14th May 2007
Epic Photography
I was having a conversation with an associate the other day and we were discussing music and entertainment and the use of the word EPIC as a description for the impact of the music we were listening to. I then asked, can a photograph be “EPIC”? If you are an Ansel Adams enthusiast, your answer would be YES.
First, I’d like to provide a definition of epic:
adj. Surpassing the usual or ordinary, particularly in scope or size.
When photographing a setting, it is the photographer / photojournalist’s duty to tell the complete story. Sometimes that requires the photo author to step back and see the big picture, incorporating the grand scale of the event in the frame. This sounds easy however one needs to make careful compositional decisions when shooting wide lenses.
How does the off camera flash come into this equation? I believe that the flash introduction in my photo example surpassed the usual and ordinary. The size and scope of the dinosaur skeletons and the room contrasted to the couple sharing their first dance did the rest.
This wedding took place in the Fernbank Museum in Atlanta Georgia. The room is gigantic…lots of staircases and openings with great photo opportunities everywhere. A carefully balanced exposure of ambient and off camera flash helped me layer this composition. Simply taking a snapshot with the flash in the frame isn’t enough…yeah those redundant photos were ok…. However, in wedding photojournalism, TIMING is very important and can make the difference between an “ok” photo and a “epic” photo. I waited for the groom to do a back step and triggered the frame as he lifted his foot again so I could showcase a more dynamic shadow from his foot, also implying movement. This one was tricky to get.
One needs to be careful and consider timing, technical precision inside the camera, composition and logistical planning (this place was huge, you can bet I was near the dance floor shooting too).
The bride and groom loved this shot… I did too. Epic? who knows…
Enjoy!
matt
I think David Lean would approve
Matt - great photograph and the start of an excellent blog. I’ve subscribed and intend to be a frequent reader!
Epic? I’d say so! what an amazing location! I found your website through strobist btw. beautiful work. Thanks for sharing.
Awesome photography Matt, and you can consider me a regular reader. That said I do wonder why your image template (border, sun etc.) is so intrusive. Have you thought about simply having your name in grey in the corner or something? Cliche as it is, it works.
Thanks guys…I had this idea for a post this morning as I was digging through my images and figured it would fit well. Thanks for commenting.
Matt, in regards to your post about my logo. Yes it may be intrusive however as a wedding photographer that has been posting on my personal blog, www.mattadcock.com/blog for almost 2 years, I have found that brides have been stealing our images (I can’t count how many times) inside the knot.com forum and other forums without crediting our images. Now, if they save and paste my image without a link, my brand | name is ever present! I am also trying to perpetuate a brand. Our fusion website, www.delsolphotography.com has the SUN as a primary logo…
Anyways, i appreciate and welcome all the comments!
Cheers & much love,
Matt
great shot and great idea. First time visiting your site and really enjoyed it. you have some great info here…i plan on visiting regularly. I did try to add your site with the RSS links below, but you have “feed:” in front of the http and it wont work exactly…i deleted the feed: part and added it to my rss viewer and it worked great…just wanted to let you know.
Hey Mark, I’m looking at the RSS thing… we think it is an Internet Exploder problem. Firefox seems to be working…humm, can you verify that you were on IE? send me an email matt at mattadcock dot com. I’m glad you figured it out… Thanks for the words of encouragement. We plan on hosting some super dramatic imagery here.
Cheers
Matt
Matt, you suck because your photo is better than any that I got last time I was at Fernbank.
Ben Ben….well, I’m sure the portfolio for your client rocked the house. If anybody is reading these comments, go and check out www.benvigil.com
He is a off camera lighting expert too!
cheers!
matt
[…] I have written about Epic Photography in a past FF post, and after seeing this week’s submission, I’m happy to suggest another photo that I feel defines the subject perfectly! Today’s image comes from an awesome photographer in Atlanta, Andrew Niesen from the LaCour Studio, a group of 4 photographers, 2 husband and wife teams. Mark Adams from the LaCour studio submitted this GEM a while back showcasing how one photographs a beach ceremony with NO available light. […]