out to be flicked through and to take a stroll down memory lane and maybe raise a laugh or shed a tear but definitely raise a smile………. and remember it as it really was.

A little example. A little snap. Quite sweet, I think. But the little girl was a grandchild to one of the dancing ladies, she spent the whole evening dancing, copying, twirling, following, smiling. It was a memory of the day, a special moment that maybe without the nudge of a photograph would be lost in the memory. For me it was a beautiful moment, the happiness of the little girl lost in the dance, copying her grandma, wanting to dance like her. Magic. Moment. Right there. Snap, they never realised I was there, photojournalism, in the can, captured, forever.

Aurore and Kevin and the moving ceremony in the most wonderful French village church. Charlotte and Phillipe an intimate wedding with an international guest list of French, English and Australians. Idalie and Aurelien, two sapeur pompiers with a cortege that had to be seen to be believed! Jen and Jed, a destination wedding in the Aquitaine, many highlights on that one but photographically the winner was probably the bridal party going for a coffee in the village square in full wedding dress. I think we bonded. Florence and Mathieu married in a medieval Cathedral and with after dinner entertainment from friends and family that held everyone spellbound (and made for excellent photo moments!). Richie and Vicki and the vintage Citroen car that broke down on the way to the ceremony. A wedding themed around an English Tea Party that culminated in Human show jumping, picture bride on back of groom running and jumping around a specially constructed show jumping ring. Can’t picture it? Don’t worry I have photos . Sophie and Danny who put so much thought, planning and detail into the wedding and festivities and which resulted in something quite special, not a dry eye in the house. Entertainment provided from friends and family ranging from groom plus backing band serenading the bride, a hip hop sketch from close friends and the most remarkable Swedish folk dancing with audience participation. Fantastic…………

So many memories and I feel so lucky to have met so many lovely people and shared their most special day with them. It gives me an immense amount of satisfaction to think that in the years and generations to come when those wedding photographs are taken out to be shown around, all those magical moments of the day will come flooding back to the happy couple and can be maybe introduced to all the new members of the family.

Although much of the Abbey is a ruin, behind the great Charlemagne tower there lies cloistered monastic buildings from the 13th century where the actual ceremony will take place.  A beautiful formal garden will be in full bloom for the wedding.  I am looking forward to this wedding and the resulting photographs so much…………..

Here’s a couple of quick snaps taken today. The Charlemagne Tower in all its’ magnificence.

One of the monastic rooms. I can just see the bride and groom silouhetted against that window, the chair will of course be removed. Classic.

I kind of get the idea of facebook from an individual users perspective. Keeps in touch with distant friends and it is occasionally amusing to see what people have been up to, the “conversations” are easy to follow and indeed can be fun. But from a business persepctive do people actually use it to find businesses? Do businesses actually use it to find suppliers? After using both facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter for some while now I remain unconvinced.

Facebook for a business is just way to hit and miss. I have never heard of anyone wanting to find a business service say “just facebook it”. Twitter on the other hand seems to be just a disorganised mess of information drivel, it’s very hard if not impossible to follow a thread of conversation on there. Twitter just seems to dumb everyone lifes down to 140 characters of sound bites with lots of # things that are supposed to be helpful in some way. If you follow thousands of people how the hell are you supposed to be able to take all that information chaff in?

On the upside I have found new business contacts in Twitter and indeed these relationships have been useful. Useful as in actually winning clients. On the downside there is Facebook who’s business model is trying to get subscribers for facebook adverts but I doubt that people even notice the adverts let alone click on them. LinkedIn is sort of professional, up market version of Facebook, though it seems to be used mainly for keeping in touch with past business colleagues.

Social media, Fad or Fundamental change in communication? For me the jury is still out but of course I will carry on using both just because….. well just because it’s there and everyone uses it. Don’t they?

Conversely have you ever met someone who is like Eeyore the donkey in Winne the pooh? Gloomy and sad, always expecting the worse and somehow the worse always does seem to happen. After spending a short time with people like this don’t you just want to leave?

It is a difficult time at the moment for businesses and it is easy to get sucked into all the doom and gloom circulating in the media. But does it do any good to be in that place? If I didn’t love doing what I am doing then why should I carry on doing it? I didn’t start a career in photography to get rich (I am optimistic but not naive) I started doing this because I love doing it, I love taking photos, I love seeing my clients happy and I get genuinely excited at the opportunity of taking new photographs. When people ask me how’s business going I always give one of two replies depending on what’s really happening. Answer 1 is sort of  “really good thanks, lots of work on the books and keeping really busy” – this answer is used when business is actually going well. Or answer 2 “really good thanks, Iv’e got lots of ideas for new work and some really good leads for business” – this answer is used when I actually am not fully booked. The point being both answers are positive replies, spin maybe, but positive and it works for me on two fronts. Firstly it energises me, it makes me think how things are actually going and motivates me to do more. Secondly it is a positive message to the person who is asking, as in it delivers the message that I am on the move, on the up, things are happening!

So in a nutshell my glass is always half full and business at the moment is really good thanks, lots of work on the books and keeping busy! LOL So, lets have less Eeyores and more human dynamos out there!!!!