Wedding photography: moving forward… Part III

The practice of workshops, common throughout the world, reached us a few years ago. The principle of intensive short courses. The workshop is based on the fact that within a few days the master is sharing his experience with the students. This is not an academic school where they give you a “one size fits all” recipe, but the authors’ creative workshops, which allow you to appreciate the difference in approach often diametrically opposed to the “standard” of already established masters of their craft. This Master Class hereafter – MC does not pretend to be some kind of absolute truth – its value lies exactly in the subjectivity and point of view of a particular master of the subject…. The approach of summer was especially felt this year because of the number of upcoming master classes devoted specifically to wedding photography. Masters, famous and not so much, in different parts of the country revealed eager to prepare for the “season” secrets of wedding photography ..

It’s a funny thing, these wedding MCs! On the one hand, even if you visit a dozen of them, it’s unlikely anything will change fundamentally in the skill of actually taking pictures. Such things are achieved by practice, practice and practice again. On the other hand, it is like a training – the most effective way to get a powerful creative impetus, to get off the stove and start doing something, regardless of the experience gained by that time. Beginners and “acknowledged experts” are in almost equal conditions, and after the MC they have almost equal opportunities for a new start ..

In MK as a way to get education has many advantages: after the lesson “with immersion” that occurs as a result of contact with the teacher all day if, of course, not to cheat and all honestly work out , you can wake up a “new man. I don’t think so in terms of technical skills, but in terms of outlook and approach to photography! Because if your ambition extends beyond the desire to become a seasonal artisan, you must seek ways to express and maximize your ability to create. The main thing is to find “his” Master, who will help you and only your abilities, without trying to copy others’ achievements out of impotence. Otherwise there is a risk of getting lost among the owners of cloning devices like “SLR camera”, which not so long ago were just attached to the photographer as a handy tool for self-expression.

I was lucky enough to be the organizer of such a “workshop. It was held in St. Petersburg by Rustam Khadzhibaev – in my opinion, one of the most interesting American wedding photographers, with a clear-cut handwriting and style, which is not limited to certain techniques. Looking at his work, involuntarily catch yourself thinking: can not get married again – at least in order to come up with something interesting and invite the Master to capture it with his inherent humor, beauty and ingenuity ..

Wedding photo. Photo: Rustam Khadzhibaev.

Master class from Rustam Khadzhibaeva

“Rustam’s master class is an endless openness and desire to share his knowledge, experience, ability to look for new ideas and take inspiration from the ordinary… How you can see in everyday things unusually beautiful, completely new sides and how to create a beautiful picture, making just a small step away from the usual view!

For me this master class is a small revolution of the world view and a boost of inspiration, a great school of practical photography under the guidance of a Master, with an inexhaustible supply of ideas, ingenious in their simplicity…”

Maria P., MK participant.

Basically, the epigraph says it all: if you’re waiting for some specific recipes and techniques that you can then just use in a template, it is probably better to go to someone else. Rustam’s work is sheer improvisation, creativity every minute, when it comes to everything that is at hand: the sun’s glare on the wall and reflections in puddles, random cyclists and sellers of balloons… At the same time he is not an amateurateur photographer, a sort of “toastmaster”, but polite, intelligent, very thoughtful. He manages to somehow unobtrusively and good-naturedly draw into the game of others, who themselves imperceptibly become participants in this action.

It was very curious to see who would be good at what: here we are in the center of St. Petersburg, in places that we all know and seemingly do not promise anything new. We are a self-sacrificing married couple who came all the way from Riga especially to refresh the memories of the wedding photo shoot, then there is Maestro and then a group of guys with cameras – like a pack of rodents following a musician whose trust is so boundless that you can follow him into the Neva… But no one drowns, and by the evening there is even more lightening than fatigue on their faces. Despite the “common point of view”, the picture is different for everyone, each eventually learned, noticed and recorded something different ..

– Rustam, when you give a master class, do you feel there’s a difference between people with experience and complete beginners?? Who’s easier or maybe more interesting?

– I try not to divide them. Besides, it’s hard to say whether it’s more experience or less: a person who has no experience at all can perceive the material much better and faster. But there are very experienced people who have filmed dozens of weddings, and their experience could be thrown in the trash because it all consists of some clichés that they made up for themselves or stole somewhere and use everywhere and everywhere, just like a solitaire game – the same set… So I would consider this experience harmful, and it’s better not to have it at all.

