Suck him dry? hahaha… (see my previous post on blood-sucking-clients) :p

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a long time, but never had the time and mood to do it. A rainy Sunday morning after a hard day’s work seems like a good time. So here it is 🙂 (get a cup of coffee, its a long one)

I’ve observed many clients, from my own experience, from Evy’s stories, fellow photogs and videogs chatting sessions, have done some ‘not-so-good’ approaches in trying to get the best out of their session and photographer. I truly understand the importance and desire for *all* clients to have the most pretty-most cute-most beautiful photos of them ever (especially the ladies, well… some guys occasionally, hahaha… *wink2*) That is why also I write this post, to let you in the secret of getting great photos. You wanna know ? There’s only one tip from me actually:

Trust the guy.

That is *the* best thing you can do to creative people (photogs, videogs, artists, etc) : trust them. You see, we creative people love to create, make something new, do stuff out of the ordinary. And its kinda hard to do that with a very demanding client, with a wrong* (I’ll get to that in a second) high pressure all over. Have you guys been into a studio/workshop/creative agency? Usually, they have huge movie posters on the wall (some grafitti maybe), some stuffed animals in the corner, action figures on their desks, and loud music everywhere, not to mention the pizza and coke and coffee in the pantry. Have you guys heard of Googleplex ? It is the office of the world’s biggest internet company, Google, with a net worth of more than $200 billion (ay-ay-ay!) Check out the link, you should see the craziest office ever, hahaha… (I’m trying to get my office to look like that one day, we’re planning to buy an aquarium soon for the design department, so we’re gettting there, hehe..) Despite’s all the facilities and playgrounds and swimming pools, how come Google employees still come up with the best in all their work, netting Google $3.6 billion in revenue in 2007?

The answer is responsibility.

We don’t like people not liking us. That’s bad for the business. So with every good-striving to be the best-service company (like Edward Suhadi Photography of course, halah… iklan…), come an obligation and desire to put a biiig smile on each and every client. So when you give us, the *good* creative people, some room to play with, we won’t come up with the attitude of just sitting there-do nothing-click-click-click, ok- it’s done, finished, lets go home-attitude. We will take that room and play and come up with our best.

About the ‘wrong’ high pressure. Don’t get me wrong, everything good in life comes with pressure. This is the principle I have been living my whole life. But there are ‘good’ pressure: pressure that will drive you to excel beyond your comfort zone, and there are ‘bad’ pressure: pressure that will leave you cranky, numb and idea-less. I strongly urge you to put some ‘good’ pressure on us, hehehe…

To make things easier, I’ve put up some ‘do’s and ‘don’t’s in getting the most out of your photographer.

Do’s

– Choose your photographer carefully – browse, and browse and browse, there are gazillions of photographers out there. Did I mention Edward Suhadi? halah… 🙂 Recommendations from people who have used their service is also a good place to start. hahahaha… iklan lageee… Once you have decided which one will shoot your wedding:

– Trust your photographer – nothing sets our mood better than a couple of trusting clients. Important: trusting does not mean not caring. Get involved in planning your shoot, whether its prewed or d-day.

– Remember that any good photographer is having his name at stake everytime he hit the shutter. So he *will* give you his best.

– Give some ideas to start with. Ripped magazine pages, internet links, references. Tell him your ideas, dreams, likes and dislikes, we would love to hear them. We also love to talk and brainstorm, discuss. Be sure to ask him to develop a style of his own based on these images. Don’t do the ‘ultimate no-no’ (scroll down to find out).

Don’t’s

– Shove another photographer’s work on the table and bluntly ask, “Can you shoot like him? We want to look like we’re shot by him” hahahaha…. Ultimate no-no 🙂 I dunno bout the other guys, but I sure will have a dark cloud hanging over my head all day long. Important: It is *ok* to have some images as a starting point in the discussion, but let’s find something together. Hey, that’s why you hired the guy! If you go to a McDonald’s and ask for a burger, they will serve you a BigMac. If you asked them to make it like a Big Whopper, they will probably ask you to go to a nearest Burger King 🙂

(Right now I’m smiling remembering this incident, this is a true story, I kid you not…) I bumped into this junior-high friend of mine in a mall. She’s with someone, and I could sniffed (hehe… practice, practice) they are getting married. So small talks ended up to name card exchage. “Oooohhh, you’re a photographer! You know, we are getting married, and we’re shopping for a photographer!” (see? hehe…) After a few lines, she stared at my card and then said, “Hey listen, if we check your website and your shots aren’t that good, you can still shoot us like ******* (name of a well known photog) rite? We can show you some examples…”

Gubrag! Slippers in the air and a bird flew over us, just like in Japanese comics.

Hahaha… could you believe that? I even stared blankly into her trying to understand what she was saying. Hahaha… I don’t know about manners, but well, um… ehm…. ok. 🙂

So, it’s a big no-no, remember that folks. Choose carefully. Once you choose, stick to it. Don’t ask us to copy. Not good.

– Be too demanding. You *will* limit the chance of a fun-memorable-laugh filled session. Not to mention having the photog’s in his best condition.

Well, there you have it. Glad to get it out my chest. If you follow these tips, I’m sure you will have the best time ever in shooting your prewed-wedday. Please don’t take my writing in a wrong way. I’m not being a snobbish guy here, in fact, I really want you and your photographer to work in a very constructive environment.

In closing, I would like to share some images of Victor and Evelyn’s wedding. Victor is my main guy, whom I’ve been shooting with since I started this whole thing. Shooting his wedding is one of my most relaxing assignments, with some of the best images I’ve shot to date. He never dictated a single word about how I should shoot the wedding (him also being a photographer and all). This could easily happen because of:

a. he doesn’t care about the pictures
b. he’s afraid of me
c. he completely trusts me

Hehehe… I think its probably the last one, well, the second is also a probability 😛 Here are the images. I thank you for reading, and all the creative people out there, this post is for you.

Have a blessed day,
Edward