All language subtitles for 3. Tackling Common Problems

I feel very confident after doing this course,

you will succeed as a wedding photographer, whether

it's actually in the art and craft, as

in you can technically do some great things

with your camera, a beautiful light, beautiful posing,

tell a beautiful story, and also you can

be commercially successful, you can make a living

doing this if you want to, but let

me tell you why you won't succeed, because

if you follow my advice, you will, but

here's why you won't.

Let's go through these things.

So a common problem with most photographers, and

this is after actually working with photographers, as

in teaching, for over 20 years, and if

I had to sort of put this in

a bit of a list, these are the

most common ones, okay?

I'll talk about them overall and I'll be

very specific.

Lack of preparation, lack of practice, lack of

experience, lack of confidence, and we just photograph

too quickly.

Well, apart from that last one, arguably we

could liken that to any industry or genre,

but simply most of the time in any

industry, in any genre, the reason why we

will fail is because we haven't prepared, we

haven't practiced, we don't have enough experience, we

lack the confidence, and of course, perhaps we're

trying to be too quick.

Whether it's actually just trying to be too

successful too quickly, then rather than just going

through those motions, or specifically with photography, I

find that most of us are literally just

trying to photograph too quickly.

I wanna shoot this family portrait quickly.

I wanna do this shot quickly, whereas I

believe that if you slow down, you get

to the destination a lot quicker.

Lack of preparation, well, what does that mean

in our industry?

Well, like I've actually mentioned in earlier segments,

I feel that many people wanna be a

photographer, a wedding photographer, without really understanding the

pure nature of a wedding, also in different

cultures, understanding how much time you need at

the groom's home, or the bride's home, or

whether it's a same-sex wedding, how do

you handle this, or that, or whatever, like

there's so many things that you have to

know.

So we go in there, because many of

us perhaps, and many of you watching right

now, perhaps you are that guy or girl

with a camera, you love photography, it's a

side hustle, or it's a bit of a

hobby, you put a few photographs up on

Instagram and Facebook, people actually like it, and

then, hey, you must be good, and all

of a sudden, wait a second, your friend

gets married, and you decide to be a

wedding photographer.

Well, wait a second, just calm down, let's

slow down a little bit.

Would you just decide to go and feed

50 families, because you know how to cook

a meal for yourself?

Well, wait a second, you need to just

slow it down and prepare, and preparing is

just watching segments and videos like this, and

if you follow my advice in the order

that I'm actually encouraging you to actually follow

it in the segments, and not dismissing something

as irrelevant to you, then that's gonna be

an issue, so you need to prepare.

I often liken this to like a battle,

like you're going into battle, would a warrior

go out to battle without a sword and

a shield, and just go out, and you

could be as enthusiastic and as passionate as

ever, and you go out of your castle,

and you're going out to war, no, you're

gonna die a very quick death, you need

the sword, you need to know how to

use the sword, you need a shield, you

need to know attack, defense, all these different

things, and so I'm just saying is prepare

for battle, if you're working with two photographers,

that's in yourself and a second shooter, well,

what angle are you gonna take, what angle

are they gonna take, and so on and

so forth.

So you need to prepare, and now practice,

guys, you have to practice, I'm telling you

now that practice is the key to anything.

I, to this day, still practice what I

do.

Now, I do it under the guise of

a personal shoot, but I'm telling you that

every time I pick up a camera, I

learn a quicker way of doing something, a

more efficient way, a different little lighting thing,

a technique, a different way of reflecting light,

or photographing a reflection, or a different way

of capturing a shadow, something that makes someone

laugh, like I literally add feathers to my

cap every single time that I shoot, but

if I only practice what I do for

a living on a paying gig, would I

ever be that great?

Someone like a Roger Federer, who's widely considered

the best tennis player who ever lived, he

practices every day, tennis.

Now, he's got nothing to prove, he could

just stop and be done and known as

a legend, but he's hungry for that victory,

hungry for that next one.

I'm saying to you, you have to photograph

a wedding with the experience of your five,

10, 20, 100, whatever it is that you

are, and how many that you've done, but

with the enthusiasm of your first.

So practice, though, it's just the key, there's

gonna be times where you need a reflector.

