Digital Wedding Forum - Wedding photography's home on the web.

Location - North Carolina
Business Name - Photography by WALTERS & WALTERS
Years in Business - Professional photographer 15 years, wedding business 7 years
Number of Posts - 1,209
Website - www.waltersandwalters.com
Blog - blog.waltersandwalters.com

DWF - Let's start off with a little bio, tell us a little bit about yourself.

JAMES- I was born and raised on the coast of North Carolina. I now live in Raliegh, NC with My Wife Meridith and our son Will.

From the time I was in the 10th grade I knew I wanted to be a photographer. I was fascinated with manipulating reality. The ability to use shadow and perspective, either freezing or smearing motion across film motivated me to experiment with the medium. I really connected with the hands on nature of the darkroom experience, and got great satisfaction from producing little photo sessions and carrying them through to the printed form. That can be a big deal when you’re 16.

I was able to talk my high school into letting me take the photography class again in my 11th grade year, and then they agreed to let me take a community college course for high school credit my senior year.

I went to college for commercial photography. I chose commercial, because it was the most likely path that would allow me to continue with my love of alteringor manipulating reality through the printed image. I liked the fact that I could beworking on big productions and collaborating with all of the other creative professionals such as stylists, designers, art directors, set builders and so on.

After seven years of just commercial photography and three years of half commercial, half wedding, our business is now 99% wedding focused with theother 1% being commercial and portrait work continued from past clients.

DWF - How did you become a wedding photographer?

JAMES - It’s funny, when I was in school and even for a time after that, a wedding> photographer was the last thing you wanted to be. The perception of weddings then, was what we all refer to as “old school” now. I never really considered it until I got a call from a photographer I had assisted while in college. He had a wedding business and his associate had just moved away and still had weddings on the books. He needed a person who could jump in.

I was more interested in helping him out of his situation than shooting the weddings. What I noticed though, was the more weddings I shot, the more creative freedom I felt. I began to realize that unlike my day job where art directors brought me a sketch of a predetermined outcome and the extent of my creativity at times was just to problem solve how to get the art director’s vision onto a piece of film; with weddings the clients simply wanted beautiful and meaningful images and I could achieve that any way I saw fit. It was quite liberating creatively, so I set out to do things I had not seen done at weddings.

My new found appreciation for weddings was coupled with the late 90s trend of wedding photography in general getting a bit more candid. This was right around the time of the big “wedding photojournalism revolution”. My style was nowhere near journalism, but really, in those days (especially in the south) people were hungry for any thing that looked cool and different.

Meridith began shooting with me in 1999 and we became an official team the next year.

DWF- Who or what inspires you as an artist?

JAMES - In the beginning I can credit Mark Seliger with a lot of the inspiration for my interest in people photography. I had his book Crazy Sexy Cool and poured over the pages loving the way that he produced an image with a concept, and typically it was a quirky concept which fit well with my personality.

More recently, I look to the folks I used to work with in the advertising field to get a sense of what’s the next big thing, and just simply to be inspired by the energy that they create within their own work. The fun is in trying to adapt those concepts into our wedding work without compromising our core style.

I can also say that there are a lot of folks right here on the DWF who challenge and inspire me to continually evolve creatively.

DWF- If we were getting married why would we book you? What makes you unique?

JAMES - We approach our work by putting our images through the filter of being classic, beautiful, sensual and meaningful. These are the standards we use in shooting, editing, and in our products and presentation. If an image doesn’t fall into one of these four categories then it’s either a formal, a grip and grin, or it doesn’t make the cut.

In speaking of the experiences that our clients have already had. They tell us that they love the fact that Meridith and I work together, and their wedding day will be illustrated from two distinctly different perspectives.

Our laid back casual approach to the photography portion of the wedding day is another thing past clients comment on. Even some of their wedding party members comment on how easy it was to be photographed.

DWF- If you had to pick a favorite "Tool of the Trade" what would it be? and why?

JAMES - Without a doubt my off camera flash is something that I could not do without at any photo shoot. I use it to create the look I want in the photo by drawing the viewer’s attention to or away from certain elements of the image.

DWF - Care to share your favorite photograph? and tell us a bit about it?

JAMES - I love infra-red. More lately than ever I find myself trying to make it work at a shoot. I like flare too.

This is another infra red image using the flash. I wanted it to look both creepy an beautiful. It's part of the whole slightly altered reality concept I enjoy creating.

Lately, I’ve gotten into more editorial and portrait work and am having a blast doing the kinds of things that the fast pace of a wedding day doesn’t typically allow.

This is an image for a fashion feature that was fun to create. I don’t tend to do a lot of PS manipulation to my images, but for this one I convinced the editor to use the three models to show five gowns. The resulting image is a combination of four images, and two wardrobe and hair changes.

I enjoy playing with shadows because even though they’re there, they’re not really tangiable so you can really play with nuance.

I just love the feel of this image.

It's fun to bring things into the camera, to get the subject involved. Not always, but when appropriate it can really add to the image.

This is from an underwater fashion series. I love the gracefulness and the beauty that the element of water provided.

From the same series, at first I was bothered by the weird reflection where the head should be, but as time has passed it has become my favorite from the set.

DWF - How about some final words to live by?

JAMES - I spent the first fourteen years of my career immersed in the world of image making; exploring style and technique, and trying to find the kinds of subject matter that inspired me. As time has passed I have recently come to realize that my time is better spent living life and being inspired by my family, friends, clients and surroundings. Then the best subject matter will find me.