A recent write up in WPJA's WedPix.com: “The couple needs to trust us with what we’re doing,” agrees WPJA photographer John Prutch, who with his wife Amy works the greater Portland, OR, USA area from their studio just across the river in Vancouver, WA. He adds that knowing your surroundings, knowing your customer and why they chose the place, is key. Prutch’s award-winning portrait has lens flare, dress flare, cool clouds, sky, trees and even a horse. “It was just one of those that came out perfect when it happened,” he remembers. “The bride was a tomboy...she wanted to be barefoot, and she wanted her horse in the background. So we played off a bunch of different ways to have her play in the field. We had her spinning, and everything hit perfectly for this shot. I knew the lens flare was there but I didn’t position her there because of that. The angle was because of the horse. The flare was just extra added ‘wow.’” The bride’s confidence in the photographer became a catalyst for the creativity on both sides of the camera. When you take portraits, do you strive to be as creative as possible, or is it something that just happens?
The session that resulted in Prutch’s award winner involved some creative premeditation, and was completed in 8 to 10 minutes. Prutch notes that the ceremony had already happened and the sun was looking good—better than it had earlier when he was doing all of the formals. “We had some nice warm glow, so we had a plan of attack of what we would get in this field and how we would do it,” he remembers.
“We knew going in exactly what it was we wanted,” he says. “Amy and I enjoy shooting from the hip for most of the wedding, but we like to think that we have a very relaxed, carefree formal, and it’s not a stiff pose. Before the wedding starts we do more of a static session—the stuff that grandma likes—and then we’ll play off that if we have the time, using very creative lenses and angles. We also take them out for an informal second session during the reception.” “When couples come to visit our studio the first thing out of their mouth is usually ‘we notice that you capture a lot of expression and emotion in your images.’ And those are the couples who hire us,” Prutch says. “They’re attracted to us because they know they’re going to see a lot of emotion in their wedding day pictures.”
And this reminds Prutch of another shot of a couple dancing on a hill in the sunset, with only the silhouettes and shadows coming through to the photo. “Couples are telling me that’s what they want to see in their pictures. They are saying ‘we want to dance on a hill.’”