The Proof is in The Details - For Beginning Photographers and Hobbyist

I've had a lot of emails from beginning photographers about my style of photography and the details that I capture. One thing about shooting weddings is documenting all the important details of the day. Think about it, the bride, groom, and their families have put so much time, energy, and money into this special occasion. You have to honor that by making sure to notice everything! And I do mean everything! Not just something new, something old, something borrowed, something blue.

Back to the Future: When it was time for me to graduate from high school, all of the students purchased these special little books that you were supposed to decorate with all of your high school memorabilia and chronicle your life up to that point. I had a few problems.

1. I had no money to buy the book

2. I had way too much stuff

3. I didn't like cutting paper and gluing images

4. If you didn't have a book you couldn't get your friends' signatures - the uncool kid :-(

5. Most of the guys at school could care less to carry around a memory book

(note: don't worry, I'm taking this story somewhere - keep reading)

So I devised a plan. I went to the local Walmart and bought a huge album for like 10 bucks. Remember the albums with the acid pages. Who ever thought it was a good idea to use the type of sticky pages that would eventually eat through your images in a few years? Come on, you know you still have some of your pictures in those old albums and you can't peel the pictures off now without tearing, right?

Anyways, I created my own book. I had hundreds of pictures, receipts, pendants, award certificates, report cards (dating back to Elementary School), fabric (from proms), newspaper clippings, programs...you get deal. I was a pretty huge pack rat. No need for a year book, I could make my own. Or even lend them material.

What I realized when I started doing photography professionally is that I was never a pack rat. I appreciated history and documenting my past. I was creative in ways to display my view of life and what I wanted (or wanted to forget) for the future. I loved details and I noticed things that others overlooked.

The same is still true.

As a professional photographer, now I get paid to document the lives of others. How cool is that! Not only am I keeping up with my own history, now I get a chance to play a part in capturing the history and future of others. Someone 100 years from now (?? guess I may be somewhere else by then) will look at one of my images or flip through one of my books and appreciate (hopefully) what was happening during that time. This may all sound pretty basic to you but it totally excites me. Yet another reason why "...the key is to love what you see." I have no clue who or what I will influence in the future. As long as I show love for what I am doing, I am completely satisfied with where I am going. Was that a quote?

Back to the post and ending my mid-day rambling.

So since I shoot so many weddings and you get to see those details on the site all of the time, let's look at something different. Here is a sneak peek into a portion of what I will be teaching in the workshop.

Take this room:


Nothing too special. It's just a hallway and a room, right? But there are some really important details. And actually some pretty extraordinary photographs that could take place if we added a person there or simply take a closer look.

When thinking of details, you need to figure out a way to capture them and display them in a way that shows appreciation (and love) for the thought of the person and existence of the item.

Here's one view:


And another:



And another:



And yet another: (sorry 'bout those shadows!)


The options are limitless. I could stay in one 10x10 room for a month shooting different details. They are everywhere. Honor your clients and/or your subject material by capturing the details in a different way. Don't just go out and copy what you've seen before. That's what I strive to do and what I always hope my clients appreciate - me paying attention and capturing something different. More on this at the workshop.

The Proof is in The Details because it shows that you have love for what you do and the people that you are privileged to work with.

By the way, I did become the cool kid with my custom high school memory book. It did weigh about 10 pounds but I had more pages than anyone else to sign (when others ran out) and I had more images to back up my stories (that people thought were a figment of my imagination). I still have the book and about 5 - 6 others from college. The next book will document my time in Corporate America.

Back to the Present: So interesting how your past comes back to help you in the future.

- KNIGHT

The Proof is in The Details - For Beginning Photographers and Hobbyist