Ah, those shots between shots, those frames after the frame, that click from the hip and the flash all askew...I love those shots. Weddings, bless them, are wonderful places for photojournalists because the access is near-total. Now, of course, this sets up a delicate balance between good coverage and driving a couple bananas. But it's these shots that I remember most, because they come from that side of me cultivated in college that lives for compositional experimentation and capturing moments most people pass by or take for granted. Exhibit A:



I shot this today. Yes, there are weddings on Monday. It appears that the groom is loath to remove his bride's undergarments. This is not the case, of course. I'm sure he can't wait. But people were teasing and taunting him and he was joking around, making as if it were a terrible job. Funny how photos can lie and tell the truth all at the same time.

Most brides are drawn to a photographer because of style and personality. My style is very rooted in my photojournalistic background, particularly influenced by the likes of Richard Avedon (not a traditional PJ) and Salbastio Salgado. Both of these photographers' work is filled with life, and I try with every shot to follow in their footsteps. Now, I also make sure to get the shots everyone wants from their wedding: formals, friends hugging, the procession, etc. But during those events and once-in-a-lifetime moments, I keep an eye out for the even smaller moments between the big ones, the spaces in which people express themselves and their humanity with feeling and without thinking.

Below are a collection of images that I keep separate from the images I give to the bride and groom. These are the quirky, sometimes fun or funny images I cull from the hundreds of photos I make at an event.

Congrats Abby and Derrick!

Congratulations Marlon and Kristy!

I photographed Marlon and Kristy's wedding in cool, sunny Topsail Beach, North Carolina. The warm spectral light and beach setting made for some fabulous photos. In no particular order, I've included a few of my favorites below. Check it out, and if you like what you see, take a gander at my website (www.stephenjonesphoto.com).

--Notes

Hello.

NOTE: If you are here just for the photos, please scroll down to the two posts below.

Welcome back! Below this post you'll find photos from two weddings I covered this weekend for OTS Photography. I'm really getting a lot of valuable experience working for OTS, as well as crafting my own style and gaining a feel for the hardest part of wedding photography (at least for me): Posing people.

As a photojournalist, this was never a problem because the work was strictly hands-off, objective photography. Though I do a lot of photojournalism at these weddings - and it is my strong point - I have had to learn how to pose my subjects. Complicating this is the fact that most average people know little about posing themselves. When asked to pose for a photo, people can do the strangest things.

For example, go to your average football game and point your camera at a gathering of Greeks and watch the heads fly together as if suddenly magnetized. At one UGA game I remember asking a soroity girl if I could take her picture while she and her boyfriend cheered. I looked down at my camera to adjust the exposure, and when I brought the camera to my eye my frame was filled with laughing girls and boys all jostling to get in the photo!

When I set up a backdrop for a headshot, most people will automatically stand with their backs pressed against it as if in a police lineup. Point a camera at a child and their face will light up like they've been thrown from an airplane in this weird half-smile, half-grimace while they squeeze the word "cheeeeese" out from behind clenched teeth. Some children also have the lamentable practice of flashing gang signs.

So you can imaging posing a group of eight to ten adults for a family or formal portrait. It's a challenge. Luckily for me, I've got two great, practiced posers for bosses: Jennifer and Anthony Stalcup. Over the last two months I've watched them take groups of people and arrange them like flowers into a human bouquet to please any eye. They're never impolite, even though in large measure their success is due to their drill-sergeant-esque command of the confused human mass in front of them. They're amazing, and they routinely hand the camera to me and let me give it a try from time to time.

Truly, my strongest suit is my photojournalism skills, my ability to capture moments that last 1/500th of a second, my ability to predict human behavior: A skill learned from years in the newspaper industry. I think the photos below will attest to that.

Peace.

Stephen "Notes" Jones