Wedding Research: Contemporary Weddings

Brooks Reynolds (http://vowtoremember.com/portfolio/)

To be honest, I am a big fan of contemporary photographers and even if I appreciate the masters of the past, new photographers of the 21th century will always impress me more. I started and learned photography because of flickr, it may sound stupid but this is maybe why I like contemporary photographers so much. I know most of the teachers in Dawson College despise this new style, especially when they use a tilt-shift lens the ''wrong'' (creating blur) way. For my research I found pictures from one of my favorites photographers (Brooks Reynolds) and I will share my thoughts about the new trends that are going on.

I took Brooks Reynolds because he is the perfect example of what is going on with the good new young contemporary photographers on flickr. His style is being imitated a lot and there are reasons behind, which I will also try to analyze.

I think the most evident trend that is going on technically is either shooting wide open with a 35mm, 50mm or 85mm prime with natural light and having really bright tones. In the past, the trends were going more toward low key but now it is the opposite. The images are also more contrasty, very few details in the shadows. Shooting in front of a light source also is something that is very contemporary. The use of flash is still there but less present; there are more and more pictures with ambiant light, even if it means they have to crank up their ISO.

What I noticed also that is a trend is taking pictures of objects. It is a good idea, a bit cheesy but now it's everywhere. But honestly, being a couple I wouldn't hate it.





I guess weddings pictures will always be cheesy but another thing that is popular too now is putting your pictures in black and white to give them a ''photodocumentary'' feel but sometimes it still doesn't remove the cheesyness of the picture.

Brooks Reynolds does all of this but at the same time he seems flexible, there is a lot of variety into his work, from posed pictures to photodocumentary shots. What I like is that even in his posed shots he tries to give them a feel, to have a minimum of connection with the subject. Overall, I think he is a great example of what is going on today when you pay a good price. Of course there are a lot of wedding photographers out there and I think Brooks is a good example of what you should pay a big price for. There are better photographers than him of course but I still think he is great and has his own style.

Here is the link to his Wedding Portfolio
Or you could just visit his website,
or his amazing summer night project,
and finally his very interesting blog.

Food research

Here are 10 pictures that I find interesting:

I'd say the main difference with the pictures we see in a menu or even some product shots at the grocery store is that the composition is well thought and that there is some thinking behind it. Sometimes we can see diptychs, concepts and plays of colors that make the image. The graphic elements and the lighting play a huge part of in the success of these images. Sometimes it is not really to show the product I'd say since the approach is very ''artistic''.

One thing I noticed is nowadays wherever they come from, I feel that most of the food photographers do the same thing. It sure looks pretty good but it becomes strange, like if it was some kind of job they were doing everyday and not intending to improve, like a butcher or a baker. But sometimes I fall on pretty good pictures that push things further and make things interesting. Sometimes the food does not fit, sometimes it's funny and strange. Here are a couple of examples:

Narrative resubmit

I resubmited some pictures, more to come! Here they are!

Narrative Project

My narrative project is divided in two parts, in ''mini-scenarios''.

The first scenario is: here

The second scenario is: here

I will probably re-do a series of three because I don' t like working on a narrative series. I am more into concentrating into one very good picture and I thought that 10 is too much. I feel like I have done my series too fast, with too much pressure, with no ideas and with some technical issues.

Fashion research

I found an interesting series done but a couple of Russian photographers, Andrey Yakovlev and Lili Aleeva. Here is the link.

I know it is not my Picasa web album but they are already all there together. All these images show perfectly how narration works in most fashion shoots now. I used to hate fashion but the narrative dimension brought to most of the works now created some interest to me since I am a big fan of cinema. What I liked with this series of pictures is that the story is so easy to read and all the composition are so well thought and planned. Their approach is quite interesting since it is related to our reality, it's a story that probably already happened and they just recreate this macabre event in a funny and interesting way. This shooting really caught my attention and opened my mind about fashion.

For more work of them here is the link

I also provided some more pictures on Picasa web album from many other photographers -> here

Good and bad environmental portraits research

Couple of bad examples: http://picasaweb.google.com/thierrylord/Bad

Couple of good examples : http://picasaweb.google.com/114794897409431719430/Good

For my bad ones I tried to find pictures that could be considered good but the cheesiness and the bad taste in editing makes them not that good. Some of them are actually extremely good technically but sometimes I think it's too much... and sometimes not enough. HDR composites are definitely something I despise but I used to love back then. I also posted some portraits that I found interesting but at the same time so pretentious (the guy with the fox). Maybe I'm not brilliant enough to understand. I got also band shots that are not done very well or with very few taste in lighting, location, colors and especially strange photoshop editing. I've got also cheesy portrait where people take themselves too seriously.

For my good ones, well it is really a question of opinion. Some people in the class I know would find them boring and uninteresting but most of them are my style. Most of them are done with natural or ambiant light and are more about feelings and emotions than composition and direct link with the environment. Some of them could not be considered environmental portraits but I don't know I think they are. I tried to be different from the usual old school photo-documentary pictures and find some work from my flickr contacts who inspire me. These are not masterpieces but definitely good work in my opinion that deals with emotions and feelings.

Assignment 3 research