Winter is cold, grey, wet and doesn’t really make you happy as a photographer if you are living in the midlands and not in the mountains of Switzerland. But eventually it’s giving you this golden light on a wonderful sunny day…

It was a busy day two weeks ago when I got a phone call and didn’t have time to pick up the phone immediately. Later checking my voice mail I heard a familiar voice. It was Franziska.

Franziska is the mother of Lea, the baby I photographed in early 2009. And as I guessed now, she wanted to ask me if I would like to photograph the newest family member, Aline. Of course I was very happy and curious to meet Aline! It’s always a wonderful thing if you don’t meet a family only once, but have the chance to accompany them for a longer time. No matter if it’s for a wedding or for family pictures.

Aline has now about the same age than Lea had when I photographed her. Though she’s a lot calmer than her sister. But that’s OK for the photographer as it makes focusing a bit easier ;-) Aline did great and had a lot of power before she finally got tired. We spent a wonderful morning together.

It’s Saturday night. There’s laughter in the air and the chiming noise of glasses. You can feel the happiness and the excitement of the people. Some of the guests took the opportunity to dust off their evening gowns or bow-ties. It’s time to celebrate. It’s not a celebration of two joining families. Tonight is different.

When I’m not photographing a wedding I love to capture other events for business clients. Although the 50 years anniversary of an engineering company (F. Preisig AG) is pretty different from a wedding on one hand, it is pretty similar on the other hand. It’s a gathering of people coming together and having a good time. It challenges the photographer with the same difficulties of changing light (and especially very low light), speeches, entertainment acts (Lapsus) and causes the same physical fatigue. Only the bride and groom are missing :) Here’s an image from yesterday’s assignment.

It’s this time of the year again. December. Christmas coming soon. Time to spend with your family and friends. Time for traditions.

One tradition I started last year is to invite my wedding photographer friends from all over Switzerland for our annual Christmas dinner in Berne – the Wedding Crashers Switzerland Xmas Splash ‘10. We spent a wonderful evening at the restaurant Altes Tramdepot Bern with good food, some drinks and a fun little Pocketbooth app on our iPhones ;-) The freshly baked cupcakes we did with the Cookie Chicks Jeanine, Nadja and Karin at the pre-event were delicious and so were the home-made roasted almonds from Stephanie - yummy! I’m very happy to see the network and friendships grow. It has been a great year, thanks ya’ll!

In the picture (or not), in order of appearance: Nadja Oeler, Andreas Feusi, Philippe Wiget, Richard Overtoom, Katharina Wernli, Urs Anderegg, Ruggero De Pellegrini, Tobias Schmid, Daniel Daeppen, Stephanie Greter, Karin Näf, Jeanine Linder, Colette Dewan, Karin Vonow, Ildiko Varga, Daniel Knecht, Ilsuk Sun, Matthew Anderson

More to come.

After a (long) while of sweating Jannis finally gave up and went to sleep. Now it was getting at least a little bit easier for the photographer and I was able to capture my favorite image of the day.

Welcome to the world, Jannis!

I can’t wait for this terrific wedding! Thanks for your trust and your friendship, Pia & Christopher!

Just a quick post of yesterday’s baby session with lovely Andrin. Being 4 weeks old he was hungry during the whole shoot and after a while of eating and modeling for the photographer he went into sleep mode :-) Thanks for sharing some time with me, Andrin. Welcome to the world!

Eva Longoria and Tony Parker, Paris 2007. Copyright Bob & Dawn Davis (www.bobanddawndavis.com)

Being a professional wedding photographer doesn’t only mean to use professional photo equipment and to have a backup plan. Which is important, though. But it also means to really specialize in weddings and to have a lot of experience. Wedding photography is very different from other fields of photography. Fashion or commercial photography has other rules and needs other skills. And even a great press photographer doesn’t necessarily have to be a great wedding photographer, even if both work in the documentary field of photography.

That said, continuing education is very important and another thing that separates the men from the boys in the wedding photography field. I personally like to travel and attend workshops with the best wedding photographers worldwide. It not only gives me the opportunity to learn from the best, but also to meet new people in other countries that share the same passion than I do. I would say if you attend a workshop the networking part is as important than to learn technical stuff. In the last years I have traveled several times to London, to Toronto, Atlanta and New York to learn and meet great people.

