All language subtitles for 3. Capture and Create Magic

So we've talked a little bit about being

proactive rather than just reactive, so a combination

of both is really good.

And really, it could be summed up in

this way, is I strongly believe that you

should, of course, capture the magic that's right

there.

Why wouldn't you?

It's happening.

I mean, people are crying, they're laughing, they're

having fun, this is an event.

Capture the magic that's there, but I'm telling

you, what will separate you from the person

next to you, from the studio down the

street, is the fact that you create magic

of your own.

So the thing is that some people have

the impression about the weddings that I photograph

that they're all high-end.

I'm telling you, they're not.

I've shot well over 1,000 weddings, and

I could probably count on two hands how

many weddings would be considered high-end.

I would like to consider, in fact, I

photograph your traditional working-class family.

I photograph corporate couples.

Every so often, I might get one that

might have a little bit more money and

a little bit more high-end, or however

you want to explain that.

I'm telling you that I have the exact

same problems as you.

And when I say problems, it's in problem

-solving, the things that we have on a

wedding day.

So I don't get these incredibly lavish, ridiculous

things where you could wave the camera at

F22 and put it on program and get

a decent picture.

In other words, you have to create something

out of nothing.

But I just wanna, this segment is really

important to highlight to you that if you're

waiting for that one-in-a-million photograph

and you think it's gonna happen every day

or every scene or everything like that, I'm

telling you, you're kidding yourself.

This is, it's not normal to have these

hero shots that just appear in front of

you, therefore highlighting the importance that the creation

of that magic, and what does that mean?

We'll discuss this in future segments.

We're establishing now the importance of your mindset,

not to just go into an event or

a wedding and just say, well, you know,

the bride was born, I'm gonna capture her

board.

The groom's not really into it.

I wanna capture the groom not into it.

The parents are divorced, they're not into it.

Well, great.

No, it's, I feel it's your responsibility.

It really, because no one's gonna look at

the wedding photographs afterwards and say, well, obviously

the photographer had a challenging subject or challenging

circumstances, therefore that's why the photographer is ineffective

or it's not a great story.

No, it's actually gonna be your fault.

And if not for the fact that you

just wanna bring out the best in people

and just love people and want the best

for them, I'm telling you now, you do

better on this thing, you will make more

money because if you capture the magic that's

there, as most people do, and don't do

much of this, this will make your work

more saleable.

It's as simple as that.

So let me tell you a few stories

that highlights my point.

There was this beautiful wedding that I photographed.

They were a beautiful couple, had a great

day.

And, but I can tell that, you know,

when you get siblings like the groom and

the siblings or the bride and the siblings,

that somehow there's, you know, like, hey, you're

my brother, you're my family, but I wouldn't

really be friends with you if you're not

my family.

But I love you, but I don't really

like you.

There's a funny energy.

And sometimes siblings don't wanna get close and

it's a bit weird, whatever.

The groom's mother told me this, that they're

close, but, you know, there's a bit weird

energy or they're at that age group where

they're a little bit weird with each other

and that just, that's natural.

Great.

Anyway, after knowing this and after seeing them

interact, there was a moment at the reception.

In fact, I did a same day slideshow,

which is basically me presenting photographs of the

wedding day on the same night.

They just saw the slideshow and I was

packing up the gear quickly to get the

dance floor ready for the next dance or

whatever was gonna happen on that dance floor.

And what happened was the, I sort of,

as I was packing up, I look over

at the groom.

The groom was in this beautiful embrace with

his brother and his sister.

It was like slow motion.

I had to grab my camera, run over,

guess my exposure, click, and then they broke

up the hug.

But this was the moment.

Like, how many times have I seen siblings

hug like that on a wedding day?

Maybe once, as in that beautifully, just with

the sconce of the wall, that light, almost

like a metaphor, God's giving his blessing on

this particular moment.

I'm just saying to you that, yes, guys,

like, if you were there, would you not

have photographed that image?

I mean, yes, you wouldn't just be sitting

with your camera and admiring that moment and

think, oh my God, oh yeah, oh yeah,

I'm a photographer.

Let me shoot that photograph.

You would, of course, photograph it.

I'm just suggesting to you that if I

can create moments and not so much manufacture

this, hey, hug like this, put your hand

like that and start crying, which I have

been known to do, by the way, I'm

suggesting that you can't wait for that moment

because you might be waiting a thousand weddings

to get there.

Yes, you'll capture it.

Yes, it's gonna be obvious.

Sometimes it's not so obvious.

Sometimes it's the moments between the moments that

are more meaningful because you want, know those

little nuances that are typically that person or

that couple or that relationship with the father

and the daughter and so on.

This next photograph, the bride and the groom

came out of the church.

They were celebrating each other.

Everyone was congratulating them.

Everything was fun and then it was very,

very windy.

This big gush of wind blew the veil

over the three girls, the bridesmaids and the

flower girl and then the veil blew up

again, almost made the little flower girl look

like Porky Pig and then her nose went

up and then you've got them just all

giggling about it, unbeknownst to the bride and

the sister.

Now, how many times does that happen in

my 26, seven-year career?

Like that, once.

So again, I'm suggesting to you, could I

have somewhat manufactured that?

Sure, why not?

If it was windy and let's say you

saw this photograph and think, oh my God,

that would be really fun and the girls

were just standing there, why don't you just

help the veil?

Throw it over them, have some fun.

No one's gonna say, oh, that's the moment

that the photographer, Jerry, basically blew the veil

over.

No, they're gonna say, look at our girls

having so much fun underneath that veil.

You have to get over the fact in

your brain that your instinct is telling you

that I'm just meant to be here in

a story and document the story of this

day.

They're because it's just not real if I

direct or pose.

Guys, I'm telling you now, I wanna say

guys, that's like an Australian way of saying

guys and girl.

I'm not talking to men here, I'm talking

to collective way of saying friends.

Guys, I want you to know that you

need to get in there and have some

fun because a wedding day, in my humble

opinion, is not really real.

It's, yes, it is a fantasy world, it's

not a typical day.

It's not like every day where you buy

this exorbitant dress and cake and invite people

for dinner and pay for it and everything

like that, it's not normal.

Yes, it's a matter of real events and

real emotion but sometimes when all the spotlights

on you, like if you're at a party

or if you're in any event or any

capacity, some people change their behavior when all

eyes are on them.

Therefore, they can't really reveal themselves properly.

So therefore, what is the truth?

Is the truth, this is the way you

are on the wedding day, this is who

you are permanently or whatever, you're happy to

be wearing a gorgeous dress and a suit

and everything?

Or if I give people permission to feel

beautiful about themselves and all of a sudden

uncover a part of them that wouldn't have

been uncovered unless I said something or did

something or I shift the energy in a

certain way, well, now we're talking.

This next shot, I was actually, the bride

and the groom were getting ready in a

hotel and they were deliberately next door to

each other, like they were so close yet

so far.

So the bride and the bridesmaids were here,

the groom and the groomsmen were in this

room and although they would never see each

other before the ceremony, it was almost a

bit of a tease, like, oh my God,

my bride's right there and it built up

the excitement.

So what I did is I parked myself

in the hallway, opened up the two doors

and then I'm just waiting.

Waiting and waiting and waiting and finally, a

bridesmaid actually fixed up her makeup, the bride

was actually getting adjusted with a dress, a

spotlight was right there, the groomsman happened to

be silhouetted having a drink on the right

-hand door and I get this shot.

How many times has this happened in my

career?

How many opportunities have I had like this

to even be exposed to this kind of

photograph in my 1,000 plus wedding career?

Once.

I'm saying to you guys that you have

to be proactive, you cannot just let it

happen.

When I say that, let me take a

back step.

I or anyone else really can't tell you

what to do, I'm just here to tell

you my experience and what has worked for

me and from a personal satisfaction, from an

artist perspective and also commercially, was it successful

for me?

I'm telling you, it's more satisfying to me

as an artist, not to just capture magic

but also create it but it's also very

satisfying that commercially that if I actually just

give people permission to feel beautiful about themselves

or uncover moments that wouldn't have happened without

my direction, they're gonna love it more, therefore

I'm happy because they're happy and also I

sell it.

So I'm saying to you, you don't have

to follow my advice, I'm just telling you

that actually, after this many years of photographing,

it has worked for me and I know

it can work for you.

This next photograph was, I was actually at

a ceremony and I'm waiting for the bride

to actually walk down the aisle and now

I actually literally saw her rock up at

the same time as the church as me.

I'm like, where is she?

Five minutes goes by, 10 minutes, 15 minutes,

20 minutes, where is she?

The groom's looking at me like, where is

she?

I'm like, oh man, I saw her arrive,

where is she?

So I walked downstairs in the crypt of

the church and her father actually was the

celebrant, he was a pastor and I walked

into that room and they were all praying

for this bride and it was beautiful, this

is the shot.

I didn't direct it, I didn't tell them

where to sit, this just happened and if

I didn't go downstairs, I wouldn't have uncovered

it.

So it's actually, it's almost an oxymoron.

It was photojournalistic but if I didn't go

out of my way to find the bride,

I wouldn't have found it.

So first of all, proactive is important.

It was still photojournalistic because I didn't interrupt

the moment but how many times have I

seen a blessing like that, a prayer like

that in my career looking that beautiful?

Once.

This next photograph, the bride and groom got

married and all of a sudden, everyone disperses

and I suddenly see about 15 stories in

one reminding me of somewhat like of a

Renoir painting and what Renoir was sort of

famous for many things but among celebrating sort

of high society, having drinks and dancing and

things like that but I see this Renoir

painting just uncover itself and my instinct told

me, Jerry, don't say a word, just sit

there with your long lens and get ready

and sure enough, this happened.

This girl, this little flower girl was eating

an apple, dancing around on her own, we've

got the groom looking on, the bride sort

of endearing the little flower girl, we've got

the father looking on, the uncle, we've got

the parents sort of talking, we've got this

flower girl or bridesmaid feeling left out, photographing.

I mean, there's like 15 stories in one.

How many times has this kind of a

story uncovered itself in front of my camera

where you could easily tell those stories and

differences?

Once.

Luckily, this next moment's only happened once.

In fact, I was photographing the bride and

all of a sudden, she runs away from

my camera, sits between these two guys who

are sunbathing in Melbourne, probably have sunbathed every

day where they possibly can for like their

70, 80 years of life and their skin

looks like leather and she sat between them,

started giggling and this is what happened.

How many times, now by the way, where

he's holding the glass, it may look like

another part of a man's body but that's

just an outie belly button so please forgive

that.

But this has happened once and thank God,

once in my career, I'm not saying I

was proactive.

I mean, to be honest, this had nothing

to do with me.

I was photographing and she just runs away

and thought it'd be really funny if she

sat between these two guys.

And again, what I'm getting at is the

handful of shots that I've shown you and

I could show you countless others but what

I wanted to prove to you is that

if you wait for these moments, you could

be waiting like forever.

If you decide to be proactive, like I'll

be teaching you during these courses, I am

telling you, you will not only capture the

magic that's there but you will know how

to create magic because I'll give you a

system to follow.

So take your time, breathe in, get ready

for the ride and we're gonna have some

fun during the process of how to get

you to zero to hero very quickly.