How to Photograph Weddings

Photographer: Jim Garner

For the Photographer

Does the story-shooting approach Jim Garner espouses (see section 1) mean the end of those “wow” portfolio shots? Not at all. In fact, when Jim switched to a story-shooting approach, he found that his portfolio practically exploded. The “wow” images just seem to come about in a different way.

At first, he couldn’t figure out why. “I did some studying—I’m a psychology major—and read a journal about creativity. They were talking about jazz musicians who are, in essence, musical storytellers. The study found that the non-literal sides of their brains were powerfully stimulated by the act of storytelling, making it a powerful source of creativity. I realized that by allowing the majority of the day to happen naturally and thinking about creating a series of images, I was actually stimulating the highest level of creativity I could in my mind. That’s what this magic was. It was the result of shutting down my literal brain—freeing myself from thinking so much about lighting and posing individual pictures.”

“I was actually stimulating the highest level of creativity I could in my mind.”

Music Selection

Jim prefers foreign language music to accompany his image presentations—so viewers have to imagine what the words are saying. “It’s important for the client to feel like those words were written about them,” he says.

“When I let go of those canned fifty poses that I needed to create for every client and started to let the day create the story, it was so much more fun,” he says. “Now, my entire goal is to emotionally charge my images through the story-shooting technique.”

For the Client

The benefits are not just for the photographer, Jim notes. “With story-shooting, the clients also have a better experience. They’re given the opportunity to really flow with the work.” The motion and action that lead to great storytelling images also lead to more natural posing, more natural lighting, and a more relaxed event—as opposed to working with individual picture-takers who set up lights and do a lot of dramatic posing. “For people who are not professional models, that experience can be a very awkward one,” says Jim. “So, ultimately, the story-shooting approach leads to happier clients, more referrals, and easier shooting!”