Taking a quick sidebar from Prodigals to send a note to all aspiring photographers, amatuer, professional, or other. Here it is.
People are your subjects
If you are being paid to take a photo for a wedding, engagement, family, senior picture, etc., people are paying you to photograph them. Not the weeds, not a stair rail, not a beat up car, but them. THEY should be the subject. Of course, location matters, and art matters. Find a great location with some interesting textures and light play. Find a place that tells a story. Play with lenses and depth of field, but highlight the people.
This is a good example. Very artistic, but still highlights the couple, especially the bride. Look at how the light draws your eye to the true subject.
In this, the sky and clouds are clearly the subject. The bride and groom are just there to add importance to the sky, as if they dressed up just for this view.
Think a bit about posterity. When people look back on their photos in 20 years, they are not going to care as much about the art as they are about the people, namely, them. I recently spent a few hours watching a slide show, not a computer one mind you, a real, bonafide slide show with a slide projector, of my parents on a trip to Europe. This was in the mid 70's. Most of the photos were of places they went, places they wanted to remember. But as kids looking back at your parents in the 70's, we wanted to see them, not the places. Places were fine, but if they don't have the people we love in them, it means something only to the photographer.
And you aren't being paid to make something meaningful to you. Be artistic, but remember that the people in your photographs are infinitely more interesting than the wheat field they stand in. Spend some time to get to know them and find out how to bring out their personalities. Are they old souls? Then a vintage winery or beat up barn might be a great backdrop to tell their story. Are they logical people? Maybe a staircase or concrete portal would work. Or, maybe you do the opposite to contrast their personality with the surroundings. A vibrant, colorful family in a drab warehouse adds punch to the family and says something about how that family transforms their world.
When you can do that, I guarantee, your business will expand. People may like the arsty shot where they are out of focus and the blade of grass is in the focused foreground now, but in 5 years, when they want to remember what they looked like back then...they will be disappointed to find that their only recollection of that period is the center spine of a perfectly formed blade of grass.
Yes, it is art. But there is no better art than people. And when people pay you, you are paid to make art that represents the payer. Do the fancy stuff on your own time and dime.