You know, I'm a natural light shooter, I

don't know how to shoot with flash, and

all of a sudden you get approached with

a church that you can't use flash, you

have to be in one position, you have

no tripod, you have a camera that can't

really shoot above an ISO of two to

3,000, you don't have a fast lens,

and you have to make it work.

Well, what do you do?

Let's practice.

So don't only practice on a paying gig,

practice your craft, and understand your camera, understand

your lenses, understand the complexity of that tradition,

that culture, that ethnicity, the dynamics of that

family beforehand.

And then on the day, well, you know,

it's no different than us growing up with

the movie Karate Kid, wax on, wax off,

and we all know the deal, right?

We understand that there's a process there that

you may not understand how much you've learned

and retained, and all of a sudden you

get approached with this wedding, but you've done

it like so many times before, you've got

this.

So practice is the key, and never let

up on it.

I don't care how long you've been doing

it, devote time to practice your craft.

Because after all, we've said in earlier segments

that if you actually love what you do,

you enjoy it, therefore you get better at

it, it becomes a passion, and now it's

just this vicious cycle.

How much better can we get?

That's what I love about photography.

You will never be at your peak.

There is no such thing as absolute perfection.

So practice, practice, practice.

Experience, well, that's sort of one and the

same.

The fact is that I'm teaching you knowledge

right now, but wisdom you just have to

live.

So knowledge is basically, you can read a

textbook, but then going out there and doing

it is a different story.

Quite simply, you need to be there and

understand the street smart of what we do.

No better way than actually assisting and holding

the bags of an experienced photographer and being

right there.

And why do you think I created this

course?

No one, very few photographers actually allow other

photographers to assist them anymore.

So then you're like, well, how do I

learn?

I wanna know what it's like to be

at a wedding.

I wanna know what it's like to be

at a groom's home with 10 minutes to

photograph the whole coverage.

I wanna know what it's like to be

at a bride's home where arguably she's feeling

a bit conscious about her weight maybe she's

got rough skin, the makeup artist didn't do

a good job, and I've got 10 families

waiting for a photograph all thinking that they

should be first, and I've got 15 minutes

left, where do I start?

You need to know what to do.

So what I've done is I've included in

this bundle several weddings that you can see

what it's like to be at an actual

wedding.

And well now I know how an experienced

photographer actually approached that particular problem and how

he solved it.

How do we maximize that opportunity?

How did we create something out of nothing?

That's what it's all about.

We need to know how to do that.

Nothing will help you better than just being

on the job and having this experience.

That's why I strongly encourage you that you

should go back to the weddings that are

featured in this bundle and watch them over

and over again and look at those other

weddings that we're offering there to you as

well because they are filled with firsthand fly

on the wall approach.

This is the way we approach a wedding.

Lack of confidence.

Well, of course, if you prepare well, you

practice enough and you have enough experience, of

course your confidence grows.

Now we've all heard the term fake it

until you make it.

Well, some people misconstrue that.

In other words, lie to your clients about

your experience.

You should never do that.

I believe that saying is more faking the

confidence that goes with being an experienced photographer.

So when it comes to weddings, if you

have no experience and of course if you

book a gig based upon your experience and

they book you in good faith and I've

only got one album to show you, I've

only done one, two weddings, they book you

in good faith, well, great.

Your client should really not expect anything more

than what you've shown them.

But I'm saying to you that confidence will

just go with you love what you do,

therefore you enjoy it.

The passion increases as you get more experience,

as you practice more, as you prepare more,

your confidence will grow.

But even if you are not confident and

you've just started and you're nervous and I

know some people have been shooting for decades

and are still nervous, there's many performers that

will, many performers that we know who are

artists who sing and dance and all those

kinds of things, they're just nervous all the

time because all eyes are on them.

Or you might thinking, oh my God, I've

got this wedding or the future legacy and

the story of this wedding is in my

hands, that's a big responsibility.

I just, I don't think about the result,

I think about the steps I have to

take to get to that result.

Focus on the process.

Just get the shots, like just get the

shots.

And I'm saying the confidence will come.

The confidence will come if those first three

things you'll be doing over and over and

over again.

