A ladder is often essential

What a photographer needs to do the job is sometimes far from obvious.

Our photographic consultant recently attended a wedding.  The bride and groom had hired a photographer with much experience (he had taken over the business from his own father), and it was a pleasure to watch such a true professional at work.  He knew just how to coax the people into place for the formal pictures, including the ring-girl who was feeling very small and overwhelmed; how to get a smile from everyone at the right time; how to balance the demands of getting his shots with the fact that everyone there was concentrating on other, more important things.

His camera, of course, was digital.  It’s just not possible to do what people expect (and pay for) nowadays otherwise.  But it seemed small and almost lost among his other gear.  It was definitely smaller and less impressive than many of those carried by tourists visiting Old Town Alexandria.  However, a big camera is no longer a necessary thing for a professional.  The quality of digital sensors and lenses has progressed so much in the past decade or two that even a quite moderate-looking setup can produce excellent results, all that a reasonable customer could ask for and more.

And the camera is not the most important point.  In fact, it never was.  For a wedding photographer, interacting with people has always been more vital to the business than details of lens and shutter and the rest.  Of course, there are cameras that are more suited to this sort of thing (the twin-lens reflex was popular) and those that the photographer found more personally suitable.  And the basics of exposure and composition are a given.  But other tools often have more of an effect on the product.  The flash unit, for instance, and how it is deployed can make the difference between a lifelike picture and a flat, garish photograph.

And this photographer has his own portable ladder.  It allows a different perspective, opening up possibilities that make the difference between an experienced professional and someone taking snapshots.  When you hire a photographer you normally don’t inquire into his ladder, but it can be the tool that has the most effect on what you get.