Seeing shadows and light (with Fer Juaristi)
As soon as Mexican wedding photographer Fer Juaristi announced that he was coming over to the UK to host a workshop, I knew that I had to be there. Fer has such a unique and wonderful vision, seeing amazingly extra-ordinary things in very ordinary places. The way he understands light and shape completely blows me away. So to be able to understand, even just a little bit, how he can tune into these things, to be able to ask him questions, to see him shoot first hand, was just an opportunity I just couldn’t afford to miss.
I’m sure you probably know by now, but landscape photography was my first love and the way that I got introduced to photography. Ever since I started photographing weddings, I’ve been wondering how I can bring my love and influence of the landscape into my wedding photography too, although I never really came up with a satisfactory solution. Then during the workshop (completely unprompted), Fer announced, “If you love landscapes, then just shoot from f***ing far away.” (Fer swears a lot.) Sometimes you just need to be told the obvious. I had been looking for a complicated and clever answer, but really, if I love landscapes, then just include the landscape. And the couple. Make them an integral part of the landscape. And when I look at some of my favourite images, I think that’s what I had already been doing, albeit unconsciously.
I didn’t take a huge number of images during the Fer Juaristi workshop (it was fascinating to watch Fer at work), but here are a couple of my favourites out of those I did take. I know that they’re far from perfect, but I’m pretty excited to start thinking outside the box, and this is what my sabbatical year is all about.
I really like the last image, nice going.