My Wedding Photography Statistics & Infographics

I was editing the pictures from Anne-Claire and Farbod's wedding and I started playing around with Lightroom library filters when it hit me. I can do stats again! And pretty infographics! Pre-emptive FAQ: Why did you do this? Before wedding photography I was in grad school in biology. I loved fieldwork, numbers and pretty graphs. Wedding photography statistics combines Alex's ghost of science past and Alex now.

How did you get this data? I got these data from my most recent wedding, from both me and my second photographer. The number of images represent the number of shots that made it into the final selection of images, not the original number of shots. I used the Lightroom library filters to get the numbers and then to make the graphs I just used Excel (sorry R) and a tiny bit of Photoshop to make it prettier. Now I just want to add a disclaimer. Weddings are not all the same, and I'm sure if I did this for every wedding I shot the stats would be widely different.

Let's start by seeing which focal lengths were the most used by our zoom lenses.

Interesting that both our peaks are at the limits of our lenses. And the only focal length where we overlap, 70mm, is heavily used. Now let's see the number of pictures vs. time of day. Keep in mind again that these are the shots that made it into the final selection, not the number of shots taken during that time:

It starts off slow with the morning preparations and peaks around ceremony time. The first dip at 15:00 was when we were in the car, the second one at 19:00 was when we were setting up before the reception. We weren't slacking off! Now hover over it with your mouse to see how often flash was used vs. natural light. Again, every wedding is different, and I don't think there's usually this clear of a cut between flash and no flash. We just had amazing light during the morning, we don't want to use flash in churches, and then the reception hall was generally dark so we had to light all shots. You can refer back to my blog post about the wedding to look at the shots!

This is also pretty interesting. The % of shots by me and my second photographer. This, by the way, is right where I'd want the % to be. There are moments where the percentage is closer to 50-50, when we split up for example. At times the ratio is more skewed because I ask my second photographers to let me take the lead, to not overcrowd our bride & groom with cameras. And then during the reception dancing shots, the second photographer helps me with my off-camera flashes, which are set up only for my camera. So it's normal that there's the big dip there.

Finally let's look at the lens use distribution. This is a doughnut chart, slightly less tasty than a pie chart. This is the graph that surprised me the most. I usually shoot way more with the 50mm 1.4, and not as much with the 28mm 1.8. Pretty interesting. Also note the little 105mm 2.8. That's my macro lens, which I bring just for one shot: wedding rings!

Is this information useful in any way? Not really. This is just my idea of fun. But it could be useful actually. Let's see:

Visualizing the ratio of shots from the first vs. second photographer according to the different parts of the wedding day can reveal our strengths. I could also measure the % of shots that made it into the final selection vs. number of original shots taken. As a photographer you want to be deliberate and intentional in the shots you take, and many, when starting out, use the "spray and pray" method, which results in a very low percentage of usable shots. Now if you measure this %, you have a baseline number from which you can compare future performances. Other things include looking at your most common focal lengths, which could inform a purchase decision, or seeing when during the wedding day we're most likely going to need to change memory cards.

Bro you call these stats? Hey this is my blog no one’s looking at p-values here.

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Persian Wedding Ceremony at the Montreal Omni Hotel | AC & Farbod

You might recognize this lovely couple from our engagement session in the Old Port a few weeks ago. Anne-Claire and Farbod brought the same energy and charm for their big day. They were so in love they got married twice: a Persian wedding ceremony at the downtown Montreal Omni Hotel as well as a catholic ceremony at the St. Augustine of Canterbury Parish. Most of the big day took place at the Omni Hotel - such a great venue to work in! Both bride and groom prepared there, which makes it so much easier for wedding photographers. I love seeing the contrast between the prep rooms of the bridesmaids vs. groomsmen. The guys were blasting music and ordering room service scotch whereas the girls’ room was more quiet, although you could feel the excitement and nerves of the wedding day in the air.

Then, cute moments started happening everywhere. Each bridesmaid received letters from Anne-Claire and a really amazing gift: earrings she had custom-made from the diamonds that were previously on her engagement ring.

The groomsmen also received a cool gift: a massive hug from Farbod.

Before seeing each other the bride and groom opened letters they had written to each other. Farbod’s reaction as he was nervously holding the closed envelope in his hands: Damn it. I’m going to cry aren’t I? Shit. Fuck. I’m going to cry. Damn it. She’s going to make me cry. Shit. Hilarious and adorable.

