Doug Levy

I am really happy to have the opportunity to return back to the Alt Perspective series with former pro umpire, excellent wedding photographer, and good friend, Doug Levy. I met Doug a little while back after attending a strobist-style workshop that he was running, and have really come to dig his cut and dry approach to the artistic and business sides of this industry. We both graduated from the same alma mater (Syracuse University) and we both share a passion for this art.

What I can say about Doug is that he’s not only accomplished in his wedding and portrait work, but also in his fine art and landscape work. Traveling around as an baseball umpire allowed him to capture some very unique venues and towns that I would never even think to visit. I enjoy the way Doug keeps things real with his work and with his clients. He is certainly not afraid to get nice ‘n dirty with his creativity – something I can definitely appreciate.

You can follow Doug on his Website, Blog, Facebook, and Twitter

Clarity In Camera – Doug Levy

When Brian asked me to write this, my first thought was, “Alt perspective? I don’t have an alt perspective.” Then I thought about Brian’s work, and who his readers are, and realized I probably have a very alt perspective. You see, I don’t like HDR. I first came across HDR as a technique in 2007 when I discovered Cornershots – Jimmy Yoo’s site with HDR wanderings in NYC. At the time I remember thinking that his work was amazing – vivid colors, great compositions, images that really captured the energy and light that is NYC. For fans of HDR and what Brian does (and for what it’s worth, if you’re a fan of the genre, I think Brian is among its best practitioners), I totally get the appeal. There’s definitely a wow factor, especially for non-photographers, something I witnessed firsthand this summer when Brian and I shared a booth at the South End Open Markets.

For me though, and especially since I’ve been shooting professionally full-time as of September ‘09, my work, and the work I admire most, is created away from the computer. At its most basic, I earn my living when I have my camera in my hand, when I’m out meeting and photographing people, not when I’m pushing pixels around at my desk. I think what really cemented my way of thinking that less is definitely more when it comes to post production was back in May, when I read the best blog post ever. No seriously, stop reading my blabbing and go read Dan’s.

Dan really got me thinking, especially about my wedding work. Before reading that, it wasn’t unusual for me to spend 20-30 hours on post production for a wedding – I’ve now got it down to 10. Part of that is my improved efficiency, but really it’s a change in my mindset. Think about it. Are there really 1,000 moments in a wedding day? For that matter, are there 500? Think about a wedding. Now eliminate the family formal photographs. Shouldn’t a skilled professional be able to tell the story of a day in 40-50 frames?

Now when clients ask me, “How many images will you take at my wedding?” My answer is, “I don’t know, but it doesn’t really matter. What does matter is how many good images I take at your wedding.” I’d rather make 100 great images than 1,000 snapshots.

It’s the same reason I dissuade clients from giving me lists of images – if I spend the day checking off boxes in a list, I know I’ll miss the images I’m really being paid to capture. In today’s digital world, does a couple really need to pay a professional photographer thousands of dollars to take table shots? Or shots of every guest? No, your 12-year-old brother could do that. In fact he’d probably do a better job because he knows everyone’s name.

What you absolutely need a professional photographer for is to have someone who can anticipate – someone with vision and who is able to capture the most fleeting of moments that happen only once. You need a professional who sees all the angles: “If I stand here, will there be an exit sign behind the bride’s head?” Someone who knows that if they bounce light off the mahogany wall, they’ll need to bump the flash power 1½ stops, but if they rotate their camera and bounce off the ceiling, that same EV will send everyone’s skin tones to over-exposure hell.

To that end, you need a professional photographer who has a clear vision – someone whose images don’t fall prey to the latest Photoshop techniques and flavors of the month. Great wedding images should remind us of the day, not make us want to, “Squeegee the gunk off of the image,” as my good friend Kate Duval likes to say.

Atlanta wedding photographer Marc Climie really says it best on his website’s “About” page – “He runs a Get It Right In Camera crew. If a photograph doesn’t stand on its own, it’s not good enough. He believes clients shouldn’t submit their wedding photographs to the disposable nature and influence of fashion cycles.” At it’s most basic – the only way to make better photos is to be actually out there, making photos – in the words of Nick Onken, “always be shooting“. To make better photos I need to meet more people, get away from the computer, think about how I see…