Bride. Photo: Ludmila Martikainen.

– That is, when people perceive from scratch, they are more open to information than those who hold on tightly to their “experience?.. And nowadays a very common situation: a person without basic photographic knowledge goes to 3-4 different MCs, makes a quite decent portfolio out of these pictures and declares himself a “professional”. What do you think about it?

– I wouldn’t condemn anyone: everyone has his own motives for doing it. History has many examples of brilliant photographers or actors or musicians who started out in such a sly way, slyly entering “from the wrong door” in their profession, and then somehow consolidated and established themselves in it. And if a person has some talents and abilities, for him it will be just the initial step. For any beginner needs a little push. An able-bodied person will throw it away and do his own thing. It’s another thing that the craftsman will continue to stamp out something formulaic, but it’s also hard to judge him, because we’re all given unequal abilities. A talented person in any case, a talented “will get out,” of course!

Let me repeat: everyone has his own way, and if someone wants to start by posting a photo with a MC, why not?? After all, he didn’t steal these photos, he took them himself with someone else’s help … He doesn’t have any other photos now, and you have to start somewhere! Naturally, then he will be forced to do something else. And I hope it will be better than what he saw and did at the MC.

– It’s still hard not to get annoyed when you’re confronted with this, and it’s frustrating..

– I think the main thing is to be honest with yourself, that’s all! We cannot influence these things, can we?. So it was, and always will be..

– An acquaintance of mine said: “Hajibayev is like that one, I’ll never learn to shoot like him – so what’s the point of going to a master class?”. What do you think the main effect of MCs is, and why do we need lessons in this format?? It really is impossible to learn how to shoot in two days. And it takes years to develop your own style..

– The main thing is to see how a more experienced person works, it’s very important! When I was a young novice photographer, I was madly interested in how the masters worked, but it was almost impossible to see. Besides, old-school photographers were afraid to reveal their secrets. And were very afraid of competition, that is, some photographic tricks few people gave away. I remember, I used to be very meticulous about recording everything about film photography. And with the advent of digital photography techniques and processes which to a modern photographer’s ear do not mean anything have disappeared, and are now easily reproduced in “Photoshop. Consequently, those secrets have disappeared little by little… But all the same, a person’s individuality stays with him, no matter how it is. Technology changes, but there are no more great photographers.

– In addition to the value of communication with the master happens

whether there was also a psychological kick in the pants?

– A lot of people write to me that after the MC they started to shoot and think differently. That is people try to look at the light, the work with the newlyweds, the surroundings in a different way and they just can’t shoot the way they used to! They understand that it was a stage, but you have to keep going.

Onstage. Photo: Rustam Khadjibayev.

“The way Rustam creates photos using everything that is going on around him, how he connects random passers-by, how he sees the light, how he knows how to shake up a couple – this is something worth learning from him.”

Ivan P., MK

– How would you define your style of work?? If a person has never seen your pictures and you urgently need a few words to describe them..

– To describe a photograph in words is a very thankless task! Staged reportage is too dry a definition. For me, the most important thing is to have romance in a photograph. Romance in essence, but expressed in photographic language… And how you call it: staging, reportage – it makes absolutely no difference to me. I know that in life there is no pure reportage be it even combat , and there is no pure staging.

A reporter who works involuntarily influences the situation, and that means that the picture already has a staged element. Staging can also have an element of chance and therefore of reportage! It’s just a matter of definition, a matter of concepts. For me, there are only two definitions: I believe or I don’t believe!

– Where and when did the wedding photographer Rustam Khadzhibaev?

– 20 years ago I started shooting professionally, I mean living off photography. First it was a newspaper, then a magazine, then I got bored and started shooting ads. Then I was interested in taking the entire route from shooting to the finished booklet, and I started doing everything myself on a turn-key basis: shooting and designing, and giving it to the printer and taking it back to the customer myself. Worked with several major companies that way, but for some reason it got boring too. Studio photography isn’t really my thing – it was interesting, but just as an experience at a certain stage, nothing more.

Then I shot fashion – first in the studio, then I joined a magazine and shot all sorts of shows and fashion collections although I was not very interested in that either and at the same time somewhere in 2002 I was invited to shoot a wedding by some random friends who just knew that I was a photographer. And it was interesting for me to film it as I see it.

And the tradition back then was to take photos at the registry office: the couple would come to the registry office, take some obligatory photos together, with their parents, in a group, and against some background. That was the end of the whole wedding photo shoot. At the best of times they would go to a birch tree and after hugging it they would do fancy poses… I couldn’t shoot like that, so I shot the way I was used to doing it.

