FAQs

My Approach

What Would You Say You Specialise In?:

I love making portraits of as many of your guests as I can, capturing the party, the inbetween moments of the day, large and detailed scenes, and of course couple photos (that are candid)!

I find it to be really important to my process that I embed myself inside of the day and have genuine, personal interactions with guests throughout. I try not to posture myself as an ‘outside entity’ or ‘the photographer’ but rather endeavour to make guests (and the couple) comfortable with my presence by being in the thick of the action, while also stepping back to be an observer when it makes sense. I find it’s really important to connect with guests early on in the day, so that when I need to, I can step into the observer role without people feeling like they’re being watched. This way I can hide in plain sight, and your guests will feel relaxed and natural around me, which ultimately leads to more intimate and unexpected photos.

Do You Pose Us?: 

I generally approach the day with a ratio of 80% candid and 20% posed photos in mind.

Do You Use Film? 

Ya! I do it just as much for the look as for the workflow (it’s a win-win). The way that film renders colour and grain is really special. There’s also many happy accidents that make for one of a kind images!

Regarding the workflow, I don’t shoot film because it’s cool (or to market myself as a “film” photographer), it actually has immense utility within my photographic process. The act of shooting with analogue gear slows my approach down, which in turn leads to photos that are composed more thoughtfully. Film also allows for ‘real-time’ editing. Instead of having 10,000 digital frames (that were made with very little intention) to cull from, I’m starting at a more reasonable number, allowing me to use the time saved to curate and process really great images. Quality over quantity.

On this note, one thing that’s important to know about me is that I’m not a purist whatsoever. I’m constantly experimenting with different gear, remixing my approach and changing the tools to match the circumstances of each shoot. I’m not one of those people who “only shoots film” because, quite frankly, there are also moments throughout the day where digital makes the most sense.

On average, my ratio probably lands around 70 (film) / 30 (digital).

What’s With All The Flash?: 

Flash is a crucial part of my style! I don’t use it for everything, but I use it in moments that make sense. A lot of the time I use it in daylight. If you’re not into this look, we’re probably not a great fit!

Trade-secret: using direct flash on a digital camera gives me tons of editing latitude in the post-production realm and makes it much easier to have a digital frame look like film. In fact, many photos in my portfolio are shot with a digital camera! The goal is for a viewer to not even be thinking about whether a photo is shot on film or digital, both are equally good tools and thus, wonderful images can be made using both. Little side-note: being fooled by the mystery of how a photo was made is the same effect as marvelling at a magician making something seemingly disappear in front of your eyes. Don’t let logic unravel the magic, just enjoy the show!

Do You Do Retouching?  

I will retouch “day-of”, temporary blemishes, like pimples, bruises, etc. to the best of my ability (and also flash hot spots) but I won’t go further than that. The reason I love making photographs of people is because we all look different! I find every face (in all moments) interesting and beautiful. And, I love unorthodox photos. In the same breath, I obviously want you to feel good looking at your photos – to help me with this, it’s always useful for me to be aware of anything specific that you’re insecure about ahead of time, which you can let me know about when you fill out the questionnaire.

What Are Your Engagement Shoots Like?:

I find engagement shoots a great opportunity to get to know each other with a camera in the mix. I strongly recommend this if you’re not super comfy in front of the camera! You can get a sense of what to expect from my approach, build a dynamic with me and also just break down the initial nerves of getting your photo taken. It can be really really beneficial to do this before the wedding day so that it’s not weighing on your mind leading up to and during the big day.

On my end, I can get a sense of how you both photograph, your comfort level in front of the camera (and with PDA) and how our energies will interact.

Subject matter wise, I love to capture my couples doing genuine stuff, around your house, in the city, etc. Let me follow along on a regular Saturday morning! I have a questionnaire that I’ll get you to fill out to give me an idea of how you want to shape the day. From there, I’ll plan out an itinerary based on your answers.

Timelines & Workflows

Do You Send Any Images Before You Send The Final Gallery?

Sorry, no! I’ve experimented at different times with doing this and ultimately it just doesn’t feel right with my workflow and my general approach.

Order of operations is immensely important to the way I process images. In my eyes, for a “Sneak Peek” to work, I want the images to be the absolute best from the day and in my regular workflow this type of decision making doesn’t happen until the absolute last step in the process. To shift that to the first step really messes with my head and ultimately is like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Also*** I want everything to be seen at the same time. Images referencing each other are powerful and first impressions are important, even when it comes to photos :)

You Say Your Order of Operations in Image Processing is Important… So What Exactly is It?

