Flow posing - how to get fast, good looking poses for bride & groom

[ngoduyviet]

Tried this method this weekend, and though it looked easy let me tell you that it ain't :)

His models probably have been working for so long and know what they are doing. It took me more time than my normal posing flow, but you do get some different looking results :)

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

His live demo in Dallas at the roadtrip was with two people that he doesn't use that often, he just tells them at the front end that he is going to be hands on in posing them and they have to accept it but he did 50 poses in under 15 minutes on stage- he said that he as a large staff of shooters that work for him and he teaches every one of them this system so along with teaching and using it he said that he has done it over 1000 times so it just becomes second nature to him. He started out in the biz working for his dad who was a wedding shooter and he studied what was being done right and he tried to figure out how he could improve things and came up with this system. He was really good at the workshop and if you could ever take a full class from him it would be well worth the $$$.

[marysledd]

I didn't find the videos very helpful.

[PeteQ]

Originally Posted by marysledd

Those videos are WORTHLESS! And Mr. Gordon has some less than ethical business practices.

If you are going to toss out an allegation like that you need to be prepared to back it up. Let's hear why you think he is unethical...

[marysledd]

I'll take back what I said about the videos being worthless. I didn't find them very helpful.

Also the practice of franchising photography studios and showing brides work by another photographer - from another region (I'm just inferring that is what was happening) doesn't seem totally correct to me.

[PeteQ]

OK, you won't get an argument out of me on that. Not a practice I would do nor condone.

[stacyreeves]

With all due respect to Doug, I think flow posing is ten kinds of awful. It encourages cookie cutter wedding photography with no concern for who the bride and groom are. If a bride and groom are the type of couple that laugh a lot and act goofy and silly, putting them in some of those very serious, traditional, uber-romantic poses is a terrible idea. The bride and groom will feel awkward and won't like the photos and all their friends will see the images and say "Wow, that's not them at all." Similarly, many of those poses don't work with brides and grooms of certain heights or shapes, and are very dated and would only really look right on older couples.

It's great to have a collection of poses that you can get through quickly and remember well, but in my opinion, you should only do the same 50 poses at every wedding if you're shooting the same couple every time.

[PeteQ]

Stacy, I think like any tool, it has it's place. I don't know how many NY area weddings you are doing but I can tell you that after having been in Texas and now in NY, having the ability to pull 20+ poses out in a pinch can be a blessing. I don't think that you MUST do it every time but it's nice if you need it. Kind of like a fish-eye lens or an infrared camera. Just because you have one doesn't mean that you have to use it but sometimes it can make the difference.

It's a much much different market up here and poses like Doug's are popular and for many places like Long Island it is the norm and what they expect and ask for. And if you were to ask them about a bridal portrait session they would have no idea what the heck you are talking about.

Ah, the stories I could tell you about the "Champagne March" and the desert carts complete with fireworks...

Makes you appreciate the good ones for sure!

[stacyreeves]

Pete, I both agree and disagree. I think we both stated that it's great to have a collection of poses you can recreate quickly and easily, but you shouldn't use your entire collection at every wedding. Every photographer should have 50-60 poses that they use on a regular basis, and at each wedding/session they should pull out the 10-20 poses that fit that couple best.

Where we disagree is that these poses are popular in a certain region. The photographers I know of who are making tons of money in the Northeast don't use any of those poses, ever, and they're booking 30-40 weddings a year so obviously there are plenty of brides who want something more modern and unique. In fact I shot a wedding in Hoboken a few months ago and I'm shooting another one in upstate NY in a few months and I'm fairly certain if I attempted "flow posing" the way Doug does it at either wedding, I would not be getting many referrals. That's just not who my clients are.

Doug has a specific business model (which is, from his own admission, producing the exact same photos for every single client) and that works really well for his clients. I just want to be the voice of dissent and let people know that that's not the only way to do things.

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

He explained the reason why he has done this set up for years now. He came across so many couples that said that they did not have the time to do these poses after the nuptials and before the reception and he said that he could do it in under 20 minutes and he convinced some of his first couples that during the normal pandemonium of a wedding that nobody would miss them for that time. So he worked his technique down to where he could do the shoot in 15 minutes or even less and he does this "package" of poses in that block of time. I don't believe that he does just this at the wedding but he and his staff "includes" this since the couples do buy the shots.

As to sending someone down to check out a new market that you have no personal knowledge of the actions taken by his "spy" are maybe a bit on the edge but it's not like she was spreading rumours to put someone out of business. I've seen a lot worse done in business., one reason that I left one company was some unethical practices being done by regional upper management (upper upper management was informed by me as one of my last acts before leaving and they went balistic-heard the results from a friend who was still working there).

[klynam]

Looks like a practical, systematic, replicable technique that would have great application under certain circumstance.

"Every man is my master in something - and in that I can learn from him." Unknown

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Oh, btw when he showed this technique at the Dallas WPPI Roadshow he did NOT snap his fingers.

[KellyHay]

tag

[ChristopherCoy]

Originally Posted by marysledd

Those videos are WORTHLESS! And Mr. Gordon has some less than ethical business practices.

Ah! So you two are good friends then.....

[ChristopherCoy]

Originally Posted by marysledd

...and had one of his employees pretended to be a bride to gather information about other photographers in town.

At the very least I thought it was very tacky. He admitted to the practice at his Austin workshop in 2006 (or was it 2007).

Its only tacky because you didn't think of it first. ITS BUSINESS!!! Get over it.