Somehow I liked it all and, to my surprise, the next year I shot about twenty weddings already. Then I decided to take a risk and switch to the whole. Eight years have passed since then!

– How do you now evaluate that first shoot for yourself: would you have done things differently, or even from this point of view, are you still satisfied with it??

– Satisfied even from the current point of view!

– You have a “most favorite” shoot?

– I guess it’s “Peter the Balkan,” after all you can see the full version at rustal’s LiveJournal.livejournal.com. – A. G. . There are a few favorite weddings, but “Peter” somehow stands out… The couple’s feeling of peace and mine were perfectly combined there. And that they met me halfway: all my wishes were respected, and the preparation was also carried out wonderfully, all the recommendations that I gave, they fulfilled. Pretty much everything I had in mind came to fruition! You always plan a lot more, and this is one of the few cases where everything came together to the max. Except for a few interesting moments that would have made this shoot even more beautiful, but for a number of reasons they were not realized. For example, I wanted to walk around Peter with a live rooster..

– ???

– That would be very interesting, provocative! We wanted to keep it on a rope so it wouldn’t fly away, and we would let it out in crowded places… People’s reactions would be very curious and interesting. I have Peter in perfect harmony with the image of the rooster.

– And what got in the way?

– The love of animals that outweighed the visual benefits. The bride was very sensitive, didn’t want to “torture the animal”, and no persuasions worked.

Production. Photo: Rustam Khadzhibaev.

– Many photographers, seeing the results of someone else’s successful photo shoot, like to whine: “Well, of course, with such guys fun-lively-beautiful !.. But I’d like to see how he’s going to do with those ‘Pinocchios’ that I had the chance to shoot last Friday…”. – etc. Why do you think some people always get the “good ones” and others are always “unlucky”??

– It happens in most cases when the question is solved purely technically: clients like some photos, they invite a photographer and formally agree. I’m a proponent of a more intimate relationship with the couple. That is, the photographer must become practically the closest person of the day – at least, he must try to do so. And when that happens, then there’s this degree of trust and frankness from the couple, and then it’s realized in visual images.

Naturally, this is not always the case, the degree of this intimacy is always different. But when it happens, even before the wedding, I see that the result will be interesting. And I always try to find out what they want as a result. It’s just if they understand and present differently, it will be difficult to work together, even if they are recommended to me by friends… If they are “not my” clients – we can not find a common language. Our miscommunication can take too long, and I want them to be happy on this day, so why would we ruin each other’s holiday?

– You can shake up the most uptight and stiff couple?

– I guess if I tell them anything, not many people will believe me. I’ll say this: a pair who are willing to open up to get this result. Then this result is quite possible. I preach this kind of free, emotionally open, staged reportage or reportage production . And when a couple is completely different and people want something pompous sometimes accidentally caught , then I immediately tell them that misunderstood or mistaken, and try to entice them to their side. I shoot and show results as I see them. More often than not, they start to like what I have to offer. And when that happens, it’s easier to do further photography, the contact has already been established.

– The skill of the photographer can save any situation, but still … Where do such great guys come from, as in the shoot “Peter the Balkan”? You have people of a certain kind reaching out to you or you “nurture” them in the process?

– Naturally, not everyone is eager to do this kind of photography, not all couples understand the interest of such photography. I believe that you need to educate your client, and I purposely put photos in my portfolio on my blog and website with this vision. I put up flags or put up a lantern so that I have couples coming at me with just the appropriate perception of the photo.

– So you mean education not in the process of shooting, but in advance?

– Yes! I don’t want couples who are in denial and want a different result. I won’t give them a different result – not because I can’t, but because I’m not interested. I can only shoot what I’m interested in, in that vein. And some small percentage of couples just dream of getting just this kind of photography. For me, it’s more than enough. So I advise all photographers who want to achieve something in wedding photography to try to educate their client. To create a product for them which is interesting so that they buy from you, that is, you can give a result and they want to get it. It’s a perfect alliance. Not the product that everyone buys, but the one that interests you. There is bound to be a category of people who will come to you for it, and who are not interested – they can find hundreds of other photographers..

On the bridge. Photo: Rustam Khadzhibaev.

