I am a Contrarian

It's been a while since I last shot a wedding that was dominated by the directions of a videographer. You see, I am a documentary photographer a la journalistic style but it's a challenge if the proceedings of a wedding have to be adhered to a script. The possible end result is the "players" in the wedding are really "acting" (hence, not real anymore) and their real emotions will not have an outlet to be channeled out. (There was an instance when I was focusing on the curious and bewildered look of a boy during the gatecrashing when the videographer pulled him away from the scene because he's not part of the script!)

I won't be surprised if most, if not all of the weddings covered by the videographer having the same look, same edit, same cut, same everything. I must admit sometimes photographers also produce same set of images regardless of how unique each individual wedding is.

However, I must say that videographers like them can really crack some funny (and corny) jokes that never fail to elicit smiles and laughters from the "players". In a way, there won't be any dull moments when they are around. And the video highlights can turn out hilarious, if that's your cup of tea.

So what do I do?

By being a contrarian. I'll shoot when the videographer is directing (albeit try to do it from a different angle) and I'll shoot like crazy when he say's "CUT!". I guess that's how I am trying to make my photos look less like a series of freeze-frames from his video.