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11 Questions with Burgundy Blue
This is the first in a new blog series where I interview local wedding vendors that are not only incredibly good at what they do, but are also amazing people to be around.
The Q&A sessions will provide some valuable insight into some of their personalities and interests.
In this first edition I'll be interviewing Ryan and Jayna, the photography team at Burgundy Blue.
(All the amazing photos included in this blog post were taken by Burgundy Blue)
Q&A:
1. How did you get started doing photography?
Ryan - Ever since I was a young boy I found myself documenting family occasions and being the guy tinkering around with the cameras. It got to a point where I realized I could collect a fee for what I was creating. Those jobs ended up snowballing into a referral based business.
Jay - I just can't even recall a time in my life when I didn't have some kind of camera I was excited about! Growing up I wanted to capture just about everything around me and always had so much fun editing and stylizing the images in some kind of way - whatever that meant at that point in my life. Whether that meant printing the images at a local drug store and hand making a crafty frame, or as time went on, Photoshopping and beautifying the images on a computer. It all fascinated me. As I grew older, I got into interning and working for photographers I looked up to, which was a pretty great way to learn and expand my mind artistically.
2. What makes your style different than others?
We like to describe our style as timeless, dreamy, and whimsical. What we believe has set us apart is our ability to anticipate the perfect moment before it happens. That captured moment really tends to take our clients right back to whatever milestone they were celebrating. To us, that far exceeds any sort of filter you can put over an image. From there, the stylizing process seems to flow so organically.
3. What do you do in your free time?
We love to spend time with our animals! We have a dog named Romy and a cat named Lenny that bring us so many smiles and laughs. We call them our "fur kids". If we're not out at the park, the beach, or on a hike, you'll probably find us back in our cozy home making our favorite foods and sipping on wine.
4. Have you taken any fun personal pictures of your own lately?
We recently took an adventurous trip through Jay's hometown in the Black Hills of South Dakota. We had such a great time shooting fun self portraits throughout the hills - including Mount Rushmore! The wildlife and epic landscapes are truly amazing there.
5. Do you have any advice for soon to be wedding couples to help them receive better pictures?
We'd suggest booking an engagement session with your photographer to make sure that your styles and expectations mesh well prior to the big day. Also, it's not a bad idea to ask your photographer to see an entire wedding gallery from start to finish. By doing this, you truly get an idea of how your gallery would unfold. It's an easy thing to have a few GLORIOUS shots on a website but a full wedding day consists of many technical lighting challenges that not all photographers realize before it's too late. It's important to be confident in what the photographer you choose is capable and comfortable delivering to you when all is said and done!
6. What equipment do you use for events?
We are Canon shooters! We love to shoot on our DSLRs with various types of prime lenses. Prime lenses offer a quality that you just can't achieve from a zoom lens. They always tend to produce a much more cinematic quality, which we LOVE.
7. Name one venue that you love working at and why?
One of our favorite venues is Calamigos Ranch in Malibu. The light is ALWAYS perfect there and the property is laid out in such a beautiful way overall. The tall trees and buildings make for nice, even light throughout the various ceremony site options. It truly is an artistic playground!
8. Where are you based in and how far away have you travelled to for events?
The majority of our business comes through the Ventura County area. However, we chuckle at this question because we like to call ourselves "The Roamographers." We're always finding ourselves roaming and traveling to adventurous new places for our clients. Destination weddings have been a fun way for us to do what we are passionate about, explore the world, and photograph love.
9. If a kid walked up to you and asked for one good tip for taking better pictures, what would you tell him?
Hold still! Hahaha. Hmm... well, we'd probably tell them to stay driven to photograph what makes them feel ALIVE. That's what has continued to ignite our passion for photography. For us, that means capturing all the different milestones in people's lives based around love. Whether it's their engagement, wedding, maternity or family session. We LOVE capturing and growing with families through it all.
10. What's it like doing events in bad weather?
You know, it's only bad weather if you SEE it as bad weather. We love couples who make the best of whatever weather situation their day greets them with. We've had so many amazing couples who made the best of gloomy, overcast days and danced in the rain for numerous shots! Regardless of the weather, these moments are so special and that's what's most important, right?!
11. What's the most challenging moment in your career thus far?
There was a weekend where we happened to have multiple weddings on the particular Friday through Sunday. Three very BIG production weddings. We put our noses to the grindstone and muscled through it! We remember how badass we felt when Monday rolled around, knowing what we just pulled off. Very rewarding and humbling getting the opportunities to be a part of multiple amazing events in one weekend!
For more info on Burgundy Blue or to see more pictures by them, please visit these links:
