Hey it’s LENSEL
It’s your weekly dose (you junkie) of the wedding photographer world. This week we are getting into:

• Shooting in the full sun! And why you don’t need to be scared of it

• Flights and tickets to Way up North in Lisbon

• Something about penguins and the rest of the news

Alright no more intro, let’s go 👇

NEWS

Happening this Week

• All you had to say was Penguins. This super cool wedding content/portfolio building retreat in Cape Town is coming up early next year. There’s only 2 spots left. And did we mention part of the shoot is at a beach full of penguins??! Imagine those photos.

• Stolen Gear, a story. Benj Haish documents how $25k of his photography gear was stolen, found and retrieved. With a few twists and turns along the way.

• Followers does not equal REACH. This post was shared on X this week and explains how modern algorithms work and why your posts might not be getting seen.

• Advice to older photographers. This reddit chat is full of discussion and encouragement for a wedding photographers starting to worry about their age.

• Camcorder vibes. This camcorder might be the best mix of old school retro with still kind of good tech out there for videographers or photographers looking for that BTS, zoom in style footage. See some samples here.

• Threads is on the rise. After a slow start, Threads is becoming a place where a lot of photographers are hanging out and seeing a lot of traction! Threads also released some new features for creators on the platform this week including insights and drafts.

• Will DJI make a mirrorless camera system? A wild rumour is starting to spread that DJI is looking to build a camera system to compete with more traditional cameras from Sony and Canon. The drones are good, so imagine the full on cameras?!

SHOOTING

☀️ Embracing the Monster (sun)

Flipping the script.
If you have ever met other wedding photographers working in different parts of the world, one thing you’ll hear almost everyone complain about is how HARSH the light is where they live. And if only they “had the soft dreamy light like in California, or in Tuscany, or in New Zealand…”

Everyone complains about their sunlight, and everyone seems to wants to shoot in soft light ONLY.

But what if we flip the script for a minute? What if harsh light was good light?? What if full sun wasn’t a monster to avoid but something to embrace?

Also…. Most couples actually want sunny weather on their wedding day. They want the blue sky and the summery feel. If they want their day to look and feel like that then why don’t we show it off like that? So what if we don’t always seek out the shade and instead seek out the sun and roll with it?

The sun is back. So let’s look at how you might embrace it.

It’s the vibe.
Shooting in the full sun and embracing those blue skies and saturated greens. Things that wedding photographers have tried to avoid and have struggled with for so long. (hello silver/desaturated grass). The image on the left above from Samm Blake is just full on basking in that direct sun. The colours are deep, saturated and may not be for everyone but we love that she’s in that light and rolling with it. The image from Roman on the right shows off a sunny Como day. Should he have hidden away in the shade to get ‘even’ light? NO. He made a much better choice here embracing the sun and shooting here anyway (ft a little fill in flash).

Shadows and light pockets
One of the best things about a sunny day is all the shadows you can work with. It makes things dynamic, interesting and different. Consider using shadow lines as part of your composition, or finding a light pocket to put your couple or subject into? It’s a fun location scout pre-thinking about this vibe too.

Fill in flash
A nice way to embrace the sun vibe and still get even light and amazing skin tones is to fill in with just a little flash! The examples from annaroussos and thanosasfis here illustrates this perfectly. Experiment to get your flash at the right level to keep the natural sun look. Mastered!

Make ‘a light’ your thing
When everyone is zigging, zag. As they say. A great way to make your photography stand out and to develop themes in your work is to choose a few kinds of light and seek them out ALL THE TIME. We love how long time legends Bayly and Moore have made it part of their photographic identity to embracing the sun and play with the shadows - even often getting their couples to look/face directly into the sun. They made it their thing.

GIVEAWAY

✈️ An actually good giveaway

Pic-Time, Way up North and LENSEL teamed up this week to giveaway x2 flight tickets from anywhere in Europe and two tickets to Way up North in an amazing giveaway. There is still ONE DAY to enter if you are quick! Jump on this reel here to enter and see all the details. Closes WEDNESDAY night (CEST).

INSPO THIS WEEK

⬇️ Eric Mcvey is a long, long time wedding photographer and we just loved this wedding set of moments at this Tuscan wedding. Clean editing, solid frames and some great storytelling to boot.

⬇️ There’s something about medium format film… With so so many photographers including a few 35mm frames around the place. The pop of medium format still really does stand out.

⬇️ Speaking of the full sun vibe. This pre-wedding pool party captured on film embraces this perfectly.

⬇️ This set is an amazing example of how to capture the textures and feelings of a location and place to make a more full wedding gallery - check out the masterclass.

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