What makes one photographer different from another? To be sure, a large part of it is our imagery, but there is more to it than that. Successful businesses excel at being able to get the message out to consumers what it is that makes their brand different. Professional photographers tend to be very bad at putting that into words, because they rarely see past the images they create.
The result is that you see a lot of photographers attempt to use buzz words to set them apart, but those phrases are so ubiquitous now, that all it serves is to lump them back together. How often do you see the term “capturing the moment,” popping up on a photographer’s site? Are there really any photographers that don’t capture the moment?
How are we different?
Which of course got me thinking about what makes us different beyond just our photography. For starters, we took a very different path into wedding photography than most photographers. For many photographers weddings and portraits are their entrance into the professional photography world. Often they are people with a photography hobby they start by photographing their children or a friend’s wedding with hopes of one day shooting for a magazine like National Geographic.
[pullquote]I got my start photographing for world renowned magazines, and I have taken that background into a minimal direction approach to wedding photography with clients that share our passion for adventure and travel.[/pullquote]For me, it was the exact opposite. I was passionate about travel, and outdoor adventure photography was my hobby. The second photo I ever sold was to National Geographic, and my career basically started from there. It was not until years later that people started asking me to photograph their weddings, and by that time I was already a successful magazine photographer. So that background in magazine photography is probably the thing that sets me apart the most.
Another thing that sets us apart is how Carin and I interact with our clients. We mainly take a fly-on-the-wall approach to weddings with two exceptions. Early on in the day, we work very hard to connect with brides and groom to make them feel comfortable around us. That is why preparation photos are such a big deal to us. It allows us to get comfortable with each other before the ceremony. The other exception is during posed portraits. We know couples do not want to spend hours away from their guests playing photoshoot, but still want stunning photos. That is why we provide direction and keep the flow of the formal portraits moving quickly.
Lastly, I think our lifestyle is extremely important to the wedding photography work we do. We are extremely passionate about travel and the outdoors. While this might not seem directly related to wedding photography, trust me, it is. Most of our wedding clients are traveling to Colorado because they love the mountains and outdoors as much as we do. When many photographers see travel as a inconvenience, there is nothing we would love more than to be flying to a different place every weekend.
In Conclusion
If I had to summarize how we were different in a single thought it would be this: I got my start photographing for world renowned magazines, and I have taken that background into a minimal direction approach to wedding photography with clients that share our passion for adventure and travel.
And I do not want to fail to mention that we are so confident that you will love our work that we offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee.
My advice for my fellow photographers is to really think about what makes you different, and find a way to put it into a few concise sentences that you can then relate to your potential clients.
The following images are a combination of my magazine work, my adventures with Carin, and our wedding photos. Hopefully you can see the connection between our personal lives and the unique wedding photography they create.
