This week I am interviewing Deirdre Hewitson of Deirdre Hewitson Photography. Deirdre has been in this business a long time, so her extensive galleries are well worth a look!
How do you describe your photographic style? Unobtrusively, creatively journalistic. As much as I try to capture the moments as they happen, I am also constantly working with light and depth of field. So, although I am in the moment of capturing the father of the bride as he tries to mop away his tears, for example, or the little girls desperate for a taste of wedding cake, I am also immediately thinking about what angle of view I should take, what depth of field I should have, what I should include or exclude from the picture, and where the light is coming from. At the end of the shoot, I will have captured, in a sensitive and creative way, the sequence of events, as well as what it felt like to be there.
How did you get into photography? As a child my dad had an old Zeiss, with concertina lens and manual settings. I loved taking pics with it – loved having to count the paces from my subject to get it in focus (the lens had no focus ring), and pulling down the little lever to set the aperture. After that, it was downhill for a bit, technically speaking, shooting with aim-and-shoots – although they were film cameras, and so one was more mindful about shooting than one tends to be now, with digital.
I was introduced to the darkroom and the pinhole camera while attempting a Fine Arts degree, but somehow didn’t realise that photography could be a not only a creative expression, but a worthwhile and fulfilling career. A few years later I became interested in pottery, and needed a camera to photograph my pieces.
I bought a second-hand Minolta, and had to relearn manual exposure. I started collecting a large library of books, attended various courses and workshops, and worked my way through rolls and rolls of film. This self-study, led to my interest in photography eventually overtaking my interest in ceramics. Photographic work also started keeping me busier than editing, which was my day-job at the time.
It was when I did a darkroom course that the creative possibilities of photography were really revealed to me. It was no longer about what picture I see before me, but what picture do I see in my mind, and how can I create that image in reality. It was then that the exhilarating, rewarding, painful, frustrating journey of creative photography started for me … there is always so much to learn, so much that could be done differently, new equipments, new methods, new software ….!
How long have you been photographing weddings? About ten or fifteen years. The first weddings were for friends or family – you know, those low-budget weddings where people ask the friendly uncle with the nice camera to take the pics, instead of paying a professional to do the job. I cringe now when I think of how gutsy it was to take on a wedding with the experience I had. Everyone was always happy with the results, so I suppose the job got done, but I have grown so much since then, and I am so aware of all that can go wrong on the day, that I would never advise someone with little experience to tackle the job alone.
Where are you based? Cape Town. I have a studio in Woodstock, but grab any opportunity to travel, and so am always available for out-of-town weddings and other shoots. Some of the ‘away’ weddings I have travelled to include Mauritius, the Natal Midlands and road trips to Nature’s Valley.
What has been the highlight of your career as a wedding photographer so far? This is a tough question to answer, since almost every wedding feels like a highlight. I am just so blessed to be able to do this job that challenges me on a physical, mental, emotional, technical and creative level. The two weekends in a row that I photographed in Nature’s Valley do stand out though. They were very different weddings in terms of style, but I had a real connection with the families and the guests. Because I stayed in the area for the weekends of the wedding, as well as the week in between, I was very much part of the whole wedding, from the preparation to the taking apart. The week between the weddings was a wonderful time of exercise, reflection, writing and photography. I met some interesting people and became pretty good friends with the elephants at the Elephant Sanctuary.
Which are your five favourite wedding photographs, and why? It’s hard to pick favourites, as I have an emotional connection to my wedding pics that I don’t have to my other photography. I tend to tear up at every wedding …
I think the day I no longer have a little weep behind my camera is the day I stop taking wedding photos!
My favourite pics are the ones when the bride is getting ready – I love the window light, that bond between the bride, her friends and, especially, her mother, and the opportunity to capture completely natural images. My other favourite pics include children – the mischief they get up to when they get bored causes so much stress for the adults, but wonderful photo opportunity for me. So my favourite pics might not be the ones that are technically my best work; they have been selected because of how they make me feel.
I have a whole series of pics of this little ring bearer in various
stages of boredom. This is where he finally gave up and just lay on the ground.
A variation on a theme … the hundreds of tiny covered buttons that
hold a bride inside her dress always give cause to a bit of drama.
If it’s getting ready pics that I love, and kid pics that I love, then
the combination of kids and getting ready must mean I’ve gone to heaven!
Getting into the dress … it’s like unwrapping the best present ever.
Pre-wedding and trash the dress shoots allow a whole lot of creative freedom. There are fewer time constraints, and the bride and groom feel relaxed and eager to try something different. This couple traipsed through the streets of Cape Town early on a Sunday morning, ending off with a tango in the Company Gardens.
How do you market yourself? I advertise on the web, mostly. My adverts are on the various market specific sites, i.e., wedding sites and kids’ sites.. I also have my various blogs (listed
below), which get me a fair bit of exposure. There is also Facebook, of course, as well as other social networking sites, such as Naymz and Linked-In, and photographic communities, such as Flickr.
I used to take out adverts in the bridal magazines, but they’re very pricy and the business I earned from them didn’t really justify the expense. Advertising doesn’t really work for photographers. It’s more about word of mouth, and so most of my business is referred business or return business – a boudoir shoot will lead to a wedding shoot, a wedding shoot to a trash the dress and then, a few years
later, the same couple will come back for pregnancy and baby pics. One boudoir shoot leads to another, as one woman will show the pics to her friend, and so on.