STEP I - ORGANIZATION (12-16 hrs)

1. Drop film at lab + ingest digital frames

2. Ingest film scans

3. Sort photos into general categories like “Speeches”, “Details”, etc. and then into more specific categories like “Ceremony - Partner #1” or “Couple Photos - Late Night”.

4. Then, within each of these categories I sort into the type of lighting “Night - Flash” or “Daylight - Natural Light” for example.

5. Tag each photo with the appropriate category - this is so I can find / edit images easily throughout the post production process.

STEP II - CULLING (15-20 hrs)

6. Round 1 of Culls. This is removing mistakes - out of focus images, duplicates, etc.
7. Round 2 of Culls. This is where I start to look at categories and choose the best images from each. So, if there are 350 photos from the speeches, I’ll probably narrow these down to about 200.
8. Round 3 of Culls. This is where I spend a lot of attention choosing the best handful of images from specific parts of the day. For example, let’s say it’s your parents’ speech and there’s 25 images — I might narrow this down to about 10.
9. Now I’ve got my final set ready to edit!

STEP III - EDIT (50-60 hrs)

10. First Pass of Images. This is where I’m getting a feel for how I’m wanting these images to look — doing some basic colour correction and spending about 1 min per image applying a quick colour grade. This is where I also build synchronous looks between different formats (like digital and 35mm) and different lighting types (like digital night flash and digital natural light).
11. Second Pass of Images / Retouching. This is where I spend about 5-10 minutes per image finalizing colour, retouching skin tones, removing dust from film, dodging and burning when necessary and retouching major flash hot spots on faces.
12. Once I’ve got my final batch edited, I’ll duplicate lots of colour images to black n’ white, so you’ll have a different look to choose from.

STEP IV - PAIRINGS + CURATE (20-25 hrs)

13. Now, that everything’s arrived at it’s final look I spend some time going through everything and creating pairings. I love this part! I look for colour, gestures, shapes, themes, etc. to connect frames. It sometimes gives an image a whole different reading when it’s in the context of another.
14. Now, I begin curating all of the images. First, I create a big batch of “all images” including pairings and black and white doubles.
15. Now, I go through the photos and narrow down the images in albums like “Top 750”, “Top 500”, “Top 250” and “Top 150”.
16. Finally, I also include versions of the images formatted for social media (with white borders around them) to avoid Instagram’s nasty cropping.

Final step is for them to arrive in your inbox!

So, The Burning Question - When Will I Receive My Photos?

As mentioned above, I go through a pretty intensive post-production process and will never compromise on quality over speed. This is a MAJOR guiding principle for me. These photos are for you to have forever, after all! Add up all that time and each project runs me about 100-120 hours.

Hence, 12-14 weeks from your wedding day is my general turnaround time.

If Dec. 20th - Jan 3rd falls into that 12-14 week period, tack on another 2 weeks (sorry). Just like all of us, I must rest and spend time with family! I do try my mightiest to process as many weddings as I can before the holidays.

How Many Photos Do You Deliver?

I usually aim to deliver around 250 special photos and 300-400 additional “outtakes” (sometimes more!). Allow me to explain:

I’ll put it this way, I’d rather pour a lot of my post-production energy into 250 special moments (and really great photos) and make these moments shine, than deliver a huge slew of sub-par photos. Oftentimes in a giant photo-set (say 1000 images) the best photos get lost in the bunch! Five AMAZING images of your first dance are much better than 30 mediocre ones. Good editing takes a loooong time. I think it’s much more important to spend that time on getting an image into “wall-worthy” territory.

Also, a SUPER super important part of my process centres around the questionnaire that I ask each couple to fill out. Remember the note above ^ about using film to ‘real-time’ edit? The questionnaire serves a similar function. Getting to know your personalities, your desires for the images, and ultimately understanding the photos/moments from the day that you really want to see vs. the photos that you don’t really care about helps me both narrow my approach on the day of and also gives me a clear gauge of the types of photos that you’ll appreciate seeing. It’s not a great use of energy to spend time on photos that you won’t love anyways!


Can I See a Full Gallery?

Yeah! Shoot me an email.

