All language subtitles for Episode 19 Project as a photographer

Hello friends, how are you?

I hope everything goes as best as possible,

welcome to another chapter and in this chapter

I want to tell you about something really

important, which I was talking about a little

while ago, a couple of chapters about something

about what your project was as a photographer,

but the truth is that I did not

delve into it and I think it is

time to talk about it since it is

one of the most important things to try

to do a super personal job.

You have ever wondered what happens when you

go on vacation, for example, or when you

are taking pictures of your partner or your

friends or you are simply taking pictures, for

example, of the landscape.

What is your project as a photographer?

At what points do you stop?

At what points do you find yourself more

comfortable photographing?

And have you stopped to think about all

that for a second?

The truth is that as a wedding photographer,

and I am talking about my case, it

seems that you already have to do the

weddings and you have to photograph them and

that's it, but before that, we have to

think about who we are as photographers.

And remember that I told you about something

really important, that we are all photographers, we

are all artists, but our last name is

Wedding, I mean, we are photographers and we

are dedicated to weddings, but before that, we

are photographers and we have to ask ourselves

who we are as photographers.

Of course, I always say that throughout my

career I have had a multitude of mistakes,

I speak of my career as a wedding

photographer, I have had a multitude of mistakes

and the main mistake was when I started,

I did not stop to think who I

was as a photographer, what things I liked

or what values that defined me as such,

not as a photographer.

Of course, the simplest thing for me was,

okay, I'm going to dedicate myself to what

wedding photography is and the worst thing was

to think, okay, what do you do or

what do you have to do to be

a wedding photographer?

What are the rest of the colleagues doing

or what was done back in 2010 to

be a wedding photographer?

And consequently, it was something as absurd as

thinking, okay, this set of photographers, let's call

them A, B and C, are doing this

type of photography, therefore I also have to

do that to be a wedding photographer and

consequently to hire new jobs or to hire

new weddings.

I mean, at no time did I stop

to think, okay, who am I?

What kind of photographs do I capture when

I'm not getting married?

If I stop at this now, if I

stop, what is my project as a photographer?

Well, I should tell you, right?

In other words, that my mission, when I

get ready to photograph or take a photo

on one of my trips or my son

or even Erika, my job is to try

to get the images as complex as possible.

I always try to make those images have

something that is not obvious, okay?

In which I strive to try to get

that spectator, who will later see my photograph,

to stop and stop to think what is

happening there, right?

And I always like to say that I

try to make or try to get my

images to have more than one interpretation, right?

That they are open to more than one

interpretation so that the spectator imagines things that

are happening or that can happen, for example.

And what is also true when, if we

stop to think, what is your type of

light as a photographer?

What is your favorite light?

It is clear, right?

That I find myself super comfortable working with

powerful lights, with very, very interesting lights and,

above all, I have a lot of fun

playing with the shadows.

That is a fundamental value in my photography.

I'm talking about photography, okay?

In other words, why don't we extrapolate all

that set of values to wedding photography?

If we also add that I love to

play with high contrast, why not take it

with me to weddings?

If I am talking to you about high

contrast, it means, as you have surely heard

me many times, I do not mean images

with high contrast in the shot, but with

generalized high contrast.

I mean, I love it when the elements

that inhabit my images reveal or give us

a high contrast.

I mean, the element A with the element

B is completely opposite, that is, they have

two completely opposite or very, very different meanings,

right?

That is what I always tend to do

when I try to photograph, like the images

that I am showing you so far.

They are images that were captured on our

trips, or on the honeymoon, or on different

vacations that we have had, or, for example,

a thousand stories, right?

Of course, I mean, look at what this

image is, for example.

It was an image captured, for example, in

Brazil, during our honeymoon, and notice that no

one was paying me, no one was telling

me how I should photograph.

I was just doing what I wanted.

And this was what I got, but look,

look how important it is to know what

your project is as a photographer and then

extrapolate it for weddings.

If we compare these two images, both the

left and the right, I mean, obviously they

are different, but the background is the same,

the meaning is the same, the way of

working, the philosophy is absolutely the same.

The moment the photographer knows clearly or understands

what his project is and when he starts

photographing weddings, he is the same photographer, it

is then when everything merges and it is

then when the magic begins to come out,

okay?

