The Fun of Video at a Wedding

Intro by Skip Cohen

It’s almost impossible to find any benefit to the challenges the pandemic created for all of us over the last year. Pain, sadness, loss – they’re all words we’ve shared since Corona became something other than a favorite beer.

However, one light at the end of the tunnel has been having time on our hands. As we start to get back to some level of normalcy, expanding your skill set should be at the top of the list. Most of you are photographers. You’ve spent your life as storytellers and created one stunning album after another. But now it’s time to expand your skills, and along with a beautiful book of images, video needs to be a part of your services.

The fun thing about video right now is technology has kept pace with your need to meet consumer demand. Virtually every digital camera today gives you the ability to switch from stills to video with just the push of a button.

Now, put those photographs together with some video and great music, and you’ve got an instant crowd-pleaser. It’s all about being the ultimate storyteller and, at the same time, exceeding client expectations!

Like Carly Simon’s song from years back, in describing Suzette Allen’s skills, “Nobody does it better!”

So, as you rebuild your business in the months ahead, what are you going to do that’s different from what you’ve offered in the past?

By Suzette Allen

Wedding Wednesday—it’s a perfect day to share one of my creative joys- capturing weddings with video! Weddings, of course, are the happiest days to photograph; full of elegance, beauty, love, romance, and all the very best we can pull together to celebrate the union of two lives becoming one!

I personally love being a wedding photographer. Sometimes they are stressful, but usually so very wonderful to capture the visions and treasures of the day. We know there are so many moments missed by the bride and groom, and plenty of sweet vignettes that blur by in the flurry of the day!

Learning Video has fueled the creative storyteller in me, and the joy of capturing the wedding day story in a video is unmatched! While photography seeks to represent every person, detail and event in beautiful still photos, (usually in a chronological book or album), a video seeks to capture every emotion, glance, nuance and sweet moment in the storytelling flow of motion set to music. This medium is open to so many styles of interpretation and is so much more powerful at touching the heart and stirring up all the emotions of the day. Both mediums have their place, but they are so different. After 35 years as a wedding photographer, I’m loving the fresh challenge and magic of capturing with video.

Here is one of my recent wedding highlight videos, captured by myself (one photographer) at a backyard, covid-style mini-wedding in Los Angeles.  It was captured on a LumixG9 and LumixGH5, and edited by EditSmart. Simple editing with lots of slow-motion tells a wonderful story, and using audio from the vows makes it priceless. The audio was captured with a Saramonic UWmic9 Wireless Lavalier.

Enjoy the story of their lovely day…