We’re sorry for the radio silence lately on Bride Vs Groom, now being the time when the crazy world of weddings tend to quiet down a little we thought we’d take our opportunity to relax by rebuilding websites (including this one…coming soon!), continuing to edit and travel madly all over the place in an effort to improve ourselves and seek additional inspiration for the coming year… relaxing right?
Over the last week though we’ve had a particularly exciting time! A little while ago we were invited by some photographer friends to take part in the amazing Nine Dots photography workshops but we were involved not as participants or as workshop leaders but as models for the day! As regular Bride Vs Groom readers will know this is something we’ve now done a few times for various workshops, presumably because in photographing me the workshop attendees can be shown what to do to make even the most challenging of subjects to look good!
Being on the other side of the lens though is always a fascinating experience for the two of us as photographers and videographers, particularly being shot by photographers with a differing style but similar philosophy to our own. Learning what it feels like for a bride and groom to be photographed, what feels comfortable or uncomfortable, what feels natural or too controlled, where the lines blur between a great shot for the photographer and a great shot for the couple. The most important message of this particular workshop though was all about passion and finding your voice…
Finding your own style, fighting the urge to imitate and being the best version of yourself is one of the hardest things to do in life. It doesn’t matter whether it’s finding your style as a photographer or figuring out the type of wedding you want to have as a bride and groom, so often we all take the easy choice to please everyone rather than make the often more difficult decision to take a risk on making choices that make us happy too. The four amazing photographers that together form Nine Dots each have a clear voice in their work, a recognisable and coherent style and yet it’s clear that even they don’t feel they have completed their journey to being exactly the photographers they want to be. What they do know though is that if and when they feel they’ve taken the best shot of their careers it’s time to go out and take something better. To get to where you want to be in life takes passion, it takes a commitment to ride through the hard times and stay focussed on the good. It’s a journey that never fully ends but that has only one direction: forwards.
Last year was professionally undoubtedly one of the most successful we’ve had and we’ve been incredibly excited by everything we’ve been up to. So how did we celebrate? By rebranding our businesses to something that we felt better reflected who we really are then jetting off to Italy for Dom to follow one of her passions, Street Photography. The aim was to practice shooting in a style that she wants to bring more into her work and be inspired by her surroundings and desire to be better not just as a wedding photographer but as a photographer in general. Trips to Amsterdam and New York will be following soon and we can’t wait to see what we can learn about ourselves along the way.
So whatever it is you love, just DO IT. Be original, be yourself, be the person you in your heart want to be. It may not come easy but it’s time to start the journey, and when you do you won’t want to stand still or look back. Be inspired by life and everything else will fall into place.
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p.s. for all our photographer readers, if you want a little inspiration to help you on your way get yourselves to the next Nine Dots workshop, I left inspired and I’m not even a photographer!!