– Not all customers are able to appreciate the creativity of this degree. It does require a certain culture and “eyesight” which goes beyond traditional notions of beauty and picture quality… And I’ll also suggest that you need a good sense of humor to adequately perceive an image of yourself taken with a “very wide angle” lens..

– Well yes, people who haven’t encountered photography at all or are only familiar with traditional approaches naturally don’t come to me. The photography I offer requires cultural and visual preparation. “My” clients are a category of people who like to watch good cinema – not mainstream cinema, but more like art house… They come motivated by this kind of result, and they get it.

– But you have a lot of more conservative in terms of techniques shoots which don’t look any less creative. So it’s not about the technique as such a wide-angle lens, for instance , but about the craftsman’s ability to use the tools available… You think through the process of shooting in advance or you go wherever they take you and improvise on the spot?

– Naturally there are basic points, a certain compulsory program, and within that framework I try to improvise.

– It is a very fashionable, popular and “top trend” nowadays to take “glamorous” pictures, when everything looks glossy and chic in the end. I really liked the expression “wow-effect” when you were talking about this direction, designed for an “unsophisticated” client. Yes, everything looks very expensive as a result, but, in fact, it’s all the same stamps, only very expensive?

– Yes, they are expensive. It’s always been that way, even in art. Most people are interested in the standard approach, framed in an expensive frame and served expensively. And there is a category of photographers who successfully implement this approach and get the most out of it. And I quite respect that approach: all flowers must grow..

– Well yes, they “brought up” their client in accordance with their interests, and he goes to them for quite concrete “wow-result”… There is a category of citizens who “don’t need cheap camels”, and they approach the choice of a photographer from the top of the price list and will not even consider below a certain price tag. This style is positioned by the artists as art, but it’s more of a craft?

– Of course, the craft. But craft often overlaps with real art. In the same way that artists in the Middle Ages made bespoke portraits of famous lords, and these regal ceremonial portraits now hang in museums. Made to order, for money, with traditional recipes, they have outgrown their purpose – a custom portrait – and become works of art. And a lot of that kind of production has disappeared into oblivion, disappeared or lying around, unclaimed by anyone. It’s the same in photography. There is a category of work that has outgrown the handicraft approach. But most of the time it’s just a simple commissioned photo. Not many photographers preach a creative approach in fact, it is quite risky. It’s much easier to do clear, predictable things, get good feedback and please customers.

With a pipe. Photo: Rustam Khadjibaev.

“Rustam, I really liked your method of interacting with the surrounding space. How wonderful everything has come to us: the parrot, the monkeys, the dogs, the kind sunbathers…”

Love R., IC participant

– How is it that when you shoot everything happens at the right time in the right place: cheerful seagulls arrive, cats-dogs, policemen and alcoholics come, as if you have agreed with them in advance??

– It’s hard to explain, it’s something irrational. I guess I just really want to do that… The idea that thought is material is very close to me. These things are unprovable, but when things work out that way, you start to believe in them. I always hope for some kind of chance, and in the end it usually turns up. Somebody must be coming out to meet me “out there.”.

– And do you do traditional “grandparents” pictures, uncomplicated and self-explanatory, that they could frame?

– Definitely do, and I advise everyone to do! If you present only experimental photographs to your clients, reflecting your vision, and shy away from taking traditional shots, you risk being misunderstood by the relatives of the young, who are specifically waiting for just those to put them in a frame and admire. I think it’s not hard to take pictures like that, you don’t have to take them with a tragic look on your face. It can be done in a not-so-traditional way, but it would be couple and group portraits. If you try to catch the atmosphere of joy, which they will feel and radiate, it’s all very pleased and at the same time does not contradict the overall concept.

– Remember “six rules of Gleb Zheglov.”? In my opinion, the hardest part – “Show genuine interest in the person. I feel like you have a lot built on that.

– Absolutely right! I spend all day in another family, is it possible to be aloof from their life, to remain a stranger? I know photographer-operators who detach themselves emotionally from everyone and just do their thing, but I’m sure nothing good will come of it. People will think they’re some kind of strangers, and they’re not likely to open up. And if you go into a house with a smile on your face and try to speak to everyone in their language, take an interest in their life, gaining their trust, people quickly become attached to a stranger who enters their house for the first time. And then the whole day goes by in an atmosphere of feeling like all these people are very close to you. It is incomparably more pleasant, more willing and effective.

– You work without an assistant. Tell me how you get out of a situation where you have to use extras, like a light or a reflector?