The industry of wedding photography is very fast

and I have already told you, sometimes it

does not let us think and makes us

go super fast forward, but I advise you

to take the handbrake, stop everything for a

moment, if you like coffee, have a coffee,

if you like to smoke, have a cigarette,

whatever, but have 5, 10, 15 minutes, one

day, two days, whatever you need to think

about it.

And what I also have to understand is

that my project as a photographer goes beyond

that if I capture moments or if I

capture a pose or if I direct a

person, I mean, I do not think about

that, but I think about pure and hard

photography, okay?

If we go back, for example, if we

go back to show you, for example, more

images, as is the case of these, I

mean, look, for example, it is a trip

to India in which we were photographing with

several friends everything that happened in India for

almost 15 days, right?

Notice that if we compare these two images,

again it is absolutely the same, okay?

First I try to tell a story, okay?

And then I try to make the elements

converge, but notice that if we talk about

photography, that is, the wedding photography that I

am showing you is absolutely the same philosophy,

okay?

But I think it goes beyond, as I

was saying, capturing moments or not, or the

photographs that I have been showing you, for

example, of trips.

Look, for example, in these two images, I

mean, in one of them we can see,

for example, my dog, and notice that the

photographer I have inside comes out, how he

plays with the light, how he plays with

the projected shadow, okay?

What kind of light did I choose?

I mean, notice that I could have chosen

any part of the day to photograph Biela,

but curiously the light that attracted me, that

seemed to me attractive, and what happened with

it, which was an incredible shadow, which in

turn was framed in the box that you

see in the background, that was what really,

for example, well, come on, that is, it

attracted me, okay?

And in the same way, if I am

with Erika and Leo, okay?

And if Leo is playing and suddenly I

see that everything confluences, I say, wow, I

have Erika in the shade, I have Leo

in the light, do you remember when a

few minutes ago I was telling you, that

is, I love that my images have contrast,

not only in the shot, but in the

elements that inhabit it, that is, look at

the contrast that is between Erika and the

contrast that is there between Leo, I am

talking about light now, okay?

That is very, very important, that is, how

did I get Leo to be there and

how did I get Erika to be on

the other side, right?

Of course, if we talk now, for example,

because this image is absolutely the same, right?

Look at how in the photo on the

left we have, for example, Erika, and in

the photo on the right, well, it is

a photograph, for example, of pre-wedding, okay?

But what I want to get to, if

we stop at Erika's photo, that is, think

for a moment, for a second, if you

did not know that it was mine, and

if I asked you what type of photographer

you think, what is the project of the

photographer that you are seeing here, and surely

all of you would say, wow, well, he

is a photographer who seems to love to

play, that is, with quite hard lights, he

loves to play with composition, he loves to

play with dense colors, he loves to play

with silhouettes, but there is a bit of

Víctor's DNA, right?

That is, at what point does he stop,

that is, what elements or what things does

Víctor need to find himself as a photographer?

That is super important.

And what, again, look at this image, was

taken in Ibiza, during the day before a

wedding, and we were at the hotel for

like two or three days.

I mean, believe me, he could have noticed

me in a multitude of things.

I mean, if I say things, I mean

in different types of light, in different types

of locations, but I chose that awareness.

I mean, after spending two days at the

same point, well, at different times of the

day, curiously, when I noticed myself or when

I stayed there saying, wow, I want to

do this, it was at that precise moment,

at the moment when the light was powerful,

but not hard enough to burst everything.

I mean, in turn, thanks to the light,

because it is the starting point, as always,

of everything, I already thought, okay, wow, at

5 or 6 in the afternoon, it is

just the moment that I would like to

photograph Erika, and it was when I told

her.

And I told her, tomorrow, before we go

out to the port of Ibiza, I want

to take a portrait of you for a

second.

And I chose that time, I chose that

place, I mean, that was the project as

a photographer.

Notice that if we go to the right,

to the wedding photography, it is the same.

When did I choose to do that pre

-wedding?

And where did I choose it?

I mean, it's easy to understand, okay?

But notice that what I'm saying now is

not what everyone should do.

You shouldn't do that.

Let's say you find yourself, for example, living

in Scotland.

In Scotland it is complicated that you have

this type of light.

