Interview with Jonathan Dear from Vibrant Photography

It’s lovely to welcome Jonathan Dear from Vibrant Photography as our Guest Photographer Judge this week!  During one of our excursions around the photography-blogosphere last year we stumbled upon his site and fell in love with his vivid style of photography.  We are so happy that it worked out for him to visit with us during this week’s photo challenge.

Jonathan writes: Vibrant Photography is Jonathan, Naomi and their 3 boys. Jonathan is the main photographer with Naomi doing a great job supporting the business with accounts, album designing and all things other. As we find it hard talking about ourselves head over to the about section of our website for more details!

Jonathan’s Photography Journey:

I never really knew what I wanted to do when I was at high school, even when I graduated. Photography was always a hobby of mine but I never dreamed I could make a living from it. After spending a few years as a graphic designer, I met Naomi and we got married. Not long after we were married I became sick. Real sick. I left my current job, moved house and totally changed up my lifestyle. I was facing more corrective surgery and as a result found it hard to find employment. It was then we decided to employ ourselves and start Vibrant Photography. We really put ourselves out there in some unique ways and subsequently booked and shot 44 weddings in our first year of business. Now in year 3 of our business, and some 120 weddings later we’ve quadrupled our starting price and managed to create a strong brand and referral network. Oh and we’ve had 3 boys too!

Several of Jonathan’s Favorite Face Photos:

I loved Tiana’s gorgeous eyes, it was the first thing I was drawn to when I met her recently for a shoot.

This photo is really who my son Sam is – quirky, fun and always full of joy.

I love the range of faces being pulled by these mini-bridal party members!

I actually went to school with this bride, Cassie – this is how I always remembered her after all the years – full of happiness and smiles.

Fun Q&A with Jonathan:

• What do you love most about capturing faces?

Happiness. Happy, fun, excited, giddy faces. I guess thats why I shoot weddings and not funerals. To me a shoot is awesome when I capture 2 people oblivious to the camera, having fun and enjoying each-others company.

• What do you find most difficult about capturing faces?

Early on I found it difficult photographing people that were reluctant in having their photo taken. I quickly learnt lots of tricks to help put couple’s at ease & have some fun!

• Briefly describe your most exciting or favorite photo shoot.

In the first year of our business I shot a destination wedding in Lake Wanaka, New Zealand. I travelled over there a few days before and had a great time hanging out with the Bride & Groom as well as their bridal party. We had so much fun and it was great to have input into where they held their ceremony and at the right time for the nicest light! We are still great friends with the Bride & Groom, we love it when clients become good friends.

• Do you have a “most embarrassing” photography moment you can share with us?

I once forgot to turn up to an e’session, thankfully it wasn’t a wedding (every wedding ‘togs nightmare!) Funnily enough it was the couple who were flying me over to New Zealand for their wedding so they were totally fine with it after much apologising and grovelling.  Sometimes it is hard to balance family-life and the business. We are finally getting to a stage where we are creating the lifestyle we are after. Which is after all what its all about. Getting paid to do what we love and having a life in the process!

Jonathan’s Helpful Hint:

One thing I have invested alot of time, money and practice in, is lighting. When you shoot weddings you need to know how to create beautiful images in any situation. High midday sun with no shade, flat overcast weather, location-choices from hell and beyond…etc. I think one of the best areas we can educate ourselves, in terms of technical ability, is learning to see light and provide light if required.

In terms of shooting faces, I love to put light in people’s eyes. It really makes the face alot more engaging and brings focus to the face. I do this using reflectors, off-camera flash or positioning the couple in great natural light.

On my blog I often post some behind-the-scenes, technical information on some of the images I shoot. I have a ’vi’ category which contains some posts with this additional info. Whenever you see a ‘vi’ watermark on an image, roll your cursor over the image it will change to show the technical details of how I lit, posed or shot that image. Check this out directly here and subscribe to my blog here.

Jonathan’s Photography Equipment:

I shoot with
2 Canon 5D2′s
1 Canon 5D
17-40/4L
28/1.8
45 tse
50/1.2L – favourite!
100/2.8 macro
135/2L
70-200/2.8L IS
… obviously not all at once!

I also have just about a truck-load of other lighting gear including; California Sunbounce reflectors, videolights, high-powered off-camera flash and even a 43.5″ beauty dish from Mola. You know you’ve probably got too much stuff when it doesn’t fit in the boot and the rear of the car.

All my editing is currently done inside Photoshop CS4 on an Eizo monitor and Wacom tablet.

Find Vibrant Photographer Here:

• Website
• Blog
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Flickr

Completely fabulous!  We can’t thank Jonathan enough for spending time with us here at I Heart Faces this week.  Please welcome him to our community through the comments section below…and feel free to ask a photography-related question or two if you have one!

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Tagged as: I heart faces, Jonathan Dear, photo, photographer, photography, Photography Tips, photos