Paul Johnson Wedding Photography - Profile
An insight into the style of Paul Johson, award winning contemporary wedding photographer.
Paul Johnson Photographer LMPA. I established my business in the early 90 shooting weddings in and around West Sussex. I have lived in East Grinstead since I was very young and have stayed in East Grinstead and now have a 60sq mtr studio where I work from as a Sussex wedding photographer and ortrait photographer. This is where I invite my future clients to come and see my work and exhibits in my studio.
I started off in the 90s shooting what was classed as traditional wedding photography, all very posed by today standards,, all colour and shooting on Bronika medium format cameras, by the mid 90s I introduced black & white photography shooting on Canon 1Vs so I could introduce a documentary style to compliment the traditional posed photos taken in the Broni.
Since becoming a wedding photographer I have attended many seminars and workshops from photographers from all corners o the globe. I have gained a great deal of knowledge and experience over the past 20 plus years of my career as a wedding photographer and approximately photographed 1500 weddings to date. I have always believed that education and practice is what sets you free as photographer creatively as the more skills you acquire you become more unique in what you do as you kind of pick and choose the techniques that suit you style and directions.
I first started shooting digital in 2003 when Canon introduced their first professional level camera the EOS 1D, and at an investment of £5500 for each body plus the fact you need two cameras just in case of breakdown that was a big investment and at a only 4.5 megapixel cameras. Today’s mobile phones have more megapixels. LOL
I have continued to educate myself and have in the last few years attended two week long workshops with the guru photographer Yervant from Australia and Jerry Ghionis also from Australia attending his one week workshop in London. I have introduced aspects of what I gleaned from these workshops in to my work. These workshops are a big investment for any photographer as the costs can easily be in excess of £2000 for a weeklong workshop for the delegate but they pass on a wealth of knowledge and my photography went from strength to strength and have in the last couple of years won many awards. My first award was in 2008 for Master Photographers Assoc. Contemporary wedding photographer of the year for the South East. This was a real boost and recognition for the hard work I had put in to making my work stand out as being amongst the best. I then went on to win numerous awards from the SWPP monthly competitions and won in 2010 MPA Contemporary wedding photographer of the year and classical wedding photographer of the year for the South East Region. My Contemporary Wedding image went on to win a Gold award in the MPA nationals in 2010 being of only 3 photographers in the whole of the UK to be awarded a Gold in that category.
I have an undying enthusiasm and interest in photography and still today love to experiment and try new things. This keeps my work fresh and always progressing to achieve greater images every year. Because I have studied reportage photography for weddings, classical wedding photography and contemporary wedding photography I have skill set that most photographers can’t exceed and hence winning various categories in the photo competitions. In 2009 I won pictorial and landscape photographer of the in the MPA regional awards for the South East. I class myself as a very versatile photographer and rather than shoot the same for every couple I way up my subjects as to their personalities and shoot what I perceive is best suited to them, their styles and look and you will see this clearly in the final albums I produce as no two albums are the same; each a reflection of the couple. It really is an art when you get to this level of skill and the aesthetics of the wedding I find so inspiring and joy to be part of.
My latest techniques I have been bringing to the weddings I shoot is a combination of in camera and post editing in Photoshop to bring about a style and look very few can produce. At the capture stage I am using multiple off camera flashes to create a cinematic look to the photography. About 2 years ago Pocket Wizard from the US brought out a new device that enables one to use high speed flash sinc with off camera flash, and I place the Canon 580s in a Lastolite Ezybox to create a beautiful quality of diffused light, perfect for lighting the bride and groom. Because I am also a studio photographer shooting portraits I am bringing my skills from the studio to weddings and then finally processing to give an HDR look to the photos that I shoot in this way. Using the flash at weddings in this way brings about a whole new look to the work and makes me different which has always been mission.
I first started using Photoshop in the late 90s and have gained the many skills that allow me to create the photographs that have my signature look as every artistic image we create will have been edited and sometimes we can spend up to half hour or more on one photo perfecting and crafting the final image.
I love to travel to new places as well as covering previous wedding venues, some of my favourites that spring to mind are, Buxted Park in Sussex, Alexander House Hotel in Sussex, Ashdown Park Hotel in Sussex, Leeds Castle in Kent, The Grove, Cliveden House in Berkshire, The Sculpture Gallery at Woburn Abbey.
For more information regarding the services of Paul Johnson Photography, please call 01342 317000 for a no obligation quote and an informal discussion regarding your wedding photography needs.