Images by: kristenmarieparker and alecas_______

It’s LENSEL. Your weekly view into the world of wedding photography. Here’s what we have for you today:

The Creative Diet for photographers + downloads
BTS with Koko King and Mixing up Your Style
A camera strap fit for that fancy wedding

Let’s go ⬇️

NEWS

Happening this Week

Deposit Return Drama. This story of a wedding cancellation that was accompanied with a doctors note blew up this week with the question, would you return this deposit?
The Strap. Uncommon-Sense is making beautiful things. This week, they announced a new over shoulder camera strap that looks so good, it’s definitely fit for ‘nice’ weddings. See the new strap here.
‘Index’ your coffee table. Photographer Christopher Anderson’s new photobook titled, ‘Index’ is finally available to purchase. Tis a goodie.
A Digital Film Roll. A company named “I’m Back” is launching a new film roll which hides a digital sensor inside: keeping a film cameras original design, mechanical behaviour but producing digital images. Wild thinking. See the kickstarter here.
Adobe Changes. This week Adobe’s long time CEO, Shantany Narayen, resigned after 18 years and taking the company from $1B to an insane $25B a year revenue. No word yet as to who will take over as BUT expectations are high to keep Adobe innovating in the AI age.
Ferrari x Luigi Ghirri. A deep dive this week into the time Luigi Ghirri photographed Ferrari’s Marenello factory. And is that an orginal AE-1 we spotted?

PHOTOGRAPHERS POV

Mixing Up Your Style with Koko King: A full BTS at a stylish wedding in Mexico.

by koko_king_photo

At LENSEL, we feature full weddings BUT from the photographers perspective. Today we have the insanely talented and wonderfully wild Koko King with insight and commentary on this wedding she recently shot in Mexico.

We LOVED the bold choice to change up her style for this wedding. To use entirely new cameras for parts of it. To decide on a theme for her shooting and run with it for the day. Oh and even a few controversial secrets to curate the gallery well in the edit…

So here we go ⬇️

by koko_king_photo

A change in style.
“One creative risk I took on this wedding was leaning into a MUCH warmer editing direction that I normally go for… My work often leans toward cooler tones, with with this wedding I felt it naturally called for something warmer and more atmospheric.

I also intentionally went for more simple, minimal frames and compositions. I love busy, storytelling frames that are dramatic but for this wedding I wanted to explire the opposite. Calmer images with cleaner framing and a softer palette. I’m in my ‘calm era’.

It ended up being an amazing change. The warmth an minimalism complemented the over album beautifully and I think I’ll keep this direction, for now…”

“I photographed this on the Fuji GFX, and what you’re seeing is the JPEG straight out of camera using a custom color profile I built specifically for this camera.”

by koko_king_photo

Controversial WE KNOW…
Now there’s a detail to this wedding gallery we weren’t sure whether would should include in this feature or not… But we’re going for it. And we would love to know what YOU THINK.

When Koko was curating this gallery to send to the couple, she felt the beginning of it was a too flat.

She felt she needed a wide shot, “I need an airplane POV of Tulum.”

Problem is, she didn’t have it.

So the image below of the coastline is entirely AI generated. Just the one to set the scene. Just to curate the gallery.

Is this an ok use of AI in this context?
Is it ever ok to fully generate images for a wedding?
Where is the line?

On one side there’s a dirty feeling to it. On the other side, how is this different from using generative AI to clean up objects in images? And on the other other side, we are artists first and perhaps these are our new tools?

“If there’s one takeaway from this wedding, it’s that when a location or design is visually busy, there’s real power in finding simplicity within it. As photographers, our job isn’t always to add more, it’s often to recognize the quiet frames inside the chaos. Those calmer moments are usually the images that for me, give a wedding balance.”

Dive in an read the full feature. See all the amazing images. AND here the thoughts behind it all from Koko.

READ THE FULL FEATURE HERE

see the full feature here

THE BIG IDEA

🥦 The Creative Diet + Downloadable PDF of where to start

from Si Moore’s (sasmoore) workshop in Lensel PRO

“You are nothing more than a regurgitation machine… you are the result of what you put into yourself.”

A BRTUAL way to put the idea. But accurate.

You are what you eat. You create what you consume. The photos you make are a direct result of the art you look at. So many of Si Moore’s lines in last weeks workshop hit HARD…

*This full article and downloadable resource is available for Lensel PRO members only.

See membership details here

UPCOMING LIVE WORKSHOPS

Samm Blake: “The Art of Curation” - 8th of April

Excited to announce our APRIL WORKSHOP is with the wonderful Samm Blake.

Great photographers don’t just take great images.
They know HOW TO CURATE THEM.

In this workshop Samm dives deep into the often overlooked skill of how to put your images together and present them. That is CURATION.

You’ll learn:

• How sequencing images can create meaning beyond a single frame
• Practical frameworks Samm uses when editing and curating her own work
• The role of instinct and artistic voice when selecting photographs
• Why the images you place next to each other matter
• How to curate a portfolio that truly reflects who you are as a photographer
• And a million practical tips to curate and present your work in all the different contexts a photographer does these days...

If you’ve ever struggled with:

What images should go in your portfolio
How to build a strong website gallery
Or how to define what your work is actually about

This one will hit home hard.

Samm Blake "The Art of Curation" Workshop - Wednesday 8th of April
5.30PM CET / 11.30AM ET / 8.30AM PT

JOIN LENSEL PRO TO ACCESS THE WORKSHOP