Arab News had a one-on-one chat with the photographer to find out more about his pictures and what makes them so popular.
I have been photographing weddings for seven years.
During university days, my friends and I created a student enterprise that organized events and promoted them. I used to design, create flyers and capture images for our enterprise just to keep them as a memory, and then I started taking photos in clubs which exposed me to a lot of people that were interested in getting my contact information, which lead me to photographing their birthdays, special events, engagements and weddings. That’s when I realized I enjoy being the reason they get to keep a certain memory that won’t fade away.
The way I approach wedding photography is very journalistic in style. I try to be as discreet as possible. My goal is to create images that tell the story or make you relive the event all over again as it happened when you look at them.
I use a Canon 5D Mark II DSLR as my primary camera body. I also use other cameras, such as, the original Canon 5D for special moments.
I have a custom made belt bag that holds my lenses, extra batteries, memory cards and a lot of other stuff that are always important to me at all time. Each compartment in the bag is placed in a specific way that makes it easy for me to access and reach it without looking at the bag so I can keep my focus on the wedding.
The Canon 24-105mm f/4L is a great all around lens. I believe a photographer with a good vision and strong creative background would create stunning pictures using that one lens.
During daytime weddings, if the sun is not harsh and the weather is right, then the flash would stay in my camera bag and I use natural light to light up my images. I usually use reflectors to reflect the natural light to fill unwanted or unpleasant shadows.
In some cases I use fill in flash if I’m photographing the couple and the sunset is behind them. This way I can balance the light in the background as well as the light on the bride and groom to create a well-balanced image.
Most of the weddings I photograph in the Gulf region take place in air-conditioned wedding halls due to the harsh weather conditions that will ruin the hair and make-up of the people. Since natural light does not exist in these events I am forced to use my flash.
As a professional photographer, it is my job to get the photo right from the start. But in some cases, I have to remove scars, acne spots, etc., which is when Photoshop is important to have as an accessory, but not as a main tool to depend on.
Journalistic wedding photography depends on the atmosphere of the wedding that is linked to the bride, groom, family, guests, good music, wedding setup, wedding duration and everything else that creates the wedding. All these things will determine how many images will be taken and how many are usable. An eight-hour vibrant, lively high tempo wedding would give me about 1700 images that I will be more than happy to deliver to the client.
One of my flash bulbs burned while the bride and groom were walking the isle. I quickly adjusted my camera settings to use the ambient light as my main source of light. Then I grabbed my extra flash from my emergency bag. A professional wedding photographer should be able to adapt to any problem that he encounters during a wedding.
Every wedding offers a unique challenge, which is why it is important to know how everything you are using works inside out before you decide to get into wedding photography.
At the moment, the wedding industry is shifting away from the classic style that people are used to here. This is giving the creative photographer an opportunity to remain an artist when photographing a wedding rather than just a person with an expensive camera. In five years, I see artists photographing weddings only.
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