With This Ring

August 21, 2007 6:41 PM

A beautifully-composed blog of wedding Photographer James Christianson
posted by growabrain (30 comments total)

Great shots. Thank you.
posted by ColdChef at 7:02 PM on August 21, 2007

Beautiful. I wish my wedding photographer had been half this good.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 7:03 PM on August 21, 2007

Nice. But, people hire a photographer for their engagement?
posted by found missing at 7:05 PM on August 21, 2007

Does he do consummations?
posted by found missing at 7:08 PM on August 21, 2007 [4 favorites]

Beautiful people make beautiful photos,
ugly people make ugly photos,
which explains my photos.
posted by blue_beetle at 7:11 PM on August 21, 2007 [1 favorite]

I would rather my wedding photos look a little more raw and a little more candid, rather than like glossy magazine inserts (provided I ever get married which will happen around the time I feel like giving away half my shit).
posted by chlorus at 7:12 PM on August 21, 2007

Does he do consummations?
posted by found missing at 7:08 PM

You'll have to check the Porn Star Actor Director List for that.
posted by Xere at 7:17 PM on August 21, 2007

Wonderful work, but its annoying that he feels he needs to frame every single shot with that bottom border/frame thing. A subtle watermark would be much more tasteful and far less distracting from his otherwise excellent work. At least its not some god-awful flash site.
posted by blaneyphoto at 7:25 PM on August 21, 2007

These looks like still from Wellbutrin commercial.
posted by doctor_negative at 7:27 PM on August 21, 2007

Nice

Also check out Aaron Willcox (flash)... click on "shows shows shows" (my friends just went to Liz and Devin's wedding and sent me the email link... amazing work)
posted by Bighappyfunhouse at 7:40 PM on August 21, 2007

That Aaron Wilcox is not so great. He never got a single shot of the bride at this wedding.
posted by ColdChef at 7:54 PM on August 21, 2007 [2 favorites]

Great link, thanks for posting.

/me feels all fuzzy
posted by Zephyrial at 8:29 PM on August 21, 2007

Agreed that I would feel unsettled by having these sorts of photos of my wedding -- like I was in an ad for a bank. It's odd and a little depressing that people want the details of their weddings to be framed so cutely and perfectly.
posted by argybarg at 8:37 PM on August 21, 2007

It's odd and a little depressing that people want the details of their weddings to be framed so cutely and perfectly.

What kind of pictures would you prefer? Hastily taken, sloppy, out of focus, redeye snapshots?
posted by ColdChef at 9:02 PM on August 21, 2007

Gorgeous.
posted by bijou at 9:35 PM on August 21, 2007

Wow, a bunch of curmudgeons, complaining about the photos here? I'm jealous - he obviously has an eye for the work & exquisite taste. It feels like he enjoys his work.

I guess ultimately pictures are about impressions, and the impressions here are a little more abstract, implying emotion & feeling. Instead of candids & snapshots.

I really dig this, thanks for the post!
posted by volk at 9:44 PM on August 21, 2007

ColdChef:

If those were the only two choices, I guess I'd take the bank-ad photos. But I've seen wedding photos that looked like they were taken by and of human beings, instead of for a corporate brochure.

This one, for instance, is just too perfect and cute — it looks posed, even if it wasn't. Give me snapshots taken by talented guests — in fact, I did and I prefer them to the idea of studio-type perfection.

And yes, some of them are very beautiful and I'm being a curmudgeon.
posted by argybarg at 10:14 PM on August 21, 2007

Yes, everyone seems to be exceptionally good-looking, but those also seem to be exceptional photographs.

I intend to bookmark his blog for those times when I need to drench myself in some romance and pretty people and lovely scenes...

Ain't nothin' wrong with that!
posted by Savannah at 10:55 PM on August 21, 2007

They just look like advertising - there's no humanity.

If they were a film, I'd expect the woman to start trilling about how important it was to be dry and confident on her wedding day.
posted by rhymer at 1:21 AM on August 22, 2007

To be followed up later with divorce photos?