I mean, let's say you are from another

part of the world in which you do

not have this type of light, or yes,

but you have to think, think for yourself,

stop for a second and think about that.

What patterns are repeated when you are photographing

on your own, that is, your partner, your

pet, because you love to do landscape.

When do you go out to do landscape?

Maybe those things will give you answers to

your questions.

But of course, you have to stop for

a second.

It is not worth getting married.

I mean, don't fall in 2010, in the

mistake I made in 2010, that my mistake

was to think, okay, what do the three

cool photographers in my city do to succeed?

This type of photography?

Well, I do it because I don't stop

to think.

A big mistake, but be careful, this was

not just a mistake from 2010.

2015 was a chaotic year for me in

terms of photography, and in photography mainly at

weddings, because do you know what I did

before each wedding?

The day before, or the night before, I

would open several super-recognized directories at the

international level, which I am not going to

say the name, but you can imagine it,

and the night before I dedicated myself to

analyzing the work, to analyze, not to be

inspired, to analyze the work of many colleagues,

to take those ideas to my weddings.

The disaster was absolute, and Erika saw it,

that is, she realized it and said, it's

over, it's over, let's think about what things

we have to do to get out of

all this, because if we don't stop to

think, or analyze, or inspire ourselves, as some

of us say, from the work of our

colleagues, what is going to happen is that

we are all going to do the same

work, both you and me, and so I

assure you that we are not going to

grow.

I am not saying that I am a

special photographer, I am not saying that I

am a genius, you already know that I

am not, and I already told you that

I am not, but we have to think

that this is a background career, it is

not a sprint, and we are going to

need time, and we need to think, stop,

take photos that are not wedding, if we

are always focused on wedding photography, and we

do not think about who we are as

photographers, the thing is that there will be

an emptiness, what we are going to do

is always the same, why do we put

the iphone in the lens, that is, just

below, it is not that it looks beautiful,

but do you do it when you are

photographing, for example, your partner, maybe not, but

it looks beautiful, but what is the meaning?

Stop thinking about that, just to get a

reflection by a reflection, what is the meaning

of putting an iphone underneath, you want to

get something else that is beautiful, that is

to say, your answer is because it is

beautiful, or your answer is because you have

seen some of the most influential photographers in

the world and that is why you have

to do it, because that is going to

give you weddings, I assure you that I

have not done that for a long time

and I continue to harvest weddings, and I

continue to harvest great fruits, we understand where

I am going and it is also super

important to also know what your resources are,

what resources you rely on as a photographer,

either it can be a type of light

or it can be elements, that is, I

love to photograph through things, either make a

frame or if I have a glass, then

lean on it or get closer to it,

why?

To sometimes try to get, as you are

seeing, what happens inside the glass or what

happens behind it, okay?

That is, notice that both Leo's photograph and

the photograph of the girlfriend you see on

the right are absolutely the same, there is

no difference, that is, at the moment that

you are training your eye every day to

be prepared for that type of resources that

also work for you and that you are

so comfortable with it, the wedding moment comes

and it comes out in a super simple

way, you understand, that is, try to get

to that, try to make the effort to

think about that, who you are as photographers

and who you are as wedding photographers, and

to finish, also look at this photograph, for

example, of Erika with the other photograph that

we are seeing, it is absolutely the same,

both the left and the right is the

same philosophy, the same way of working is

to place, for example, in the one on

the right, that is, the girlfriends from behind

the car, from the two windows of the

car, okay?

And I am here in front, that is,

capture what I have behind and capture what

I have in front and also play with

artificial light, the one on the left is

made with a led and the one on

the right with a flash, okay?

That of course they are different, that is,

they are different types of light, but it

is the same philosophy, artificial light totally directed

towards a point and try to play, in

the one on the left, play with the

contrast of color temperature and in the one

on the right, that is, play with the

reflection that I have behind me, but it

is absolutely the same philosophy.

So, having said this, I don't want to

entertain you anymore, I think I have been

or tried to be clear, okay?

I hope you liked all this and what

I invite you to do, to think a

little beyond what we have in front and

to forget a little about the rhythm so

fast that the industry of wedding photography demands

from us and to forget and to think

a little about who we are as photographers,

okay friend?

Nothing more, I hope you liked it and

see you very soon, take care!