I often, when I'm feeling a bit flat,

when I'm feeling a little bit weird or

I've had a hard day the day before,

I'm having a bad day in general, I

say to myself, I walk into a groom's

home and I say, what would the most

experienced photographer in the world do in my

shoes right now?

Changes your mindset.

Well, they wouldn't freak out.

They would be more personable.

They would get to know people.

They would ask personal questions.

They would have fun.

They would joke.

They would show empathy.

And all of a sudden, wow, like everyone's

opening up to me and then creating this

beautiful energy that now I can approach it.

So if you know your camera, you should

know your camera.

You should know how it works.

You should, it's no different than a calculator

to an accountant.

We should know the tools of our trade

and you will learn how to use that

tool for the rest of your career but

you shouldn't even photograph a wedding unless you

know the at least the basics and the

foundation before you start.

So confidence will come with practice, experience and

preparation.

And just know, if you don't have it,

fake it.

And then it's almost like a lie.

It starts to become true.

And I'm not saying being cocky or arrogant

or anything like that.

Just, you know, when I say that if

you're having a bad day, do something for

somebody else, it's actually not about you.

Don't stress that it's all, I feel bad,

I'm stressed.

No, focus on the bride.

Look at the bride through the eyes of

the groom.

Look at the bride through the eyes of

the mother.

You will almost instantly totally forget your inhibitions

and all your worries.

Stick to the plan.

Just get the shots.

The story will be told.

And could it have been told better?

Yeah, with experience, with wisdom, with more weddings,

with repetition, it'll just get better and better.

But for your time on this wedding in

good faith, this is the best you could

do.

And that's okay.

Don't self-deprecate and think, oh my God,

I just did so badly.

Just, I want you to leave it all

out on the field, so to speak, for

one of a more common sports cliche.

And that is just get it done.

And done is better than perfect.

And if you are after perfection, it'll never

happen.

What you'll do, you'll reach a point in

your career, like myself, for example.

I know I can get technically better.

I know I can get better shots, but

I appreciate the process of what I'm going

through right now.

It might take more to impress me these

days than it did years ago, but I'm

after these beautiful moments.

I'm after those beautiful legacy shots that just

not even I can ever do again.

And that is worth fighting for.

And the other thing is, which is a

manifestation of a lack of preparation or practice,

experience, and confidence.

We think that if we photograph quickly, that

that is a sign of confidence, that everyone

around us is expecting us to be really,

really, really fast.

Ironically, the bride just spent two hours doing

her hair and makeup, and all of a

sudden, you put the actual pressure on yourself

to photograph the bride in five minutes.

Well, no, that's not conducive of a beautiful

energy that's conducive of beautiful photography.

Go slow, take your time, slow down.

I'm saying, like now, if I talk like

this to you, for example, the energy that

I'm creating by lowering my voice, slowing my

pace, that that evokes a very different emotion

than me speaking like this, because now all

of a sudden, I feel a bit nervous

because we're speaking all fast.

So you have to understand that if you

slow down with your technique, you will get

to the destination a lot quicker.

If you watch me photograph the weddings included

in this bundle, you will see that often,

I'm actually very slow and methodical.

I might not shoot as quickly or as

many photographs as the next person, but probably

more than most, I'll probably nail what I

want very, very quickly.

So slow down to get there quicker.

So please, the reason why this bundle, after

investing in this bundle, the reason why you

will not be successful is if you miss

something, as in you say, well, I don't

really need that.

Let me just go from here.

The reason why you won't be successful, at

least in the art and craft of wedding

photography is because of these things.

So take your time, slow down.

Yes, you might also be an experienced photographer.

You simply might've bought this bundle because you

have holes in your knowledge.

My suggestion is to go through this course

in a curated fashion in the order that

we suggested to you.

And if simply you know this already, that

just might only affirm what you already know.

Wouldn't that give you confidence?

Wait a second, if an experienced photographer is

telling me what I'm already doing is correct,

well, that's fantastic.

There's a pat on your back, but then

you might just find there's a little hole

in your knowledge or little gems or some

epiphany that you will learn in a conversation

like this that will mean all the difference.

I can't wait to actually now slowly get

in more detail talking about lighting and posing

and storytelling and all these things that'll make

a huge difference with what you do.