Logistics

Do You Use A Shot List From The Couple?:

I would much prefer a conversation to a shot list. Let’s talk about what types of photos you want to see from your wedding day and what sections of the day are really important to you. For example: “The ceremony is really important to us and we want you to focus on that,” or, “We want a lot of photos of the guests during cocktail hour.” Intel like this helps me during the shooting and the post-production process as well because then I can put more time and energy into the parts that you really care about. I always meet with the couple 2 weeks before the wedding to iron out any remaining logistics like this.

Do You Cover Family and Wedding Party Photos?

For sure. I want to make sure you get some special formal photos with your people but I also don’t believe this part of the day should take very long. Go hangout with your friends and family at your wedding and I’ll make photos of that! I’ve seen too many couples over the years disappointed that they weren’t a part of their own cocktail hour.

Also on this note, know that I don’t identify as an ‘anti-wedding-wedding-photographer’! I definitely respect the value of having a few classic and simple photos posing with each other + family / friends. I think it’s important for everyone’s sanity to remember that not every photo has to be a fine art image - some photos are simply meant to memorialize.

Do You Take Cash? / Do You Do Cash Discounts?

Unfortunately, no - I gotta charge HST for Ontario couples and GST for Canadian ones.

Do You Travel? 

Absolutely, I love destination work! I include a 150km radius from Toronto in my packages. If you are outside of this area, refer to the second page which outlines my costs to travel.

Do You Always Have A Second Shooter With You?:

Most of the time, yes! They’re crucial for capturing different angles of non-repeatable moments (like the ceremony) and ensuring that the coverage is extensive. I would highly recommend not cutting this part of your package!

What’s the Difference Between My ‘Gear Wrangler’ and ‘Second Shooter’

Each wedding I shoot, I bring out 3 people: myself, my gear wrangler and my second shooter.

My Gear Wrangler: Throughout the day I’m usually cycling between 6 or 7 cameras (in various formats) and I’ve found that I need someone who is with me at all times managing this gear (rewinding film, making sure batteries are charged, holding flashes, etc.). The analogue process just isn’t as quick as digital and to maintain the pace of a wedding day, this person is crucial. This person (usually) doesn’t shoot any photos but will often give me a hand with camcorder coverage if you purchased that add-on.

My Second Shooter: This person’s entire role is to shoot photos, be my second eye and ultimately up the quality of coverage by having more options to sift through in post.

Add-Ons / Other Offerings

Can You Explain What the Point of Weekend Wedding / Rehearsal Dinner Coverage is?

1. The obvious one - you get a bunch more frames! Weddings are one of the rare events that all of your people are in the same place and this is just another opportunity to preserve this unique stretch of time. The photos themselves are also super different — oftentimes your guests are a bit looser and more themselves in an intimate gathering outside of the actual day itself. 

2. Similar to how I meet with every couple to get to know you ahead of time, I would love to be able to do that with your guests too. Being there the night before is an invaluable opportunity for me to introduce myself, for them to get a sense of my vibe / energy and to build some rapport ahead of the day. As a result of this, the photos with these folks will likely be better on the actual wedding day because of this built-in intimacy. It’s also a good chance for you two to get warmed up for the camera pre-wedding day :)

3. With the added images + different scenarios + extra intimacy built, I can tell a more complete story of your coupledom + your relationships with your guests when I’m curating the images. This pairs especially well with zine formation!

One thing to note: If you’re planning a wedding weekend at a resort please save room for me to stay onsite — me being within walking distance of the action at all times is crucial for quality coverage!

What is the DIY Camcorder Video?:

How would you like to have a wedding video with real n’ intimate moments of you and your guests? The type that only you and your guests can capture? For this add-on, I hand out three camcorders to your guests (and I’ll have one on me too) and we see what happens! To ensure the success of the video, I have a detailed list of instructions to help you select the guests that will anchor your coverage. Things like: Select someone who is punctual, someone who is outgoing, etc. etc. Then, I also send a detailed list of instructions for your shooters.

Camcorder video page coming soon with lotsa samples. In the meantime, ask if you’d like to see some :)

Do You Do Family And/Or Maternity Sessions?

Yes I do! Portfolio page coming soon.

Can You Explain the Differences Between the Zines and Coffee Table Book?

Let me do best to explain this concisely haha (if you want more details irl let me know when we chat). I generally like to break these down into a scale of:

Linear —————— In-Between —————— Conceptual

Moving from left to right, the style of the printed object gets a little bit more quirky. I think a chart is the best way to display the differences between these three styles:

If you are interested in “newsprint” instead of normal magazine paper, let me know! It’s a sort of “living” medium that I enjoy a lot and would love to cut one of your zines in this way.