It’s all about relationship building. You need to, quite simply, like the people you work with. If you like them, they will like you, and the pictures you create are magic. It may be years before you see them again, but they will be back.
What type of camera do you use? Canon EOS 5D
What would you love to add to your equipment? A Canon EOS 5DII, so that I can sneak in a few video clips while I’m shooting. Watch this space … she’s coming soon! Other than that, I pretty much have all the lenses, flashes and studio kit that I need. The rest is pure ‘I just want it’ stuff!
How important is a tool like Photoshop in your work, and do you retouch at all? Photoshop is very important in my work. I am a complete Photoshop addict. Not only Photoshop, though, as there are numerous plug-ins that are very exciting to use. I don’t retouch much at all, as I don’t want my images to be a lie – if I have photographed you, you must still be recognisable to those who know you. I can’t stand those overworked images that make people look like latex mannequins. I also don’t want to presume that you would like a wrinkle or a mole removed – you might be perfectly happy with the way you look (as you should be!). I do remove dust specs, adjust exposure a little, if needed and, if the person has a blemish that is not usually part of his or her features, I remove that. I use Photoshop for creative handling, for turning the photograph into art, and for creating good- quality black and white and duotone images.
Which are your five favourite “outrageous” photographs and why? Outrageous … wow … I would love more outrageous. It’s finding the willing victims who will follow me there. One bit of wild fun was a recent trash the dress shoot. I thought the bride was going to simulate trashing the dress, but before I knew it, it was covered in paintball splotches, and ripped to shreds. I winced a bit, I must admit, but the shoot was just so much fun!
A preggie pic and another trash the dress pic that involved the cold Atlantic were also fun …
A number of years ago I had the privilege of photographing a woman while she was giving birth. I sat in the delivery room in the middle of the night for hours while she walked about, hugged the ball, held her husband, and eventually, with the help of a midwife, squeezed the baby out. The pics were all done on film, good old Kodak 3200, and so I can’t include them here. Another awesome shoot was from a helicopter with the door removed. It’s everyday work for some, I know, but it was just unbelievable for me … and I was paid to do it! We flew from the airport to Big Bay in the morning, and back again at sunset. And then there was yomping up Machu Picchu with my camera bag and all my equipment on my back. If you’ve never hiked at altitude, you wouldn’t understand, but I eventually stashed my camera bag in the bushes, and made my way to the top without a camera … so once I had made it, I couldn’t record the magnificent view! A photographer without her camera, standing at the top of the world – now that’s outrageous!
If you could be invisible- with your camera- for a day, you would… head to George Clooney’s house! An elegant, gracious, amusing and attractive man, just lounging about, reading, sipping coffee, swimming … what a photo opportunity! I would use only the available light, so window light, bedside lamp, reflected light. After that, I would zip across the world to Japan, and make my way to an onsen, a Japanese bath house. If you have read my travel blog, you will know that I wasn’t hugely comfortable when I was first introduced to the onsen, but it is a most incredible place. The Japanese are completely at ease with their nakedness. They walk from one bath to another, sit and chat while they wash and shave, scrub their children, plunge into an icy pool and dip back into a steaming hot one. I might take to the streets at night and photograph the night life – people heading to clubs, prostitutes and drug dealers doing their business, buskers and street children, boerewors vendors, lovers and fighters. And, invisible or visible, I would love to one day be ringside at a boxing match with my camera.
What advice do you have for photographers who are just starting out? Shoot, shoot, shoot. Set projects for yourself. Set yourself challenges. Stretch yourself. And get off Auto and Program mode. Think about what you want the picture to look like before you shoot, and then create that, don’t just aim your camera at something and see what the camera gives you. Keep fit and healthy – photography is physical work. Keep abreast of trends, stay interested in all things creative – music, theatre, art – as they all have an influence on your work and on what people want to see.
Where on the web can people find you?
My website: http://dhewitson.ifp3.com
My blogs: http://todayshoot.wordpress.com – musings about the day’s shoot, whatever the subject matter may have been
http://dhewitson.wordpress.com – reworkings from the travel journals I kept while travelling through Japan and Peru, as well as my recent trip to London
http://dhweddings.wordpress.com – my wedding and trash the dress shoots
Where would you love to go for a wedding shoot? Somewhere sumptuous, somewhere that has lots of velvet drapery and massive chandeliers, stone walls and spiral staircases, huge fireplaces and Persian carpets. Give me glamour!
Is there anything you’re learning to do? There is always something. At the moment I’m doing ballroom and Latin dancing and Zumba, and attending a monthly writing workshop. I am also always adding to my Photoshop and photography skills – in part because I am interested, and in part because I also teach photography, and so need to be on top of things as much as possible. Being an avid Amazon shopper and Internet surfer means that I am constantly reminded that one is never done learning.
What will you be up to in 2010? There are two things that I do every year. One is the Big Walk. I started out doing the 20 km route, upping the distance each year. I have walked the 50 km route for the last two years, using the opportunity to raise funds for charity. The other regular is NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month, aka Write a Novel in November. Each November, about 100 000 people all over the world commit to writing a 50 000 word novel in 30 days. It is a wonderfully inspiring, exciting, challenging task to set yourself. Putting together a book on my trip to Peru, as well as a long-term project of photographs of women, keep me up at night. I am also, to the bemusement of my family, smashing up perfectly fine mirrors and using the broken bits to create a mosaic on my kitchen wall.
