Goldilocks and the Four Wedding Photographers

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I was chatting to a fellow pro photographer the other day and we got around to discussing the natural progression photographers follow.  As everything there are those that these general guidelines don't apply to (and if you take photographs you're probably convinced you're one of them) but I'll hold my hand up and admit, I've been through all of these stages including the horrible overphotoshop one, eughhh!  

Anyway I thought a good way to explain the different levels would be tell you the story of Goldilocks and the four wedding photographers, so if you're sitting comfortably, i'll begin.

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess called Goldilocks who had met and fallen in love with her very own prince charming.  In no time at all they had realised they were meant to be together and begun arranging their wedding day.  Now the prince was a very busy man and being male had left all the important details to be arranged by his beloved Goldilocks which she had done in a very short period of time.  All that remained to be done was to find the right type of photographer that could capture her day in the way she wanted to remember it.  So she drafted a letter to go to all the kingdom stating she wished to see all the kingdoms photographers.

On the first day she saw the talented amateur photographer who showed her his work and whilst it seemed adequate it lacked the overall wow factor Goldilocks was looking for.  She couldn't quite put her finger on it but the images although well exposed and posed seemed to lack the pozaz she was looking for. So she thanked the talented amateur photographer and sent him on his way. 

 On the second day young Goldilocks interviewed the "I'm not confident enough so i turn everything black and white specialist".  Now the images he showed were striking but as Goldilocks soon found out after seeing page after page of black and white images they all seemed rather ... well dull.  Goldilocks new she liked Black and White but had discovered that too much of one thing just doesn't work.

So now on the third day Goldilocks interviewed the third photographer who was strangely named "look how clever I am in photoshop.com".  Again this photographer had an impressive catalogue of images all of which looked stunning in their own way.  However what Goldilocks soon realised was that whilst it was groovy to have a modern style image looking like something straight out of a Doctor Who poster when it came to wedding images in an album it just looked a mess.  Much more than five minutes of looking at them left her feeling like her eyes wanted to bleed.  She thanked the photographer and sent him on his way.

On the fourth day she interviewed the "Just right photographer".  He showed and explained that with a good image and the right type of touching up in photoshop you should be able to make a good image great, without causing distress to the viewer.  Goldilocks looked through his images and realised in an instant that this was exactly what she had been looking for, not too little black and whites and not too much over saturation and photoshop magic.

 The images looked alive without being over powering so she booked the photographer.

A long time after the wedding when she sat with her grandchildren looking through the record of her wedding (her album) she would often look back and be happy that she had taken the time to look at the different levels of photographers in her Kingdom.  As Goldilocks looked through the lasting record of her magical day she thought about her beloved prince charming and thanked the fact he had left the choice of photographer up to her so she could be happy ever after ......... the end.  

I was going to put a bit in about a wicked step uncle who had a nice camera and had said they would photograph the wedding for free (always a recipe for disaster), but I prefer my tales to finish with a happy ending rather than tears.


It's also worth mentioning that the couple in the images above are in fact Gemma and Paul who I had the honour of photographing recently.  Whilst their wonderfull day was it's own fairytale the above story is completely made up and the images are used only as a visual explanation.