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| © Cliff Mautner |
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Location: Philadelphia
Website: cmphotography.com
After years of shooting weddings, Philadelphia photographer Cliff Mautner has come to grips with the tensions that come with the job. "The responsibility placed on a wedding photographer is the weight of the world," Mautner says. That means a lot coming from a former Philadelphia Inquirer photojournalist who stumbled into wedding photography after 15 years on staff and 6,000 assignments. "Sometimes you need to be a sports photographer for some of the action shots that are involved," Mautner muses. "You have to have a versatile skill set." While photojournalism is in his blood, he has "no problem setting the stage for the moment to take place" by optimizing the conditions. In particular, he brings action into favorable and interesting light -- what Mautner considers his specialty. "I'm able to take bad light and make it good light by creating texture and mood," he says. "If the light is very harsh, I'll use it in such a way to create drama." Potential clients now seek him out, and many find him via his highly successful blog. The blog has become an integral promotion tool for Mautner, who posts a smattering of photos from each wedding, proving his consistency to potential clients. When he became the first wedding photographer to use the Nikon D3 camera (Nikon is his sponsor) and posted the photos on his blog, he received 250,000 hits in one week. In this new media age, where most wedding photographers have their own blog, Mautner believes it's necessary to constantly show fresh work. "You're only as good as your last wedding," he says.
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| © Curt Littlecott |
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CURT LITTLECOTT
Location: Orlando, Florida
Website: nuvisionsinphotography.com
Curt Littlecott may be the only wedding photographer in the world who was once a professional water skier. More than a decade ago, the Englishman came to Orlando, Florida, to pursue the sport, but he soon realized that, as he says, "it wasn't going anywhere." Luckily for him, Orlando was at the time becoming the target of British tourist agencies, and there was a dearth of suitable photographs for the sunny locale. Littlecott, who didn't even own an SLR camera at the time, began making images for travel brochures. He later transitioned into the burgeoning destination wedding market that was growing in Orlando, and in 1994 wedding photography became his full-time profession. Today he has a studio in the heart of the downtown nightclub district, which has been integral to the success of his business: The bottom floor of the three-story studio is a wine bar gallery that's open on the weekends for photo clients only. Littlecott believes the intimate interaction at his studio helps him form connections with his clients -- connections that allow him to be an "insider" at the weddings he shoots. "We get to see the bonds between family members," he explains. "[For example], we had an NFL football player who was raised by his grandmother from age two, and I never would have known that had it not come out through this communication."
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| © Gene Higa |
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GENE HIGA
Location: San Francisco
Website: genehiga.net
Gene Higa had been shooting weddings in the San Francisco Bay Area for several years when he realized that there was a niche in the field that nobody else was filling. "Photographers would say 'available for destination weddings' but no one was really doing it," he says. "No one was focusing on this kind of work in a major way." Higa quickly moved to fill the gap. "Every destination wedding we've done, it's been published," he says, as he rattles off the countries "hanging" on his office wall. Most recently, one of his photos was both featured on the cover and inside the Destination Weddings "World Wide Guide." His new focus has taken him to Mexico, Italy, India, the Philippines, Greece, Peru, Thailand, Spain, Barbados, and Jamaica -- "locations that no one else in our industry has," he says. Paradoxically, this focus on exotic locales has simultaneously raised Higa's "perceived value" in his base city, San Francisco, where he shoots about 30 weddings a year. Higa brings his own stylistic touches to the job, as well. Whereas most photographers take a plethora of shots of the blushing bride, Higa likes to focus on the groom. "I always try to get the cool groom shot. I try to work on the opposite of what everyone else is doing," he says. Higa's Website features a number of strong, solo portraits of grooms alongside his work motto, "Dare to be different." All promotion strategies aside, however, Higa is in the industry because he loves it. "I'm made for this business. I'm very sentimental, I love the art, the dresses; I love every aspect of it. I love the parties, I love the details, I love the client interaction," he says. "I found my calling."
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| © Jessica Claire |
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JESSICA CLAIRE
Location: Orange County, California
Website: jessicaclaire.net
"I love being able to figure out what it is that the person you're marrying loves about you," says Jessica Claire, an Orange County-based photographer. "I want to make that real." Claire's portfolio includes plenty of action shots: couples dancing in the National Mall in Washington, D.C., or jumping wildly off an apartment landing. "It's taking what I see and making it look cool," she explains. "And making other people see it." She also believes in vivid color: "My style is definitely bold, colorful, and eclectic," says the redheaded photographer. "I'm not the type to shoot in all black and white or sepia and have it be all moody. When I got into photography, I wasn't interested in that at all. I wanted to see color and bright things, and it made me stand out from what other people were doing." Claire's photos nearly buzz with energy, and clients seek her out for her "outgoing and over-the-top" look and demeanor. It seems fitting that she was invited to shoot a wedding in Greece , a country whose bright aquamarine waters fit perfectly with her palette. With Greece under her belt and South Africa planned for next year, Claire is looking forward to the opportunities wedding photography provides. "I hope that I can find a way to see the world by shooting great weddings," she says.
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| © LaCour |
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LaCour
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Website: lacourphoto.com
The four founding members of LaCour -- a wedding photography studio in Atlanta, Georgia -- have very different visual styles, but they are united by one common goal: to be quiet observers. "Our approach is to quietly allow the day to unfold before our cameras, minimizing our impact on the scene," says Andrew Niesen, one of the four LaCour photographers. "If one of our clients looks at a photograph and has any memory of me, then I have compromised the authenticity of the moment." Considering this intense dedication to the ethics of documenting, it's not surprising that Niesen, his wife Rachel LaCour Niesen, Mark Adams, and his wife Erin Reed Adams, all began their careers as photojournalists. (The Niesens began shooting weddings when Rachel bartered her photographic talents with a friend who in turn designed her wedding dress). "Photograph a riot like a wedding and a wedding like a riot," Rachel recalls a college mentor once telling her. "[This] meant two things to me. First, approach every assignment with the same honesty and intensity. And second ... always look for unique, storytelling moments, whether you're at an opulent wedding or a gritty news assignment." Despite being based in Atlanta since 2004, the photographers travel for 70 percent of their weddings. In fact, during the month of June, they'll be in their hometown for only a handful of days -- perhaps a sign that the group's maxim has successfully found the right audience. "LaCour clients want subtle moments artfully recorded," Rachel explains. "[They] seek authenticity in their photographs ... because when you have tender storytelling moments happening naturally, why would you even want to fake them?"
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Check out our Top 10 Wedding Photographers of 2007.
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