The Power Of Bridal-Model Shoots

By David Beckstead

My first model shoot was after my first destination wedding in Italy. The wedding couple did not want to be involved in a day-after-style shoot. In their eyes, the wedding day would provide all the imagery they wanted. Admittedly, I was a little disappointed--this was, after all, the perfect opportunity to expand my imagery base while using the wonderful Italian architecture to my advantage to make some creative art. So I asked my wife (who is my shooting partner) to model at Lake Como in northern Italy. We bought a dress and I shot for hours. This was the start of a new passion: bridal-model shoots! Not to mention, a great way to enhance my destination-wedding business.

My bridal-model photography involves models in bridal dresses and occasionally a male model in a groom-style outfit. It's a branded look that, as a professional wedding photographer, helps to advertise and promote my style of shooting to prospective clients and photographers. Every strong model image is of use to me in a number of ways:

1. As an outlet for bringing out compositional concepts not always easy to accomplish at weddings.
2. As a venue for improving compositions, style and my art.
3. As a means by which I might create marketing and branding materials.
4. As an opportunity to produce value and increase my worth.
5. As a new personal challenge to myself to continually adjust the way I see the world.

Model shoots will give you this time (your time!) to flush out ideas and concepts. These kinds of shoots will help improve your composition (what you decide to include and eliminate in your camera's viewfinder) more than you realize. It feels easier to step outside the box and try something different without wedding day pressures. Better still, as you become more comfortable expanding your vision, passion and creativity in a relaxed environment, you'll automatically start testing these ideas at real weddings. I don't suggest that you start all at once: developing style in your imagery and overall brand takes time. Don't rush it!

Part of being an artist is the constant evolutionary change we all seek; we are never satisfied, and we are always looking for the next image-idea that turns us on. There comes a point when others look at your imagery and detect a style or overall imagery look. In a sea of wedding photographers, that's a good thing! Model shoots can help you improve your compositions, thereby improving your overall style. Practicing your craft is important. Composition is the rock-solid foundation of your art and business.

Models: One of the best places to find models is from your pool of past clients. They almost never charge you for their time and are often ready to do something cool and fun in exchange for fresh imagery. Promising them a nice print would cost you very little and is a good way to put icing on the cake when asking them to model. Dress shops often know of women looking to break into the modeling world who will model just for the final imagery trade out. You may even know of a family member or friend who wants to get out of the daily grind and model for fun. Of course, there are also professional models and agencies sometimes willing to lower their prices for imagery that is different.

Dress: EBay, discount bridal shops, past clients' wedding dresses. The list is endless. Dresses can be procured with little or no cost to you. It all depends on your tenacity to make it happen. Dress shops will often trade out great imagery for the use of nice bridal dresses.

Location: Great locations are just a phone call away. Many places will allow you to model shoot on private property if you give them the use of the imagery shot on their location. I have always wanted to shoot at the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Miami, FL. The opportunity came up a few weeks ago and I will be doing a model shoot there in less than a month. The cost for a shooting permit? Only $125 for an all-day permit, which is worth every penny to me! Meanwhile, most of my locations have not cost me a dime. It may take a little concept-selling to get ingredients together for a great model shoot, but the effort is worth your time.

If you happen to have a little extra money and less time to organize yourself, an even easier way to get model-shoot imagery is at workshops. Many workshops have bridal-style model shoots where the instructor delights in showing you his or her style in action, helps you with compositional concepts and allows you to take home amazing imagery that is useful in your own branding. There is nothing like learning from a photographer you admire.

Once you have some amazing shots, what do you do with them? There are endless ways to increase your brand coverage in this industry with wonderful and artistic imagery.

Websites: My only caution would be to make sure that you clearly delineate which images are from model shoots and which are from real weddings. A link called "Bride-Model Shoots" would work. Put the images in their own link area. If your wedding images tend to be more conservative, yet you have branched out and photographed different imagery at model shoots, don't mix them around your site. This can have a negative effect with brides you are used to booking. Place the more unusual-styled images in their own area. Then the lines are drawn and the bride will likely appreciate your creativity.

Marketing: When using images for marketing, find out what mood you want to evoke, what ideas you want to project, who you are, what you do, etc. I see no problem using model imagery in your marketing, as long as it is constant with the style you are capable and willing to shoot at real weddings. If you can't replicate the model-image overall style at your weddings, don't put it front and center until you can. If you have no problem telling a curious bride that a particular shot was actually a model image, then the bride should have no problem with it.

Let's say you really want to shoot a destination wedding. Travel is great, but expensive. Having a bride hire and pay your way would be a dream. If a bride does not see any destination-style work on your site, most likely she will find a photographer who does. How do you break into that market? I suggest picking a country or destination location you have always wanted to visit and plan to get yourself there. Don't just travel to see the place though; make a business trip out of it. Create a model shoot at your chosen location and write some of your trip off as a tax deduction. Take a model and dress with you. Perhaps your sister, friend or spouse would model for you in exchange for the airfare costs. Or arrange with people in our industry located at your travel destination to help you with a dress and model. Some will do this for trade out of your imagery. How much would it cost a dress shop to hire a commercial shooter to create art for the purpose of marketing? Plenty! Sell that idea to them. Or what if you made some photographer friends at your travel destination and arranged to get together for an international model shoot. I have done this many times and it is a blast.

Now take these images home and incorporate them into your marketing. If a bride asks about the images and the wedding, tell her it was a model shoot. But also tell her about the effort that went into doing this and why you did it. She will most likely be impressed.

How does this all tie into model shooting? The more you shoot, the stronger your imagery will become. Model shooting is a confidence builder. The more extracurricular shooting you do, the better your actual wedding shoots will become and the more your overall value will increase. End of story. Okay, not yet...

The beginning of a passion for model shoots!

David Beckstead will be teaching a MasterClass, "Deep Composition," at WPPI 2008 on Monday, March 17 from 4:45 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. at Bally's in Palace Rooms 6-7.

David Beckstead lives out in the middle of nowhere in NE Washington. He mixes his passion for art and travel in a destination wedding photography business. He attributes his success to the Internet, pro forums, digital cameras, seminars and WPPI. Kassandra, his wife and business partner, shares his passions. Together they have successfully mixed their lifestyle with their business.