Original subtitles

Shooting the shit out of it doesn't mean

spraying and praying.

Okay, there's art and strategy at play here.

We've sort of got these two tactics that

help us stack the cards in our deck.

Get open and keep your stick on the

ice.

Both sports analogies.

Don't worry, I'm going to break them down

and explain them both.

Okay, first, getting open.

When I'm feeling lost inside my mind, you

know, overwhelmed and questioning what to do, I'll

literally just tell myself, just get open, Lanny.

Just get open.

And for me, this is just like a

mental cue that helps me see and anticipate

moments and opportunities.

Okay, so it would be like in football,

when the quarterback gets the ball.

Okay, or in hockey, when the star player

gets the puck.

All right, just get open.

Give yourself a chance to receive that pass,

to receive that moment.

And as a documentary photographer, I think along

those terms because it's simple.

It quiets my mind and focuses my attention.

Everything becomes about anticipating the moments.

Okay.

All I have to think about is just

getting open.

Okay, what's going to happen here?

Where should my camera be right now?

I'll sometimes even just like mentally freeze frame

the scene, like imagine Matrix style.

The entire scene just like slows down and

then try to envision, okay, what's happening?

Read the play.

Where should I put my camera?

And so rather than feeling scared and overwhelmed,

I'm curious and focused.

Erica is a master at this.

She sees the stories often.

And it's like in this example, as soon

as she saw those kids waiting on the

sidelines for their turn to dance, she knew

that this image was waiting for her.

Okay, she sort of had that killer instinct.

And so she set herself up in the

right place with the right light, the right

depth of focus, and then was patient.

Okay, she waited.

She stayed calm and committed to this composition

that she believed in.

Okay, waiting for that, that kiss or the

dip, or she was really lucky both.

Okay, and, you know, I was busy taking

boring ass first dance shots.

Okay, and, you know, one of us has

to go safe, right?

But safe doesn't have to mean boring.

Okay, because I didn't see this.

I was guarded.

I was fixated on the obvious.

Okay, I was taking pictures.

Erica was making one.

And luck has a history of repeating itself

once you know what to pay attention to.

So scout in your mind.

Where's the interesting light?

Where are the interesting people?

And then be there and wait for the

moment.

Like in this example, Erica had hung the

dress there for one of those boring, lifeless,

dress-hanging-in-the-doorway photos that the

client had requested.

But Erica pre-visualized this image in her

mind.

She knew that the bride would eventually have

to go and get the dress to put

it on.

And so I think you actually set one

of your cameras up in position with the

settings all dialed in.

So that when that happened, Erica could go

there, could go and grab that camera and

quickly make this shot.

Because you can't direct this kind of body

language.

That's right.

If I directed this, it would have a

different feel to it.

It wouldn't have that same, yeah.

So she bought her ticket for the sweet

-ass lottery.

Set the bait and leave it.

And then every once in a while, the

$50 million jackpot comes at you at 140

miles per hour.

Okay, that's the bride on the chair.

That's the groom in behind.

That's the best man on the left.

These aren't strippers.

That's the groomsman on the right.

We had like 20 seconds warning.

One of the groomsmen whispered in our ears,

hey, next song we're going to come out

in these tuxedo g-strings.

And we're going to do this little fun

dance around the bride.

And so once this starts happening, I mean,

Erica and I are shitting ourselves.

It's like, oh man, time to step on

the gas.

Get open.

Buy those tickets.

And we're not thinking safe here.

We're thinking rimlet ballsack.

Holy grail.

All right, stuff like this doesn't happen every

day.

So when you have the opportunity, fucking go

for it.

Prepare to be lucky.

Get your camera where you know you want

it to be.

Might be scary.

But the photographers who do that score goals

and touchdowns.

But only when we're ready to react.

Mind, heart, muscle memory.

Because the real art of wedding photography is

not what you can do.

It's what you can do in three minutes.

No, it's what you can do in seconds.

Less than 60 seconds.

And, well, especially documentary storytelling photography, right?

What you can do in these five seconds,

right?

They say baseball is a game of inches.

Well, photography is a game of split seconds.

And then it's gone.

Okay?

So if you blink, you miss it.

Get open and keep your stick on the

ice.

Keep your stick on the ice.

All right, this is a hockey analogy, all

right?

Because in hockey, we can't score goals with

our stick up here in the air.

Sidney Crosby.

Maybe Sidney Crosby, right?

But generally, you got to keep that stick

on the ice to receive the pass to

score goals, okay?

And in photography, we can't buy winning tickets

with our cameras down here around our waist,

okay?

That's ingrained in hockey players from the first

time they pick up a stick.

It's keep that stick on the ice.

We feel the same thing should be ingrained

in photographers, okay?

Stick on the ice, okay, to receive the

pass, to receive the moment.

Often, it's as simple as that.

Just keep your stick on the ice, cameras

up, okay?

Often, we'll be, if the camera's not actually

on our eyeball, it'll often be here.

This is sort of like, this is stalking.

Down here around our waist, we're hoping for

luck.

This is pursuing luck, okay?

Also, this is just a much less obvious

and obtrusive movement to have to go from

here to here.

I mean, with our flip screens now, we

can often compose like this.

But, you know, when something happens to have

to reach down, if we don't miss the

ticket, we've at least drawn attention to ourselves.

So this is often the position, okay?

Stick on the ice.

There was a ceremony we were photographing a

couple years ago.

I remember I was standing behind the groom,

photographing the bride from behind, over the groom's

shoulder.

And I had, you know, 85mm lens on,

nice composition, nice light, focus locked.

I'm basically just waiting for that moment.

It's like, give me some emotion here.

I just need, I need some emotion.

While the groom was reading his vows to

the bride, okay?

So like for two minutes, I was making

shots, but she's just nothing, right?

No real emotion.

And so at the end, once he finished

reading his vows, for whatever reason in my

mind, I'm like, okay, switch to something else

now.

And so literally, I lowered my camera down,

and then I was reaching over for my

other camera.

I was literally right about here when she

reached up and wiped a tear off his

cheek.

And I totally missed it.

I took my stick off the ice at

just the wrong moment.

And he still talks about it three years

later.

Exactly.

It's like the winning ticket was right there

in front of me, but I couldn't get

the money out of my pocket fast enough

to purchase the ticket, okay?

So cameras up, keep that stick on the

ice.

And we also realized, you know, in culling

our work after weddings, we started to realize

that we were missing moments, not in the

sense that we were failing to photograph them,

but in the sense that we were capturing

the moment.

Like we were capturing the instant right before

the moment, and then right after the moment,

but missing the sweet spot right in the

midst of the moment, okay?

Because we were unconsciously watching or even participating

in the actual moment.

So shoot right through the moments.

Even when posing, you know, we'll make those

20 or 30 frames for that one unpredictable

money shot.

Once they think you're done shooting, keep shooting.

Because it's often in the transitions when the

best opportunities arise for something unexpected, something real.

And we feel like authentic movement is so

much more compelling than static posed portraits.

All of these were taken in the moments

between the portraits.

That's when we see real character.

That's when we feel something.

So sticks on the ice, okay?

Like this.

All the time.

Okay?

Don't watch it.

Photograph it.

Get open to receive the pass and keep

your stick on the ice to receive the

moment.

Practice and simplify the shit out of technical.

Use those six self-tips so that you

can be there.

Really be there.

Actually present at your wedding.

So that you can be here.

This is the energy that's left over for

creating art.

© transcript Emily Beynon