Whim and Willow Photo ride the line between documentary and lifestyle photography sharing Kath and Steven’s gorgeous wedding day at Berkeley Fieldhouse wedding venue Toronto.
It takes a lot of experience and skill on the part of the photographer to be able to be spontaneous as well as enact planned shots on the wedding day. What is your experience with this idea?
Having a balance of gentle guiding and directing throughout the day but also standing back and letting things breathe and play out naturally is so important to what we do. Oftentimes we find that when we deliver a gallery to a couple they see things documented that they had no idea were even happening! Just goes to show you how powerful a thing it is to hang back and observe!
What about this wedding day makes you smile when you think about it?
How close the couple’s friends and family group are! You could seriously feel the love in the room during their ceremony and reception, and even we were getting teary eyed during some of the speeches! We also know Kath + Steven through this industry, so that made everything feel extra special to us!
How did having shot at this venue before affect your process?
Being familiar with both the venue and the surrounding area helped out a lot with not just planning for this wedding, but also taking a lot of the guesswork out of things because we knew what to expect.
It’s also super important to us to not just “copy + paste” ideas when shooting at a venue we’ve shot before, which means we always try to keep things unique + authentic to the couple we’re shooting!
What kind of “ film camera “ do you use?
We use a 33mm Pentax Spotmatic camera for film.
What is most significant aspect of offering your clients an authentic film photography option to their album?
While not something that we specifically offer as part of our wedding photography packages just yet, we’ve been experimenting with film photography this wedding season as a fun little surprise to give our couples when we deliver their wedding galleries, as well as a way to challenge and inspire ourselves creatively.
What we really appreciate about film photography is how you really don’t know how an image turned out until you develop the film and get the prints – we’re just as surprised as our couples are when we get to see the results! As much as we love the ease and zero guess work of digital photography, we’re really starting to appreciate the rawness and imperfection of film photography and how it acts as a counter balance to what we do. At this point we still haven’t decided if we’re going to officially have this as an offering when couples book with us, but it’s safe to say that we’re going to keep experimenting with it!