There were so many great moments from this wedding.

Bad-ass groomsmen:

Even more bad-ass bridesmaids:

Overzealous confetti throwers:

A rap-speech: 

A Persian ceremony for the cutting of the cake that involved dancing and bribing:

And much more! The Persian ceremony had a big spread of sweets, spices, fruits and honey. Everything was explained by the wedding officiant Lily Samimi who specializes in Persian ceremonies. We not only got great insight behind the customs and traditions of the ceremonies, but also behind how Anne-Claire and Farbod met.

You know what's weird? The florists, hair stylists, venue managers, DJs, they all see glimpses of the day. But wedding photographers, we get to see everything from start to finish. We're thrown into someone else's life for a full day and as the day goes along, we meet their closest friends and family, we learn their inside jokes, we hear about how they met and their fondest memories together. By the end of the day I can't help but feel like I've known them for years. Every time I leave the reception I'm like aww I'm going to miss them. You'd think that I'd become desensitized to this by now after seeing lots of brides and grooms, but apparently not, I'm still so emotionally invested in all of my couples. Thank you again for the wonderful day, I’m so happy for you guys!

If you haven't seen it already, check out my wedding portfolio!

Bellastock Quebec: An Ephemeral Architecture Festival

I’ve just had the pleasure of participating in Bellastock Québec’s ephemeral architecture festival over the weekend. Bellastock was originally founded in France when a few architecture students decided to create a platform for experimental architecture because they felt it was lacking from their curriculum. In the original form of the festival, participants migrated to an empty field in which they built an ephemeral village out of recycled materials and lived in it for several days. Last year’s edition was similar, but for 2015, Bellastock Quebec tried something different.

The festival took place in Montreal's Pointe-St-Charles neighbourhood on Island street, which is a major entry point for cyclists and pedestrians entering the neighbourhood from the Lachine canal. Despite this traffic, Island street remains somewhat underwhelming and barren. Bellastock Québec’s mission was thus to engage with local community members and show the potential of a revitalized Island street by filling it with ephemeral structures that ranged from functional to decorative. And the kicker: if participants created something useful and were deemed acceptable by the mayor of the neighbourhood, they would remain even after the festival. Perhaps a not-so-ephemeral architecture festival after all. And so dozens of architects, urban planners, landscape designers, and like-minded DIY people (including me) showed up and camped together in a large field for 3 days.

Even this Bixi stand was reappropriated to become our shower for our stay. Hours of building with recycled materials led to creative installations that ranged from purely decorative art, to playful interactive games, to functional structures.

I much preferred the motivation behind this year’s festival. It attempts to create something useful for a community, rather than just focusing on building stuff and partying. There are still some refinements to be made to better integrate the community members in the festival, but despite this, what the Bellastock Québec team managed to accomplish in just their second year was impressive and I hope to come back for next year’s 2016 edition!

Travel Photos from Diocletian's Palace | Split, Croatia

After a 10-hour ferry departing from Italy, we arrived in Split (Croatia), a beautiful coastal city that acts as the central hub for many ferry connections in Croatia. It’s kind of the Berri-UQAM of harbors. Just a few steps away from the water is its main attraction, Diocletian’s Palace, an old palace built in the 4th century. He had it built for him to use as a retirement home actually. And now, several hundred years later, it’s filled with tourists, restaurants, apartments, and clothing stores. But despite this, you can still see and appreciate the old architecture. And everywhere you see vegetation clawing its way past worn out stones and cracks in the walls to reclaim its place. On the side of the palace, market criers promise you the juiciest plums and highest quality selfie sticks.

Navigating inside the palace is interesting. You have to venture through the little maze-like streets, avoid the occasional dead-ends, sometimes pass through restaurant terrasses to get to where you want to go, and at the same time you’re swimming in a sea of tourists. To avoid the crowds and have a chance to photograph the palace, I returned at 6AM. Calm, peaceful, and pigeons.

This is the Cathedral of Saint Domnius, the oldest Catholic cathedral in the world that has yet to require major renovations despite still being in use. I was sitting across the entrance enjoying my coffee when I spotted the first person to enter the cathedral. A few hours after she opens the gates, hundreds of visitors will be lining up to enter.

