Wedding Wednesday

SmugMug
SmugMug
Published in
6 min readMay 15, 2019

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Featured Photographer: Ivan Makarov

Jessica + Shapor, Weddings by Ivan

Ivan Makarov is a San Jose based wedding photographer. His love of photography evolved with the birth of his children, which led him to experiment with different cameras, styles, and techniques. He got his start in wedding photography at the request of a friend, and has since developed a beautiful and characteristic way of capturing a couples’ special day.

How did you get started in wedding photography, and why did you choose it as a genre as opposed to other forms of photography?

I stumbled into this role by accident. When I got my first DSLR camera over a decade ago, I was shooting a lot of nature photography which I was putting up online. A friend of mine saw those and one day she asked if I could travel to shoot her wedding. I don’t know to this day why she thought that nature photography could also translate into wedding photography; but armed with a lot of rented equipment, I flew to North Carolina, shaking the whole way there. Somehow I got through it, and she liked the pictures enough that she referred me to her friends and it snowballed from there. I still get most of my clients through referrals and now shoot 5–6 weddings a year.

Felicite + Mike, Weddings by Ivan

How did you go about building your business when you first started, and what was the most effective tactic you’ve found?

For years I didn’t even have a website — I just had a PDF I sent to potential clients that had my pricing information and a short selection of images. I am still not sharing any of my wedding work on social media, but I think a recommendations and referrals from happy brides has the highest conversion rate — and these are always fun to shoot because I may already know some people in the wedding party.

Must have gear/accessory for a day of weddings?

My #1 most important accessory is Lululemon’s ABC Pant Classic pants. They look like dressy pants so I can wear with a jacket or even a shirt and a tie, but they’re so light and stretchy, I can easily go to the gym in them. I do a lot of squatting while shooting a wedding so I don’t get in the way of other guests and it’s so much easier when wearing those. I have yet to rip a pair, as they’re very well made. I have however, have ripped more than one set of cheaper dress pants, which isn’t ever fun, especially if it happens early during a wedding day.

Do you accept every job you are offered? Why or why not?

If we both agree on my approach to shooting a wedding (mostly documentary style), and the fees, yes! But it’s critical that we’re on the same page about both.

Lucia and her father, Weddings by Ivan

What is your preferred camera/shooting style for weddings, and why?

I shoot primarily with Leica equipment because I love the quality of files that camera system and its amazing lenses produce, and of its form factor. People tend to feel more comfortable in front of smaller cameras too especially if they look like old school cameras, and I can also blend in with the crowd more, compared to when I used to shoot with big SLRs that have more of a paparazzi feel to them. Rangefinder systems offer a different kind of photography experience, and I can shoot with them all day.

Jessica + Shapor, Weddings by Ivan

What are the top 3 things you wish your clients would ask?

I always tell my clients who are deciding between several photographers to ask all photographers they are interviewing to show them sample galleries of the full wedding sets they deliver to clients. One can always find good 10–20 photos for a portfolio, but it’s important the couple sees what the whole 400–600 finished images gallery may look like — and that’s where I think you may see biggest differences between photographers.

I also always ask them to tell me if there are certain parts of the wedding they want to make sure we capture. Things like decorations they created with their own hands. I once had a bride that spent two years hand creating every little piece of the wedding decor — from table clothes to every little sign she painted on her own — so it was useful for me to know this and take a lot of pictures of everything in that setting and in that beautiful wedding day light. Or, it could be a special dance the wedding party performs for the bride and groom which they spent months choreographing. I want to make sure I know the things that matter most to the client.

Lastly, I’ve been to over 100 weddings now, and can always offer tips on what to make it more interesting for the guests — fun games I saw, creative decorations involving photography, or the order of events that would optimize the light we’ll be shooting in. Most of my clients have never been married before, but I have plenty of things I saw which I really liked before and can offer some ideas.

What is the best advice you could give to someone who is considering wedding photography as a business option?

Decide on the style and approach you want to shoot and practice that style in other situations so you have plenty of confidence when the wedding is in full swing. For me, I shoot my family a lot — mostly candid pictures of my young kids who are very unpredictable, (and fast-moving) and I also do street photography. All these help me get better at the wedding photography and vice versa. If you decide your style is more of a portraiture in nature, where you direct your clients a lot, get into portrait photography so you know how to work best with people in that style. If you want to shoot weddings with a film camera, shoot film every day. I see weddings as a game day. When you get to put all you’ve learned and trained for in the past to a real test. It’s not a time to learn, but a time to perform and the more you do that type of photography in real life, the more comfortable you’ll feel on a wedding day.

Ashley + Alex, Weddings by Ivan

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