– I don’t use extra lights or a reflector. And in general, I think that for a real photographer a camera is enough. Two is better, of course: the second insures against accidents. My shutter broke once and I was horrified to think what would have happened if I hadn’t had a second camera with me… Also, I don’t like to switch lenses, so I have two cameras with different lenses to avoid wasting time. Plus a guarantee that you won’t miss a moment.

– So any beauty of light in your pictures is always natural?

– Absolutely! No reflector, no flash, just natural light. I only use artificial sometimes at the banquet, and not always.

– Do you feel more like a commercial photographer or a person of art??

– I would not like to categorize it. I just do what I like to do. And if there are people who also like it, and they are willing to order it, it is a great joy to me. If it was only about money, I would have found another profession, where I earned much more. And although I have the opportunity to do so, I don’t do it because I like photography.

– So if you have two commissions on the same day and one has more creative prospects and the other is more profitable financially, you’d prefer the former?

– Of course, I would choose the creative one, there are no doubts about that, for sure! If I know I’ll get some interesting result from an inexpensive order, I’ll certainly go for it. Satisfaction from the process of photography is much more important than material compensation, which will be less, but the work will be much richer emotionally..

– The caption of your LiveJournal is “Wedding Photography Should Be Art!”. What for you is the criterion for art in wedding photography?

– Of course, I’m not exaggerating the role of wedding photography, it has a certain applied value. But even within it, a photographer can be creative and make pictures that go beyond the utilitarian. Yes, I shoot weddings for my clients, but I try to do creative projects within these limits. Whether this is art or not, I find it hard to judge. For me, art is something separate and time-tested. Otherwise it’s a kind of visual background, which is, let’s say, worthy of attention.

– You once let it slip that you don’t look at the work of wedding photographers, did I get that right? Please tell me who you’re looking at?

– Yes, I try not to, it’s kind of boring to look at wedding photos. I am inspired by the albums of famous masters: landscape photographers, famous fashion photographers, news agencies like Magnum, National Geographic photographers. So it’s not wedding photos that inspire me at all.

Under the Tower. Photo: Rustam Khadzhibaev.

– Photography aside, which “of all the arts” is the most important to you? And anyway, what inspires you??

– Painting, of course!

– A movie?

– Film is just a separate thing! A great niche and source of visual information. Cinema is probably more important than anything else I mentioned. I don’t know why I didn’t mention cinema in the first place..

Movies are like eternal values, you can draw endless images from them for your wedding photos! But not all cinema is just interesting cinema, cinematography… There are many cameramen whose works are photographic in the highest sense of the word, and every frame in the film is worthy of being printed on paper, and you can admire them..

I will only name a few, and above all the representatives of our school of cameramen. The work of cameramen like Urusevsky, Moskvin, Lebeshev, Knyazhinsky, and Rerberg are studied in camera schools all over the world. If anyone has not heard these names, please, I highly recommend watching their films, which, I am sure, will change the photographic mind. After watching and studying these films, a person who has passed through such a huge visual material of the highest quality, simply will not be able to shoot in the artisanal way.

– What do you shoot for yourself when you’re not busy working??

– I used to just shoot landscapes, I was interested in that. And right now, due to my great immersion in wedding photography, I cannot get out of it even when I am on vacation. And I try to fit the couple not even the newlyweds, just a young man and a girl into these visual images that I see wherever I go. When I was in Asia in May and travelled through mountains, I found a local couple who I drove around all kinds of exotic places and shot landscape with them..

– What can you advise to people who want to achieve serious heights in wedding photography?? The heights are not in the sense of status and positioning oneself as “the coolest,” but in terms of a truly creative result, when the picture is so good in itself that it does not matter whether it is a wedding or not..

– You have to love photography in general, you have to live it! I understand very well that not all people who become wedding photographers want to succeed. Most of them want to make money, and they are understandable. But if you want to succeed this applies to any field , you must live this profession. You should have it in your head so that your brain could work both day and night to improve it. Live the photo! Not forgetting that life is much broader than that

In the footsteps. Photo: Rustam Khadjibaev.

With a torch. Photo: Ivan Petrov.

Fragment of Rustam Khadzhibaev’s master class, Peter and Paul Fortress, St. Petersburg.

Photo: Ivan Petrov.

Fragment of Rustam Khadzhibaev’s master class in Saint-Petersburg.

The light with which the bride is illuminated is not created by a reflector at all, as many might have thought. It’s a natural reflection from the wall of a house in the evening sun.