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Introduction and Background

Lesson 1 from: Documentary Wedding Photography: Capturing Reality

Tyler Wirken

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Lesson Info

1. Introduction and Background

Next Lesson: My Path to My Why

Lesson Info

Introduction and Background

We are so excited to bring tyler two creative life this is his first time here I just wanna let you guys know that he has over ten years of experience in the wedding photography industry and he was voted one of the most within the top ten best wedding photographers by american photography magazines so it's my pleasure to welcome here how are you today all right good to see you yeah you're excited to be here yeah so you have ah colleague curson who was here just a couple weeks ago where did you guys meet where did you first come together? She was my student at foundation workshop kind texas every year I'm going talk a lot about you you get sick and tired of hearing about that but but yeah she was she was a student of mine back in the day awesome and stylistically I just took so much from her share from her workshop and I just embraced the style of photography that is documentary that is sort of have a bit of a photo journalistic flair to it on dh you bring that toe weddings yes I mean I...

mean just like kirsten you know I mean she's she's a dear friend crazy down there is actually staying at my house right now which is kind of funny but but yeah it's the same you know it's yet taking my my journalism roots and putting it towards what it's awesome well, I'm just excited for this three days we're going to jump into it but I think as we go along in this first segment, we'll talk a little bit more about what folks out there can expect for the entire three days but I want to get your own know exactly yeah, thanks, jim. All right, guys, you ready for this? Yeah, yes, I hope I am. No, I'm going tio I'm really excited to be here. I mean, this is this is a huge, huge thing for me and it's awesome that it's here this is I'm going tio kind of start all this this's going to be pretty awesome. I think I'm hoping I, uh, you know, I kind of have set this up in kind of a, uh, kind of a narrative of sorts where it's going to kind of be inspiration, you know, slash slash technical and kind of how how I do think so basically going to be why I do what I do and then how I do it. So today we're going to talk a lot about mindset in thoughts about approaching wedding photography, but first I'm going to start with a little bit about me until you're kind of where I come from um so this is my family now I start crying every day and time I talk about my family and so hopefully I can rein it in a little bit but so this is this is this's my my wonderful wife pam my two boys zach and alex and maggie or a mag o that I call her our lab and so I just love this photo I shot with my iphone one day kids are in their pjs you know playing around the front step but you know that's my inspiration that's right that's why I get up every morning and do what I do but where I really come from it's from these these two people and uh see starting already um that's my mom and dad and he's my dad's hugging zach on his birthday five minutes into this and I'm getting emotional already this is ridiculous and you know I just it's it's funny how I you know family I still live I live five blocks away from where I grew up my dog maggie goes to my parents office every day you know it's just it's you know I see my parents almost every day and it's you know, that's all it's important life is you know, bottom line is it's like I'm getting deep early but at least I'm making dig back up right? But s o you know it's all it's it's you know, I'm thirty nine years old and you know, I'm I'm I'm so thankful for my life and for what I've learned and that I you know like boils down to two things yu know it bulls down to health and family in my opinion and you know, I've learned that from these do and my so to kind of break this this tension this is why I love my dad so much okay no one's laughing at that it's kind of weird I know um my mom it's probably watching us right now and she's freaking out that I showed this picture but you know so just last week my dad I was walking he's going to kill me too but he's he's cool I'm halfway across the country you can't find me but so so so he was walking out of a out of a restaurant or something and he just tripped on a on a cinder block and he ran into this awning and you know it's all bleeding everything and then he like he's like he's like I'm just going toe hey call my mom and it's like he's a cola so in such and see if they do stitches and then she's like for for what reason and then he's like he's like he's like well, like I kind of cut myself but I'm going to go pick up that that food or whatever you needed from the store and then and then I'll go figure it out you know a drove himself to the to the emergency room or whatever and god stitched up but this is the photo that they step my mom sent me via text here day about what he looks like and I mean the way that he you know approaches life it's like totally inspirational to me like nothing's a big deal right? He's never told me no never said you can't do this he's just like how bad do you want it right and he's just in the way he approaches life really blows my mind and so he puts his hat on sideways he doesn't wear hats like that normally and I took this picture and he's making fun of himself basically right and I think that that's really, really, really, really fantastic and what's funny is that you know, you grow up in a house like that and you don't really realize how much that's having an effect on you you know, until until later on and especially now with my kids in the way I raised my kids but you know it's you think back to where I came from and where you know what my photography is all about and it's all about this right it's all about family and it's all about telling stories and you know, that's that's kind of where my where my style and my roots came from, um fine, you know, one more little thing about me that you don't know is that, uh I actually I actually hate weddings um yeah, they're great squirmed in their seats a little bit, you know, I probably shouldn't say hate him, um, because they certainly pay my bills, but I think I'm going to talk a lot about this. I think, you know, weddings or silly if you really boiling down, like, really bowing down, try and understand what we're doing on a wedding day, the things we do, I think or silly, the wedding is awesome, right? The idea of why were there that day is awesome, right? And and so and so, you know, you know, that's, I think, you know, you know, I say I say I hate weddings, but I was more for shock value, anything else. But I say, I hate weddings, but I love people, and I love stories, right? And so that's where my that's, where my that's, for my style, that's where my might my ultimate goal is a wedding photographer started from was with those people that I showed earlier and where it continues from with the little ones in my life that are new.

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Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

Tyler calls 'em like he sees'em. He gets it: capture the emotion, the expression, the feelings of a wedding without preoccupation with perfect posing, perfect lighting, perfect camera settings. An image of a father's expression seeing is daughter in her dress for the first time is far more important than trying to get it framed just right. Anticipate. Watch. Don't interrupt a moment. This is a great series to refocus on the true meaning of why we shoot weddings.

a Creativelive Student
 

Recommend but with one big caveat. This class is useful in terms of his approach and mindset. I found it really inspiring in that respect. It's worth watching if you want to broaden your mind and make your wedding photography more interesting. Don't bother with this class if you are looking to improve technically, Tyler isn't a great technician and most of the info he provides in that respect is garbage and outdated. He also comes across as very arrogant at times and he's not a great instructor.

Chethan Kumar
 

Tyler is not just an awesome wedding Photographer but a very good human being. Love the way he speaks, teaches and respect students and their work. I enjoyed each and every bit of this learning and learnt a lot. Thanks creative live and Tyler. Regards, Chethan Cks Photolab Melbourne|Australia

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