Photography Week - Part K - er 3!

Another husband/wife team of photographers (I knew we had great photography teams, but for some reaosn I never put two and two together!) Krystal and Matt are so much fun to work with, they are like ninja's they are everywhere and no where - they are Darkman.... I think that a photographer that is able to move around so stealthy is better able to catch some of that emotion you are craving to cature on your wedding day, and they do just that! Check them out at K-Gallery and if you haven't their rockin' blog too!

How did you get into Wedding Photography?

Well, it's a funny story. See, we were running guns for the Japanese mafia when our stolen Soviet oil tanker was boarded by ATF agents. You can imagine how THAT turned out, and we briefly considered piracy on the high seas as a career, but that rat race has just turned too "corporate" these days, ya know? So we became wedding photographers.

Now our cover story is that Krystal got a photojournalism degree from UF, and was in the US Army as a photojournalist deployed to Ecuador, Bosnia, Kosovo and various other delightful locales. When she got out, she decided hard news and accident scenes weren't exactly her bag. Weddings are a lot more fun, and there's less sniper fire. Matt got into it when digital came of age. "Wait, you mean we can do this on a computer now?" So, six years ago we opened our business specializing in wedding and portrait photography.

What do you consider your style of photography to be?

Well, our photographs have been described as "A heart-thumping thrill ride," "so gargantuan that I must create new words to describe it: fabularious … a brilliantological humongousness of marvelosity," and "Prepare your eyes for popping — they just might fly out of their sockets!"

Err...wait those are movie blurbs for "300." Our bad.

In our images, we're after two things. First, we think people like our images because the people in them look like they're having a good time. That's important, because, well, first we sure hope people are having a good time at their weddings, and second because the photography process wasn't painful for them. People freak out when they have to get in front of a camera, but we think our clients' expressions, even in posed pictures, show that our relaxed styles and attitudes make it easy for them.

Second, we really strive to master our craft, and approach our work with near-obsessive attention to detail. When we capture our images, of course we're after beautiful moments and expressions, but we're also paying attention to flattering angles and poses, and making sure we have three-dimensional lighting that makes the subject pop out of the image and their eyes sparkle and shine. And our albums are consistently amongst the most highly awarded in the state of Florida and across the nation because of our clean designs and the warm, rich, glowing skin tones, consistent from the start of the book to the finish.

 If you could offer one piece of advice to a bride, and only one, what would it be?

Well that's easy! Don't wax before tanning...that was a bad weekend. Oh, and don't mix plaids. And never draw to an inside straight.

Ohhhhhh, you mean wedding advice! Ummm...hire us? Besides that? We guess it would be "give yourself plenty of time." Your wedding day should be fun and relaxing. Give yourself plenty of time and delegate all the responsibilities for making things run smoothly to your wedding planner.

Also, one thing we hear a lot from our couples is that they wish they had fewer guests. That way you get to spend time with the people who are nearest and dearest to you and it makes for a much more powerfully emotional day.

What’s the most rewarding part of your job?

Well, once a week we get a really good dinner. So that's nice.

We guess we have to get all schmaltzy here. About a year into our business we photographed Rachel & Sean's wedding, and at the reception, they had a table laid out with their family history in portraits, back to great-great grandparents at the turn of the century. They probably had to hold still for 8 seconds in front of some view camera on a tripod while some old-timey dude adjusted the focus with a dark cloth over his head. Anyway, I wonder if said old-timey dude realized that, 90 years later, that image he captured would still be cherished by that couple's great-great grandchildren, and viewed and cooed over by all their friends and family? And we thought, "these images we're creating right now...Rachel & Sean's pictures...these are going to be on display at their great-great grandchild's. And that's really awesome. Especially since the wedding will probably take place in space. And there will be lasers and also robots.