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Exude Confidence

Lesson 5 from: Documentary Wedding Photography: Capturing Reality

Tyler Wirken

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Lesson Info

5. Exude Confidence

Lesson Info

Exude Confidence

Lot of linus is just like you know, exude confidence right um bright skin smell fear it's totally true and I had a photographer one time he gets notice that I share a lot of things I've learned from other people right because I rarely have an original idea all right you know? And so I've taken all of these lessons and I put them into what I teach others and I'm a huge, huge huge fan of not just believer of I have to give credit where credit's due so I'm just I can't live my life acting like all of this is mine and these are my ideas just I feel like I'm a fraud if I do that and so when I when I keep saying this that's why I'm saying it I'm not trying to be like esso on a kuperberg told me one time and that's when I drop names and just trying to give credit right thing is I don't remember this guy's name so I can't really give him credit on that one but but he was he was an older photographer and I don't know how it all came up we just got some some like vendor get together and he's lik...

e man you know it's really simply think all you gotta do is just be a duck like be a duck when what is she talking about? He says he says you're watching duck swim he's like they just kind of glide around their hairs on they're just like gliding around but underneath they're paddling like hell, right? You know and it's like it's like you know that's what you got to do like even if like, you know, I've had I've had uh people in consulates like the father of the bride grilling me just like bam bam bam bam! You know? And I'm just like I just got to keep my face and just stick up to him and just like, no, I'm not gonna do that yeah, I do that we'll talk about that, you know? I mean, like, you just have to eventually that confident starts to build right? Because, um strikingly enough, I haven't I was never this way confident, wise, confidence wise was really shy in high school and I remember not being able to call my my one of my friend to see if he would go to the football game with me it's silly it's totally silly now and then I started shooting and I had to get over my fear of talking to people getting in front of people and my my passion for the picture was more than my fears, and it helped me push through that right, and we're gonna talk a lot about that throughout these three days and so same with confidence like like like doing all these meetings and like having all these experiences you know I'll be like I'll be like I don't care who you are you know you khun you can you can talk to me and and I could talk back and I can and I can hang with anybody you know um maybe not how many huge my wife and our huge jimmy buffett fans that's weird a lot of people but did you perk up cause you are too or you think it's weird I'll parrothead okay, good also I knew I liked you for a reason but, um I don't know if I'd be cool if I met him I like tea, you know, he's like my only person that I think I'd freak out about it so it's kind of fun, but okay, so bottom line is, you know, you just gotta you just gotta, um, gain their trust right and exude enough confidence, okay? And so I got a little video here um, about there's actually two, two, two, two little quick video clips. This is a skype interview I did early on with one of my brides two thousand twelve maybe I remember, um, kelly kelly and you kelly's waiting so here's kelly talking about trust b to an obviously you had a really great reputation and we'd seen images that you capture before but something that I feel like I was a really important was that we were able to trust you and seeing your work I trusted that you were going to get the images that you needed to get and I never once during that day thought where's tyler he's missing this I never saw you but I knew you were there you know I was I was so in the moment in doing what I do I was doing that day whether it be getting my hair makeup done or getting on the trial you're going to the church and talking with my friends and I knew in my mind and knew you were there and I knew you were taking pictures but I like never saw you never interrupted the flow of the day and I never once worried like, oh where is he he's missing if he's missing this moment because I knew that you are capable of capturing everything that was going to be important to me and more things that I didn't even know that I would treasure so I might have missed something? Well no you can't be everywhere are but you were you were most places most of it it's kind of funny and then we talked about this because there were some hookups that happened and I have yet to see those documented on those usually happen after yeah, yeah, yes, I did miss something in something that's funny, the wedding that's, right? Eso so yeah, you know, I mean, you know, you know, like I said, it's, just, you know, I can't I can't tell you how important confidences and what you do and just believing in yourself. And if you if you believe in yourself, then people will then believe in you, you know? And so they trust the trust, the trust with the clients like starts right at that, that first consul, you know, so yeah, s so that's so that's that's kind of we're gonna roll into, um, a little bit of a next segment here that's kind of first thing, so perfect. Good. Fantastic. Yeah. So we you and I were talking yesterday, right? And we were talking about your style of winning photography, and I got to say I was pretty blown away on dh from an impressed standpoint. I've done a little photojournalism back in my photography days and the question I said to you and I was a little bit incredulous, I said, so you don't move anybody and you don't really talk to anybody. I mean, you're just behind the scenes how does that work? I talk to people you talk right? But there's a guy to talk to people you know, creepy, you're you're talking, but you're not telling him what to dio cannot nose in them now. I absolutely, positively will not affect anything for portrait time. Ok, right, so I do do portrait on the wedding day, I believe in them, but the formals are necessary, right? They also kind of kind of like, you know, cover my butt a little bit so that way, if grandma ends up not going to the reception for some reason that I have a photo of her, whatever, you know so so I I do believe in portrait time, but it's very, very, very, very short and that's the on ly time that I will ever effect or control or anything like literally nothing, I will never hang the dress up, I will never touch any details I will never like wedding corners to be like, so what? You want them to cut the cake? And I'm like, I don't really care