On the Northern side of the palace, the statue of the Bishop of Nin invites you to rub his toes, apparently for good luck. He also looks like he’s about to drop some sick rhymes.

If you ever go, my recommendation would be to leave the map behind and just start walking. Early, if you can. You’ll end up discovering beautiful hidden corners that are absent from all travel guides.

I've already sent out my first Postcard from Alex from Croatia! If you haven't signed up for the newsletter where I share more stories, tips and photos, make sure to do it before the next in a week! :)

Hand-Made Leather Camera Straps and More

I’ve always loved the look, feel, and smell of leather products. (Let’s ignore that it’s a weird sentence to start a blog post with.) The problem is that whenever I find a wallet or notebook that I like, there's a big logo that ruins it for me. I like sleek and minimal products. So I decided to go with the DIY-route, and after lots of pinning on Pinterest, YouTube videos, and forum scouring, I gave leatherworking a shot. It’s been over a year now and I love it! It's a slow and relaxing craft. Something manual that can keep me away from screens for hours. Now the funny thing is that 95% of the leathercraft education you get is… cowboyish? There are countless tutorials and guides for knife sheaths, gun holsters, or very ornate leather products with skulls and flowers. I’m more interested in modern leather accessories. Here are a few examples.

My very first product was this iPhone sleeve. Two simple pieces hand-stitched together.

Then I started experimenting with slightly more complex pieces and made a little roll-up pencil case.

Here's my Midori-style notebook cover with DIY notebooks inside. I love it and use it all the time. The best thing about using vegetable-tanned full-grain leather is that it's going to accumulate character with scratches and a nice patina over time. I like how nice and pretty it looks here, but in 5 years it'll be even better.

And of course - leather camera straps! More specifically, I made myself a dual-camera harness.

There’s been a resurgence with these harnesses lately after Holdfast came out with their leather version of camera harnesses. So I put my leathercraft knowledge to work and made myself a custom-fit harness (I also use it as regular belts because why not?). I’m really excited to try out these straps for a full wedding day in a few weeks! My back will be thanking me.

I’m also experimenting with other photography-related products. A photographer recently asked me to co-design a leather camera bag specifically for wedding photographers. In addition, I’m starting to design more traditional leather camera straps. Maybe I should work on an Etsy profile... I’m excited to see where this leathercraft-photography pairing goes!

Montreal Engagement Shoot in Old Port | Vespa and Balloons

I recently shot a Montreal engagement shoot in the Old Port with the dashing couple Farbod & Anne-Claire. Along with them, their Vespa and balloons!  Can we do the shoot early? Like at 5 in the morning? they had asked me.

When someone asks you if you want to start work at 5 in the morning, you usually turn around and start running away. But for photoshoots? That's the kind of thing you want. So when your clients propose it themselves, it’s music to my ears. As long as the photographer and subjects manage to wake up, it’s wonderful for a shoot. We get empty streets free of distractions, on-lookers, and cars (this was especially important for the Vespa shots). And most importantly, we have great light. It went really well, we had a great time, and I think I’ll start proposing 5AM shoots more often to clients. And if they look at me wide-eyed and ask me if I’m crazy, I’ll just laugh and say Just kidding, just kidding.

So here’s a funny thing about the balloons. You know the movie Up? I believe in it now. Two of the balloons were massive. Heavy enough to make your arms sore. (Reverse-heavy?) So we were doing the shoot, walking around in the Old Port. Eventually a lady comes up to us and tells Farbod & Anne-Claire that the number of balloons is the number of kids they’re going to have. We laugh and Farbod says That’s right! One, two, three, four, five, SIX kids! We continue on and a moment later Anne-Claire realizes. Wait. 6? We bought 7 balloons!

We couldn’t find the missing one. We look up in the sky and way in the distance, there's an orange dot. Going back in the pictures, I could tell the exact moment when it slipped away from our grasp. One frame it was there, the next, in the air. Rest in peace, massive orange balloon. Hope you landed in balloon heaven. Thanks guys for the awesome shoot. Looking forward to your wedding in a few weeks!

