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November 21, 2009 |
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Created and Maintained by: The Photoimaging Information Council |
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Articles |
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TGP: You’re one of the most famous wedding photographers around, so I’m sure people will want to know a few things like, how many weddings do you shoot a year, and what’s in your camera bag? BC: I shoot about twenty weddings a year. My associate, Michael Van Auken, is my second shooter at all my weddings and additionally he does about ten a year on his own.  © Bambi Cantrell As for what’s in my camera bag, I use a Canon 1D Mark 3 with a variety of lenses, from a 15mm fisheye to a 70-200mm. Actually, that long lens is my favorite. I like the way it compresses the background a bit, and the fact that I don’t have to be on top of my subjects. That’s one way to stay unobtrusive at a wedding. Otherwise, I carry two Canon 580EX flash heads and I sometimes bring a Frezzi video light, if I want to get dramatic lighting. And I bring lots of Lexar compact flash cards. I prefer 2- or 4-gigabyte cards because I don’t like to put too many images on one card. I’d rather not put all my eggs in one basket. TGP: What do you like most about wedding photography? BC: It’s my favorite kind of photography because of the romance and the spontaneity of it, and the fact that things aren’t always perfect. You have to learn to deal with people in a high stress situation, and I love that. I feed off the adrenalin.  © Bambi Cantrell TGP: What’s an example of a wedding where things haven’t gone perfectly and you’ve had to make some adjustments to the way you work? BC: Let’s see… well, I had a bride a couple of years ago who was an only child, and she’d planned an absolute fairytale wedding. But on the wedding day, I kept noticing that there was something wrong, she just didn’t look good. I’d shoot a couple of frames and she’d say, I’ve just got to sit down, Bambi, my back hurts. It turned out that the poor girl had the ‘flu, and was horribly ill the whole day. So rather than running around like crazy, as I usually do, I had to make things very soft and quiet, and find ways to shoot in short bursts that she could handle.  © Bambi Cantrell TGP: How has wedding photography changed since you got started in the business? BC: It used to be very posed and static, and then about ten years ago, the new trend was for something very photojournalistic, where you documented the event as it unfolded and didn’t set anything up. Now it’s changed to more of an editorial style, so that wedding photographs are looking like pages from a fashion or lifestyle magazine. webcopy.jpg) © Bambi Cantrell There’s one trend I’ve been seeing that I don’t like, and that’s where the whole wedding album is just about the bride and groom. I’ve see examples of that at wedding photography conferences and in contests I judge, and I think it’s a huge disservice to the client. Weddings aren’t just all about the bride and groom. That’s part of it, but they’re also about parties, family and the whole human experience. TGP: There’s also been a trend of high-end photographers charging quite impressive amounts for their wedding packages. Do you think that’s going to change in the current economic climate? BC: Photographers might think they need to start cutting their prices in this economy, but I think that would be a mistake. Rather than cutting prices, we might want to find creative ways to cut down on the amount of time we spend at the event. But we also have to do good marketing, where we educate the public about how important photography is to a wedding. Instead of cutting their budget for photography, a couple could consider getting a cheaper wedding dress, cake, or location. Because a good photographer can make a horrible location or dress look great, but if you have a crappy photographer, I don’t care if you’re getting married at the Ritz Carlton, those photographs are going to look awful. web.jpg) © Bambi Cantrell TGP: What proportion of your business is not wedding photography? BC: It’s about half and half. In addition to the wedding photography, I run a full service studio, and we do a lot of portraits, especially of families. Photographing children is not my favorite, but I’m learning to love it. It’s part of life’s passage, and there’s nothing more rewarding to me than having brides and grooms who come back to me to photograph them with their children. TGP: Yes, you have a lot of images of families with young children on your site, and you seem to be particularly good at getting everyone to relax and look natural. What’s your secret?  © Bambi Cantrell BC: The first thing is not to try to make children look like little adults. They don’t have to be perfect. The most important thing is for them to have fun. My associate, Michael, and I work as a tag team, where I’ll be shooting and he’ll be entertaining the kids, and he’s truly brilliant at communicating with them. He’ll literally be doing magic tricks. You have to make it a fun experience, or they’ll hate it and never come back. We have this big red leather chair in the studio, and we allow the kids to jump on it. We’ve had little demon spawn come in, and they start off with an attitude but after five minutes they realize it’s actually fun, and they cooperate. TGP: What do you look at for inspiration? BC: I look at a lot of magazines. My very favorite one is Rangefinder, it’s just an awesome periodical that features very interesting photographers from around the world. Obviously, too, I love fashion magazines like Vogue and Elle. I’m also inspired by art and by the work of other photographers, especially some of the younger photographers whose work is really fresh and creative. Two young photographers I’ve been blown away by recently are Jim Garner from Seattle and Miss Aniela from the U.K.  © Bambi Cantrell TGP: Ok, just one more thing. I have to ask you, how did you get the name Bambi? BC: My mother told me that she was walking down the street one day and she passed a strip club and saw the name on the marquee. No, no, I’m kidding! My mom just liked the name and she gave it to me. It’s my real name. And you know, while there are other names that might sound more cool, I look at it this way: nobody’s going to forget me!
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