just cut the cake, you know? Yeah, yeah, no, no, no, literally completely one hundred percent hands off, but you do shoot some b roll, do you shoot b roll stuff like food and that kind of stamina not just didn't really have to yeah, because you write you know and nobody cares about it afterwards that they think they're carrying about it during it does that make sense? Yeah, totally some people do I mean like some some waiting I've done it like crazy extravagant you know and I understand the money in the effort and the thought that went in all those so I know you need that stuff but it's not my priority yeah alright quick question if you don't mind this one is uh let's see, this one is from camelia margo margo haas I know her okay on and it's a really highly voted on question and so camila asked hi tyler hugs from brazil what do you do in the guests? And the couple are very camera aware making it difficult to capture these moments how do you communicate to them? Well, it's hard if it is did she ask about the couples or other people both okay both so, um again it all starts with, like setting expectations early and I and I and I you know, I tell them, you know, and we're going to talk about this too. I'll talk about it more down the road as well, but it's like it's like when I walk into a bridal suites with all the bridesmaids and everything you know, I'm not like I'm not like, you know wile e coyote or anything when I'm trying to like you know whatever right like pick up a plant and move it you know but yeah thanks that's good okay, I really need if it was crickets in here I'd be in big trouble, you know? So I'm just saying so but you know, I uh I make it a point to hey everybody because this all turned to me cause I go right to the bride to say hello you know? And then and then I try to try if it's like a downtime and she's like talking about me I'll be like, hey everybody I'm tyler you know I go it's really quite simple you just got ignore me and I'm a big guy in black and there I go it'll be easy, you know? And and then I said I said it just just treat me like I'm furniture just don't sit on me at this point and then you just keep going, right? But I just tried I just had to manage those expectations, but quite frankly, like if it's the couple like and there, you know, like that testimonial I said, like, I'm not kidding you like like if it's the couple and I'm shooting them and they're starting to like mug for me, whatever I will literally drop my cameron look at them and I'm like oh yeah but people are so the problem is that society has trained all of us humans that the world stops for a photograph right every single time sundays for oh I'm sorry I'm in your way you know there's like this weird dance right and that's terribly hard for documenting photographers because we want the world to forget about us you know and so there's just certain things you have to do and I think you're going to be ableto see that a lot in the in the live shoot footage we're we're showing tomorrow because you're going to see how like, you know, there's often times or I'm just a jerk and I just don't even look at people and I break eye contact and I just stay behind the camera and then they'll eventually be like I learned it shooting kids and the newspaper you know, ice cream socials and stuff the kids can't read the paper you know, this kind of stuff and I would I would literally get the frame ready and then I just kind of look around and just completely be disinterested in and then and then they get disinterested in me then I could shoot my picture and there's just so many little tricks that that you can do with it all comes from confidence you know? So he had a question I follow upon the previous question you said that one hundred percent you don't interfere with the situation at all so I think I already know the answer to my question which is like if the groom's getting ready and he's like over in this closet and he just takes five steps this way interns turned towards the light it would be amazing and beautiful and there'd be a better background so why not? Because not reality is not what they're experiencing okay? And I'm gonna talk a lot about this in the next segment like a lot about this right? And so I'm I'm a I am ridiculously passionate about this and I think quite frankly I think I'm like one of the only ones that are that that is like even a lot of the my good friends that come from journalism that do weddings on even a strict as I am but it's just it's just it's just what I believe in you know? I don't think that a um I don't consider myself creative, okay? I really don't I can I consider myself like good at documenting things and I'm very good at building things but I don't consider myself creative and so to me real life is always gonna be more creative than me and I'm going to really dive into why if you can wait, I don't want to kind of cool because it's a huge question I get all the time and it's a huge hot button topic with people and I don't want to jump into it right now, okay, I'm gonna build up a little bit, yeah, but no, I will not do that. There's been so many times where I'm like in my head, I'm like, well, the window. Look out the window, go over there, you know, and I'm like, you know, what, it's, like, not working, you know, it's, some like that, you know, but it's, just it is what it is, right? So, yeah, we'll get to that.

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Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

Tyler calls 'em like he sees'em. He gets it: capture the emotion, the expression, the feelings of a wedding without preoccupation with perfect posing, perfect lighting, perfect camera settings. An image of a father's expression seeing is daughter in her dress for the first time is far more important than trying to get it framed just right. Anticipate. Watch. Don't interrupt a moment. This is a great series to refocus on the true meaning of why we shoot weddings.

a Creativelive Student
 

Recommend but with one big caveat. This class is useful in terms of his approach and mindset. I found it really inspiring in that respect. It's worth watching if you want to broaden your mind and make your wedding photography more interesting. Don't bother with this class if you are looking to improve technically, Tyler isn't a great technician and most of the info he provides in that respect is garbage and outdated. He also comes across as very arrogant at times and he's not a great instructor.

Chethan Kumar
 

Tyler is not just an awesome wedding Photographer but a very good human being. Love the way he speaks, teaches and respect students and their work. I enjoyed each and every bit of this learning and learnt a lot. Thanks creative live and Tyler. Regards, Chethan Cks Photolab Melbourne|Australia

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