Think of the site that would make!
posted by bwg at 2:44 AM on August 22, 2007 [1 favorite]

Having done wedding photographs myself, I can honestly say that these look pretty good. He has great equipment and a good eye (and probably a good partner who works the crowd, shooting journalistic type of images).

Having said that, there are a LOT of good wedding photographers working, since that is the most common way for a photographer to earn a living. This guy is pretty good, but there are probably 1000 others of similar quality working the NYC area alone. People in Long Island tend to go absolutely nuts when they get married: I knew a couple who spent $20,000 on photography alone.

I'm biased: my (very talented) cousin shoots weddings in the bay area, but has moved into shooting DV of the events than stills (more $). The standard setup these days for a BIG wedding would be two people shooting DV - one with a set tripod shot and one handheld (steadicam if you're rich enough?) and two people shooting stills - one medium format setup for the set shots and one handheld for all the other 'journalistic' stuff.

I've never really wanted to do it for a living, because of the friction between art and commerce (just reading this thread underlines my point). Just because I like to shoot a certain way, doesn't mean that the bride and groom will like what I've done (even though that doesn't invalidate my personal vision). Plus, I hate to feel like I'm ripping anyone off.

*sigh* I guess I shouldn't get on my high horse: shooting a wedding is how I got my first decent camera:

Friend: "Hey, I like the pictures on your website! Do you do weddings?"

Me: "No, I don't have the equipment or the experience..."

Friend: "I've been looking into it; it's really expensive! The cheapest I can find is $1200! What would you need in order to be able to do it?"

Me: "A camera, a couple of lenses, a decent-sized compact flash card..."

Friend: "What if I bought you all that stuff? Would you do it?"

I couldn't pass it up. The camera lust was too great. I gave her everything I shot, didn't charge her for prints, and we both walked away happy. I wouldn't want to do it all the time, though.

Not to cast stones, but I think the "wedding industry" sucks.
posted by chuckdarwin at 2:56 AM on August 22, 2007

"Impotence needn't be the end of the world"

*smiling guy kisses girl in sunlit cornfield*
posted by fire&wings at 4:50 AM on August 22, 2007

The fifth picture on the July 31st, 2007 page took about five looks to work out what was going on. That or the bride really does have a grey beard.
posted by vbfg at 5:16 AM on August 22, 2007

The older pictures in the archive look more 'amateurish'.
posted by prolific at 5:53 AM on August 22, 2007

vbfg, that was the very one I was coming to post about. I love that shot.
posted by GrammarMoses at 6:29 AM on August 22, 2007

Stuff like this reminds me of why I snarl every time someone looks at an occasionally (very occasionally) good shot I get and thinks to "compliment" it by saying, "Wow, you must have a terrific camera!" Every single one of these photos just sings "composition" and that is 100 per cent the photographer, not his camera.

Beautiful work. Thanks for posting the find.
posted by Mike D at 7:05 AM on August 22, 2007

Lovely photos, added to my bloglines. Thanks!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 10:21 AM on August 22, 2007 [1 favorite]

To be followed up later with divorce photos?

Think of the site that would make!

You laugh, but I have friends breaking up who are using MySpace for this very purpose. It's like a contest- who removed wedding pictures from their pics first, who posts more happy "Look at me out with alllll my friends, living the single life". A marriage decomposing before our very eyes.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 10:40 AM on August 22, 2007 [1 favorite]

Thanks for the link. I was asked by some friends to shoot their wedding, and I've never done one before. I've been looking at as much material as possible. Posed photos will be the most difficult for me since that kind of thing is the most difficult to make interesting. I'll just take a couple thousand and hope for the best.

What I see with this photographer is that he's quite good technically, and he tries hard to do something different. There are a few really great shots. and some that lack life. But, on the whole, I think he's earning his money capturing the events. Of course, no one I know would be able to afford him so they get mediocre folks like me do it for food.
posted by Eekacat at 2:39 PM on August 22, 2007

... I have friends breaking up who are using MySpace for this very purpose.

Perhaps, but I was thinking more of the same quality of photos as used for the weddings.
posted by bwg at 3:02 PM on August 22, 2007