Everyone has some idea how to behave in various situations. You know how to behave with your boss, how to relate in a comfortable way with your spouse (most of the time), and you know how to be with your kids. But how many people know how to be when they’re in front of a camera? For most of us, myself included, it’s usually about standing in front of something (the Statue of Liberty) with your arm around someone. Smiling at the camera. A snapshot. Here we are on our trip to New York City.

But the adventure of showing up in a studio can often be like a trip to the dentist for some. They don’t know how to behave. I’m completely uncomfortable in front of the camera, and I suspect most people are. Somebody is LOOKING AT ME! STARING EVEN!

I don’t know about you, but I just want to get it over with.

But when I am BEHIND the camera, it’s a different thing altogether – it’s what I love to do! Look at people. I have to of course, it’s my job, but I really enjoy that particular freedom. And everyone has a beautiful face. Everyone. No exceptions. After photographing thousands of faces, I have come to that inescapable conclusion. That unique quality you possess is unlike anything that has ever existed or will ever come to be. How fantastic is that? A miracle, if you will pardon the pun, staring me right in the face!

What I do is not just about photographing your face. Anyone can do that. Just look at your refrigerator (I’m assuming there’s picture on your fridge). No, what I do is look at YOU. And the pictures I make are not only what you look like, but who you are and how you feel. To accomplish that, I need to find a way to move you past your discomfort, distract you, turn you around, and in general, keep you moving until you forget about the fact that I’m sticking a camera in your face. And I am pretty good at it. We’ll have a lot of fun together. Talk. Laugh. Talk some more. Find out more about you. If there are three or four of you, everybody engages in a constant dialogue. And you all leave feeling the joy of the experience. I can’t make good pictures without you. I know that sounds silly, but when I photograph you, we do it together. That collaboration is what produces the joy of life that is in the photo you see accompanying this blog.

So come on over, or let me come to you, bring a friend, and let’s make great pictures together.  I would love to talk to you about Christmas portraits or your upcoming wedding. Together we will make photos you’ll love for a lifetime. Call me today!  888.909.5077.

I have the best job in the whole world. I get to show up at weddings where love is the main ingredient. Everyone is filled with joy, excitement, anticipation. It is a day of great emotion. And there is nothing to compare to it. Nothing comes even close. And my job is to bear witness to all that emotion; to be an impartial observer inside those emotions without ever interfering with or directing, the events. To be intimately close to the action without ever being seen.

And that is how I work: invisibly: the moment someone becomes aware that a camera is being pointed in their direction, they change. Some mug for the camera, others become self-conscious. In this way I am something of a hunter, looking for that candid moment, catching people being themselves, a photojournalist in search of honest pictures that don’t require people to pose.

The only time I really need to pose people is when we do family photos. Here is where I need to be a benevolent dictator. In order to get these pictures done quickly and efficiently, I direct the show completely. Then, once that work is done, I am a man in motion.  What separates me from other photographers boils down to one thing: I never stop working and I never stop walking. And those two things are one in the same. In a room full of your friends and relatives, there is going to be a lot of energy. And at your reception that energy is occurring in every corner of the room, always at the same time. So, if I don’t keep moving, if I’m not putting in my 5-7 miles at your wedding, you are going to miss a lot of what goes on at your wedding. You are going to be so busy on your wedding day, that you won’t see everything that goes on – I am going to be your eyes so that you can see later all the who and what of the day.  And I see that part of my job as making as many candid photos of you and your guests as I possibly can. It is a process of discovery and I have a great deal of fun with – it is one additional feature of my work that is going to offer you and your guests one more element to the day. A photographer they actually like, a photographer in Rochester NY who interacts with them and has just as much joy and excitement as they do.

What could be better? A job where every time I go to work, people are happy, people are very close to their emotions, close to their hearts. They’re all dressed up, on their best behavior and eager to join in the fun. Photographing weddings is something that I LOVE because it is all about love, and it’s all about joy, about celebration and happiness. Unbeatable. And enormously satisfying. Years later, when I go to couples homes to photograph their children, I see the photographs of their wedding, my photographs, all over their house. Treasures. And I know for certain that I have made a great difference in their lives. I am a very lucky man.

When we arrived at the park, almost on cue, it completely stopped raining. But what was even better: the sun did not come out. Now, I know you may be thinking, oh, if only the sun  . . .  but trust me, it is a photographer’s delight to not have a bright sunny sky to work under, and those clouds created the soft, luxurious light that was the crowning touch on the atmosphere. The trees, the grass and all things green were thick and lush, the air almost mystical. And the beautiful pictures were almost too easy to make.

On any given day, the weather, the place and the people all come together to create something lasting and memorable; and no two are ever even remotely alike. So I can’t predict when the magic is going to happen, except that i know this one thing: it always happens, and if I might take some credit for it, I recognize when it happens and take full advantage of the magic. You see, the job of an artist (and I count myself among them) is not to create something special, but to recognize it. To show the world what everyone walks right by and either doesn’t see or is too busy to notice. I arrive at weddings with any empty head and an open heart, and to be sensitive to whatever is in front of me. And emptying my head of thoughts, ideas and pre-conceived notions leads to an open heart. To my thinking it is the only way.

And when those magical moments happen, as it did for this bride, I can literally feel it. It is almost as if the light enters into me and illuminates my heart and shows me the way. And obedience to that “light” is never optional because that is what I have come to expect. When it first started happening to me years ago, I thought . . . wow . . . lucky me, lucky you.

After having had it happen so often over the years I am not the least surprised by it, and as equally moved and delighted by it as if it were the first time it happened.

So, when that magic happens (and it happens at every wedding nowadays), your pictures are going to delight and amaze both of us.

I would love to make your wedding magical as well.  Give me a call 888.909.5077, or email me a question: James@JamesSchuck.com.  I know we can make your wedding incredible.  Contact me today!

Another magical wedding