I like to know what makes each professional I work with tick...Dawn Kelly is our guest blogger this week, get to know her and enjoy some of her beautiful weddings captured on film.
When I was in high school, I started photography classes. It was fairly intense—constant photographing, developing film, and hand-printing black and white images. I loved it and worked hard, but I was not good. In fact, I was terrible. One day my teacher looked at the photo I had turned in as an assignment, the corners of his mouth turned down, and he said, “Ya know … some of my worst students turn out to be the best professional photographers. I don’t know why.” He cocked his head and turned the photo around, as if he could tilt the mediocrity off the paper. “You could end up being brilliant someday.”
I should have been insulted, right? Maybe. However, the only thing I concentrated on was the fact that I could be brilliant someday. It was my dream to be a photographer, and nothing was going to stop me.
Now here I am, and although I wouldn’t call myself brilliant, I know I’m not that fumbling student any more. My exposure is spot-on, I have a fabulous love affair with lighting, and my work is anything but trite or forced.
When the wedding industry shifted several years ago, and everyone was running to make the transition to digital, I upgraded my 35 millimeter cameras with top-of-the line Canon EOSs. I went back to college and learned how to hand-process and print color film. It was exhilarating to have that kind of power in my hands again. There is nothing like producing an image from scratch and watching it come to life on the paper.
I wish I had a dollar for every time I was asked, “Why don’t you just switch to digital?” Yes, I order professional film from New York, load three cameras at weddings, drive eighty miles round-trip to a professional photo lab, and I love it. I love holding on to the artistry of film during a time of everything being digitized to death, from our phones to our televisions to our refrigerators. To me, photography is an art, and film is my artistic medium. Don’t get me wrong. Digital photographers have a talent all their own. I marvel at the things some of them can do in Photoshop. However, for me, I like to get the image in one or two shots, and not have to push it around or manipulate it on the computer.
This brings us to the great debate: Film versus Digital. Some digital photographers argue that film is “dangerous” and “poor quality.” Not only have I read it in the various forums and blogs, but I’ve had clients come in for consultations with bad tastes in their mouths after previous consults with digital photographers. “I like film,” one bride told me, “but the other photographer said film is bad quality.” This has happened to me time and again. However, I end up booking the client because they enjoy my work, my personality and my style of photography. They listen when I explain the quality of film. After they leave, I wonder how many digital photographers are scaring clients away from the Bad Film Photographer. I have a strict policy when it comes to doing business: Never insult your competitor. It’s just unprofessional.
So, film or digital? When it comes down to it, does it really matter? They are both incredible mediums. It’s like saying one painter is better than another because they paint in oil rather than acrylic. As far as me being a “film photographer,” I have all the same advantages the digital photographers have. When I take my film to Gluskins in Stockton for processing, Kayla processes the film, prints my images, and scans each one to a CD. I upload those images to my computer, upload some teasers to Facebook for my brides to enjoy, and upload them to my web site for galleries or portfolio. I also make a 100-year archival CD of non-watermarked images for the bride to have along with her negatives. If she likes, she can upload those images to her computer. She can take that CD to a lab and have images printed up to 11x14, sometimes larger. It’s the best of both worlds. I get to give my brides the artistry of film, with its soft textures, rich colors, and amazing mid-tones, and still be technological. With the professional quality film I use, these brides and grooms can print images thirty inches tall or larger, with supreme quality.
Are there other photographers using film? Here is a list of a few of the celebrities whose weddings were photographed with the same film I use are: Hilary Swank, Brendan Fraser, Jessica Simpson, Christina Applegate, and Jennie Garth. If it’s good enough for them, isn’t it good enough for us?
Why do these brides end up with me? What makes them sign the contract and smile with excitement because I will be shooting their wedding? Me. My work is very unique in many ways. The most prominent aspect of my work is the ability I have to bring out my subjects’ personalities in a graceful, fun, and beautiful way. My photographs aren’t about me showing off and saying, “Look at me! Look what I can do! Look how fierce I am!” They are about showing how amazing my clients are. They are about bringing out the joy of one of the most special days of their lives. My images aren’t somber or fierce. They are touching and real. There is nothing more fulfilling than watching a bride and her new husband look through their huge proof album. They smile wildly and muse about the day. They point at photos and say, “Oh my gosh, I completely forgot about that!” They laugh. I’ve had a bride cry. “I’m reliving it,” she said. Family members write me thank you notes. Brides recommend me to their friends. Those are the moments that make it all worth it. After thirteen years in wedding photography, I remember each and every one of those fulfilling moments, and can recall each of my clients’ names.
Yes, this job is stressful. One night after a wedding, I cried the entire thirty-minute drive home. Through sobs I said, “Do … you … think … other … photographers … cry … on … their … way … home … from … weddings?”
“I’m sure they do sometimes,” my husband Mark said.
“I can’t … do this … anymore.”
“You’ll never quit,” he said. “You love it too much.”
He’s right. I love it. I love getting on the floor and sewing the hem of a bride’s dress twenty minutes before the ceremony. I love brushing out a crying bridesmaid’s hair and re-styling it because she’s horrified at what the salon did to her. I love calming a bride who is in the throes of a panic-attack. I love reconstructing the entire time-line of the day because it’s going to start raining and we need portraits done while it’s still only sprinkling. I love it all because it makes people happy, and life is all about spreading around happiness in any way you can.
To hire Dawn Kelly visit her www.DawnKellyPhotography.com
To hire fabulous wedding vendors from throughout our area, visit www.RedBowWeddings.com or call Stacy at 324-7972
