RELAXED OUTDOOR WEDDING, MONICA AND CIARAN
RELAXED OUTDOOR WEDDING
Folwark Badowo is a silent, intimate place with friendly atmosphere not so far from center of Warsaw. Surrounded by forests, fields and meadows is perfect for couples who’re looking for absolute silence and unique, intimate mood for their wedding. Not to mention about delicious food based on natural and high quality products. Couple of years back we had a pleasure to take photos here at Gosia and Blazek’s wedding. We’ve heard it was one of the first weddings in this place! What's most amazing, Gradki changed the date of their Big Day for us, can you believe it? We still can’t:) We like this place so much that we decided to organise workshops for wedding photographers here too. At that time, 2010-2011, we were Nikon Academy Poland’s lecturers and we run workshops for wedding photographers. We still can’t believe it was 8 years ago!!!
Here's Monica and Ciaran’s relaxed outdoor wedding. Thank you, dear Newlyweds! It was a pleasure to work with you, congratulations again!
Thanks also to amazing wedding planner Ania from Beautifulday and all team.
If you are looking for a wedding consultant to work with search no more. Enjoy the photos!
Love Letter from Monica and Ciarán: "Dorota and Michal,
Thank you so much for all the pictures, they really are amazing and we are so happy that we had you to record our special day. We looked at them all quickly last night together. Once again thanks a million for the work and effort to get so many great photos, we are delighted with them." Ciarán and Monica.
After last summer, which was scorching hot and busy as hell, Leica proved to be better than Fuji again. On hot days both M10, M9 and Leica Q are much more stable. They don’t freeze. They react instantaneously. After last year’s season we decided to sell all our Fuji gear and get back to Canon to go along our Leica system, which we actually used in 2010. So we’ve come full circle;)
An award for Documentary Wedding Photography
An award for Documentary Wedding Photography
Good news! Dorota has been given an award in 2017 Tri3 Photography Competition - Lens Flare / Refraction category, eight Place!
A big thank you to all the couples who have shared the best moments of their lives with us. A very special thank you goes to Justyna and Robert without whom the awarded photo wouldn’t have been taken in the first place.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Happy Hanukkah! Merry Christmas! Happy Kwanzaa! Happy Holidays to everyone! Wishing you and your family a wonderful Holiday Season and all the best for the coming year!
See you in 2018!
GARDEN MUSEUM LONDON, KATERINA AND MARCUS
Garden Museum London Wedding
Katerina and Marcus’s wedding day couldn’t have been any more beautiful. The sun was out most of the day. And even though rain did make a swift appearance, it was perfectly timed just after everyone had gone inside for the evening reception. We had a whale of a time and we feel so lucky to have met you two. You are just the sweetest couple and we wish you guys the happiest of lives together. We also want to thank you for having us! We adored your unusual venue and all the gorgeous flowers and colours everywhere.
Here are a few words from our Bride to inspire all the brides-to-be!:) Katerina, thank you for sharing this story with us!
"A wedding is all about love… and decisions. When it comes to the decisions I had to make, it helped to remember the important ones. First and foremost, it had to be the right groom (done!). Secondly, the right dress, which in my case was a piece of art made by my mum who reused lace from her own gown that had been made by her and her mum. And last but not least, the best wedding photographers. Everything else was up for discussion. Long before we settled on a venue, we had decided that Dorota and Michal were the photographers we wanted. With many loved ones traveling from 7 countries and 12 cities to celebrate with us, we wanted such a rare gathering to be captured with the photojournalistic eye. Dorota and Michal had been recommended to us by an excellent London photographer who was already booked. She said ‘I think they are the best photographers in Europe. I wish I had booked them for my own wedding.’
I am not a photographer, but I know this: our wedding photographs captured the love we hoped would unite our guests. They are photos that tell the true story of our big day, and, like all good stories, they never seem to get old. I can see us finding new dimensions to our memories every time we see them.
Thank you, Dorota and Michal. You were everywhere and you managed to flexibly fit in each moment’s circumstance. You were reliable, professional, and you unleashed all your talent and effort on our day making us feel very special, and fortunate for having found you. We love the photos, and we think we love you too.”
Bride:
Wedding gown, veil, shoe embellishment, hairstyle all by the Bride’s mother, Hui-Ling Mavroidis from concept to execution.
Lace on gown and veil reused from Hui-Ling’s own gown which she made together with her mother (the Bride’s maternal grandma) forty years ago.
WHITESMOKE EDUCATION
For photographers | Workshops
Thanks for all the questions you have sent us. We appreciate your attention and interest in us and our work. We get lots of questions on a daily basis but we are just not able to answer all of them, so from time to time we will answer FAQs. Keep them coming and we will do our best to answer them. First of all, we would love to organise a workshop in London but are simply unable to do so at the moment, as we are extremely busy with our clients. As for sharing our knowledge with others for free, we would like you to read what our very clever friend David Murray said in 2009:
‘This is something that we all fall short on. We don’t realise the value of what we do. We therefore do not see that which we do well enough to say, “Hey, I have worked hard to get to this point!” “Why would I just want to give it all away to people who have done nothing in the business, and are asking for a free hand?” This is why there are seminars and workshops. When you have been doing what we have been doing for 4, 5, 10 years, you realise that there have been a lot of ups and downs. There have been costly mistakes, and time spent on being more efficient. There is a dollar value to all that time and money!’
So please understand that. We are, however, open to organising one-to-one workshops or in our case two-to-one with anyone who is interested. Drop us a line if you want to: info[at]whitesmokestudio.com
We look forward to hearing from you!