Montreal Artists: Marc-André Cyr

This is Marc-André Cyr, the Baker on the Go / Boulanger Itinérant. Hopping from house to house, teaching private baking workshops in Montreal, he leaves behind a trail of breadcrumbs, along with the smell of freshly baked bread in your home and a passion for breadmaking. His baking CV includes Olive & Gourmando, MELK Bar à Café, and Le Pain dans les Voiles. My first encounter with Marc-André was at the Mezzaluna cooking school, where he teaches some of the baking courses. Claudia had bought me a gift certificate for a class and I chose the Special Breads class (CHEESE BREAD!!!). He’s a funny down-to-earth guy and kept us entertained while teaching us and answering our questions. Some of us were scribbling notes frantically as there was a useful tip or trick in each sentence he was saying.

As he finished mixing the ingredients together and started the kneading process, everyone got quiet for a moment and those in the back stood up from their chairs to see better. All workshop attendees were mesmerized, staring at his deft hands to try and pick up his technique. He moved the sticky dough around quickly yet delicately, stretching the sides, folding it over itself, picking it up and laying it down at another angle, rolling it around, tucking creases, occasionally tossing a light layer of flour on the counter. The questions started flowing in and he answered all of them while his hands and arms continued the automated process. Soon enough, the sticky dough had transformed into a nice and smooth elastic ball.

OK. For my Montreal Artists series, I had always been interested in the creative process behind people’s different lines of work. I hadn’t intended in adding a BAKER to my list until I saw Marc-André making bread and as he started talking about breadmaking in a tongue-in-cheek way, saying things like bread is POETRY and this elastic ball of dough is so full of hope. I think what really fascinates me in the creative process of artists is the effortless familiarity in their movements and the connection they have with their tools.

When I eventually contacted Marc-André, he was friendly and enthusiastic about the collaboration. I showed up at his house, we started chatting. He happened to be making bread while I happened to be taking pictures. Since Jacques and his hammer, I’ve been curious about which object these creatives feel most connected to. Can you guess what Marc’s favourite baking tool is? You can see it in this picture:

It’s neither of the dough scrapers, it’s not the massive rolled up bag of flour, it’s not the funny-looking whisk thing (although he does love it). It’s the solid maple wood table he’s working on. He had a woodworker custom-build it 20 years ago and it’s still going strong.

So let’s leave Marc at his table as he waits for the dough to rise (I like to think that this is what all bakers look like while they wait for the dough to rise, staring in the distance, pondering the meaning of life and yeast).

If you know someone who loves to bake and whose birthday is coming up, get a group of people together and have the Baker on the Go come teach a private workshop as a gift. I think it's a nice, different and creative gift, and everyone would have a really fun experience. Aaaand... you might also hear more about Marc-André as there's a special project in the works being cooked up!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned by subscribing to Postcards from Alex for more!

Freelance Photography for McGill News

Five years ago, during my biology field course in Mont St-Hilaire, I was hiking with Alice and Sophie when we came across a little stream and decided to look for red back salamanders. We found a few, I took some pictures. That moment would lead to five years of freelance photography for the alumni magazine McGill News! A funny thing about this picture by the way is that I didn’t own a macro lens at that time, so to get close to the salamander, I used this weird technique where I took the lens off of my camera and took a picture while holding the lens in the air backwards.

When McGill News contacted my biology professor for pictures from his classes, my pictures were brought up, and I started a conversation with Daniel McCabe, the editor. He used that salamander picture in an article about field courses at McGill University and ever since, he’s been hiring me for occasional freelance photography assignments. They vary from pictures of the campus to portraits of professors. There was even an article where they interviewed me about my biology research and featured my photography at the same time (Out of the classroom and into the rainforest).

What I love most about these assignments is that I get to photograph interesting people. Here are a few shots I took this year on assignment.

I was sent to photograph Allan Downey, a new professor in the indigenous studies department and member of the Nak’azdli First Nation. He researches (and plays) lacrosse and studies its history and role in indigenous culture.

Then I met Kevin Petrecca, the chief of neurosurgery at the Montreal Neurological Institute. He was featured in the magazine after having developed a probe that can precisely detect cancer cells in the brain.

And my favourite assignment so far - I got to join one of the Iberian food tours of Mélissa Simard, a McGill alumni. You may have read my previous post about Mélissa here.

Something I didn't expect to happen is that this work for McGill News led to other freelance photography jobs within McGill. I’ll share more in the future, but I want to highlight one particular exciting project that I may photograph. It’s essentially what I did for the Santropol Roulant portraits, but for the ~100 staff members and professors of McGill's Macdonald Campus. I really hope it works out as I’d love to take on the challenge!