As much as I enjoy it to get further education and explore a new city or country at the same time, not everyone has the means to do so. It takes a lot of time and money. That’s why I thought why not bring the world’s best wedding photographers to Switzerland? To teach us and to get the best knowledge available. Combine this with networking with a lot of other swiss wedding photographers you might have heard of but never met. I’m sure this will have a big impact on our industry over here. That’s the boost we need.

With this ideas in mind I partnered with Light + Byte in Zurich and it was a special pleasure for me that I could win my friends Bob & Dawn Davis from Chicago for the first workshop. They don’t only belong to the best wedding photographers worldwide, but especially are just very nice people and great family guys. Despite their success and fame they are still down to earth and always have the time to help. Even if it’s just an unimportant swiss wedding photographer asking some silly questions :-) Thanks for your friendship and for joining the passion for this adventure, Bob & Dawn!

Details and registration: http://www.lb-ag.ch/weddingworkshop2010

Here is the original media release in German:

Exklusiver Workshop mit Celebrity-Fotografenpaar Bob & Dawn Davis aus Chicago

Zweitägiger Workshop zum Thema Hochzeitsfotografie am 28. und 29. März 2010 in Zürich

ZÜRICH, 8. März 2010 – Nur für einen einzigen Workshop kommt das US-Fotografenpaar Bob & Dawn Davis nach Europa und wird auch in Zürich sein Publikum zu begeistern wissen. Die beiden Amerikaner gehören längst zu den Weltbesten im Hochzeitsbusiness und dürfen Eva Longoria, Salma Hayek oder auch Oprah Winfrey zu ihren Kunden zählen.

Spezialgebiet Hochzeitsfotografie

Die Hochzeitsfotografie stellt ein sehr anspruchsvolles, aber oftmals unterschätztes Spezialgebiet der Fotografie dar. Erstmals findet jetzt in der Schweiz ein mehrtägiger Workshop speziell für Hochzeitsfotografen statt. Ganz nach dem Motto „learn from the best“ bietet sich den Teilnehmenden die einmalige Gelegenheit von der jahrelangen Erfahrung dieser beiden aussergewöhnlichen Profis zu profitieren.

Einzigartiges Programm

Das Programm wurde von Bob & Dawn speziell für diesen Workshop zusammengestellt. Die beiden Tage sind inhaltlich so aufgebaut, dass sie entweder zusammen oder auch einzeln besucht werden können. In den zwei Tagen gehen Bob & Dawn auf sämtliche Aspekte des Business ein. Vom Schaffen des perfekten Lichts in jeder Situation, Fotografieren bei schlechtem Wetter über die Vorbereitungen, den digitalen Workflow, die Postproduktion bis zur Gestaltung des Albums, Marketing und Branding werden keine Fragen offen gelassen.

Der Workshop richtet sich an Hochzeitsfotografen jeder Stufe, Anfänger wie auch Fortgeschrittene, und wird in Englisch durchgeführt!

Internationales Publikum

Mit Teilnehmenden aus der Schweiz, aber auch aus Deutschland, Holland und den USA bietet der Workshop ausserdem die perfekte Gelegenheit mit Hochzeitsfotografen aus aller Welt Kontakte zu knüpfen und sich auszutauschen.

Der Workshop wird von Light + Byte AG in Zusammenarbeit mit Daniel Zihlmann (Internationaler Hochzeitsfotograf / WCS – Wedding Crashers Switzerland) organisiert.

Datum

28. und 29. März 2010

Today I’d like to introduce Nicola Tristan to you! He was born just before Christmas and is the younger brother of Fiorello, I photographed about one year ago (see this blog post). It was a special pleasure for me to meet the parents again and especially Fiorello who has grown a lot in the meantime. I’m very thankful for their trust to call me again to also photograph their youngest son. It’s a sad story that shortly after the baby session with Fiorello last year it was found that he suffers from a serious disease. I was thinking a lot about this since his mum told me back then. I was really amazed to see now how everything has grown, their family, their love and Fiorello. I wish them all the strengh they need in difficult times, and a lot of love and wonderful moments with their family.