Stay tuned for more! Also, did you know that for every email you receive when you sign up for Postcards from Alex, a war is prevented? Think about doing good for this world. Think about it.

Staff Portraits for the Santropol Roulant

I’ve already expressed my love for the Santropol Roulant and their team. If you’re not familiar with this Montreal food-community organization, make sure you read my first post about them! Needless to say I was thrilled to have the opportunity to take their new staff portraits. Giddy with excitement! I had actually been wanting to do this for over a year. I wanted to create something more visually stimulating than just headshots of the entire staff on a same sterile background. Usually what comes to mind when people think of staff portraits are typical corporate headshots. Suits, ties, folded arms. That’s like the opposite of the Santropol Roulant. To showcase the many facets of their vibrant organization as well as its the physical space, I photographed most staff members in a space that is tied to what they do.

So Sam is in the trailer full of veggies from the Santropol farms in Senneville, Noémie is about to get her hands dirty in the rooftop garden, Jeremie, with his polka dot apron is ready to manage a kitchen full of volunteers, and Kai is greeting customers at the pop-up market with his big smile.

To create these wider environmental portraits, I only used my 28mm and 50mm lenses. As much as I love the 85mm, it stayed in my bag. I wouldn't have had enough space to back up and include the environment in the shot. Here’s how I handled lighting: for outdoor portraits, if the sun was out, I would either shoot backlit or find a spot where the subject and the background were in the shade. For overcast days, I wasn't restricted as much and I used a reflector. For most indoor shots, I had my flash in a Photek Softlighter supported by the Manfrotto Nano light stand. I love this portable studio kit! It’s lightweight, quick to set up, and has a small footprint. The staff members are as busy as the bees in their rooftop hive, so staying out of the way and working fast was essential. I was able to work around their schedules and only required a minute per person on average. And hey do you need new staff portraits where you work? Show these pictures to your boss and wink a few times.

This Thursday (July 16th), the Santropol Roulant is celebrating their 20th anniversary. They'll be closing the street off, playing music, hosting workshops on different topics and there will also be an Iron Chef food competition where we'll be the judges. Read more about it here. Come join the fun, I'll be there taking pictures!

As a side note I’ve just launched my second Postcard from Alex yesterday! If you’re not subscribed yet make sure to check it out to see more photos, stories and photography tips! Talk to you soon.

Engagement Session in Montreal's Old Port and in the studio

I recently had a fun engagement session in Montreal’s Old Port and in my studio with Sandra & Jimmy. They’re an adorable couple. Let me tell you a bit more about Sandra - she was essentially the catalyst behind the resurgence of my wedding photography.    I had taken a break from weddings during my Master’s to focus on science and electric fish (if you just thought wait what?, you can read more about my past research and life here). So I had removed my wedding portfolio and was declining all wedding photography requests. The reason behind this was logistics - I never knew whether I’d be in Panama for research or in Montreal, and I couldn’t secure any dates with certainty. Part of it was also time. With the multiple deadlines for my thesis submission and graduation process, I had little time to focus on photography or meeting clients. When I finally submitted my thesis, before I even had time to put any wedding portfolio on my website, Sandra contacted me. Her emails were always full of enthusiasm and they got me really excited to start shooting weddings again.

One funny moment during our email exchange: when I bring up to clients the fact that I have a contract with me for the wedding booking process, I try not to scare them. I usually assure them that it’s not a 30-page verbose law jargon document in 8pt, so I delicately include some (perhaps slightly patronizing) comments like “Don’t worry! It’s short and readable :)”. To which Sandra replied “We are both lawyers”. Whoops hahaha. So Jimmy & Sandra are both lawyers indeed, and that fact is very important about them. It’s a crucial part of their origin story. They met each other in the court room on opposing sides and fell in love. Is someone in Hollywood reading this? This is movie-material!

The engagement session in Montreal's Old Port was great. It was one of the real summer days we've had this year. So that ice cream cone was well-deserved. I’m extremely excited for their wedding this fall. Somehow I’ve found myself speaking French with Jimmy and English with Sandra, which makes giving direction quite interesting. Come back in late September to see the results! :)

In the meantime, if you want more stories, photos, and photography tips, join the fun at Postcards from Alex!