Year in Review
Year in Review
The moment when you’re still enjoying memories of the weddings from 2016 and you suddenly realize it’s 2017 already and winter is round the corner. We’ve already started working on this year’s review. In the meantime, though, feel free to have a look at the one from last year.
2016 brought us lots of joy and satisfaction. In ISPWP’s annual report we landed on the 27th (Michal) and 51st position (Dorota). We realised how many places we visited and how much actually happened. Check out our summary below which is not really ‘Best Of,’ but rather a relaxed stroll through last year’s experiences.
WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
We got the chance to photograph a wonderfully intimate wedding in Tuscany, explore the nooks and crannies of the Spanish Granada with our couple, and have the time of our lives under the scorching sun in our beloved Portugal. And this is just a fraction of our travel experience from 2016 which began with an engagement shoot in Paris and ended with Michal taking part in a Magnum Photo workshop in Bangkok. We are still dreaming of photographing a wedding in Lisbon or an engagement shoot in New York. But all the travel we did in 2016 was great fun anyway. We haven’t made it to Island which has recently become the ultimate photo shoot destination. But who knows what 2018 has in store for us. One thing is certain – we can shoot a wedding in Italy, Portugal or other warm location every single week. We think that our love of wine, music and good food is a perfectly valid excuse. We’re not saying there are no great parties in Poland. Actually, most of last year’s awards and distinctions we received came from Polish weddings. This helped us land a few top positions. But what made us even happier was that we ended up in the TOP 20 in ISPWP contests twice in a row. Considering the number of contestants it is no mean feat. None of this would have been possible if it hadn’t been for our wonderful clients, their energy, their openness and the trust they put in us. Michal had the chance to talk about all this and other interesting aspects of our job in his interview with Nina Harbuz-Karczmarewicz on the Polish Radio One.
PORTRAITURE
This is not something that pops into your head when you think about WhiteSmoke Studio. A personal photo shoot, a corporate one, or simply portraiture. We absolutely love it and it constitutes 30 per cent of our commissions. It’s high time we thought about a website dedicated to our business clients. The reason we are mentioning it is because we have been using a Phase One DF camera with a CCD sensor in all our commissions since 2016. This ensures totally different plasticity and colour. The enhanced version of our beloved imagery from Leica M9! Of course, we also tap into the little extras we all love, for example mobile power generators or elinchrom rotalux deep octas, among others.
We nearly decided to buy a Leica SL while working on a photo shoot at Hotel Bristol in Warsaw. This time the common sense won. A pleasant side effect of that session was the fact we were included as Hotel Bristol Partners, along with other trademarks such as Tomasz Ossoliński, Decolove, Apart or Bentley.
WORKSHOPS AND CONFERENCES
Snap Photography Festival was one of last year’s most fascinating experiences for us. It is a unique event organised in Wales by Laura Babb, an incredible photographer. Around 130 photographers from all over the world stay together, party together and participate in workshops and lectures for one week. Glamping in March and a 3-hour-long speech is something one does not easily forget. Especially since we had the pleasure of working side by side with Gabe McClintock, Oli Samson, Petar Jurica or Kevin Mullins. We were also invited to a real wedding at Snap Photography Festival. One thing was sure – there was an abundance of photographers. WhiteSmoke Studio was asked to photograph the parade and cocktails. The whole experience was absolutely amazing and it inspired us to reshape our trademark workshop called ‘Life is a series of pictures.’
The main thought behind our workshops in 2016 was daring greatly. The partners of our first edition were QT Albums, LooksLikeFilm and Sucre. But we also had two special guests, Joanna Chmura and Slawomir Kasper. The latter represented Leica Camera Poland and gave a short lecture on the history of photography. We invited Joanna Chmura to collaborate with us because Dorota had taken part in her workshop based on Dr Brené Brown’s methodology called THE DARING WAY™ SHOW UP | BE SEEN | LIVE BRAVE. Joanna Chmura is a business coach and one of the two people who run THE DARING WAY™ workshops in Poland. Totally amazed by the ideas in Joanna’s workshop, Dorota decided to ask her to collaborate with us.
MAKING DREAMS COME TRUE
Numero Uno - a 7-day Magnum Photos workshop in Bangkok with two of the most inspiring Magnum photographers. We’re talking about Jacob Aue Sobol and David Alan Harvey here. If you’re not familiar with their work, we suggest you check out their personal sites: www.jacobauesobol.com www.davidalanharvey.com It was Dorota’s birthday present for Michal. Best surprise ever!
https://youtu.be/YKJeDR-tc5w. We have come to lots of conclusions after Bangkok which we’re going to make use of during our trademark workshop ‘Life is a series of pictures.
Gear Acquisition Syndrome
Yes, this is Michal, a Christmas tree man suffering from G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome). We actually both suffer from it as we keep looking for the ultimate equipment. We are pretty sure some of you are very curious about the contents of our bags. If you’ve been following us on facebook and instagram, you will have noticed that in 2016 we took most of our pictures with tiny beauties full of wonderful qualities. We’re talking about Leica Q which is an incredibly well-thought-out camera with a prime 28mm f 1.7 summilux lens, a most precise AF system and FF matrix which keeps surprising us with its colour range, even after a whole season. An ideal camera? Not exactly, although around 70 per cent of the photos in this post were taken with the camera. We still need a 35mm, a 50mm or a telephoto lens from time to time. Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to Nikon as every new model caused disappointment instead of inspiration.
However, we still think Leica Monochrome and Leica M3 are our best buddies, not to mention Leica Q. Of course, Michal is using Leica M9 and Leica M10.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST - THE DOGS!
Nothing’s changed here. We still have two dogs, a Jack Russell terrier and a Border Collie. White and Smok are our companions giving us lots of joy even on the gloomiest day.
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram if you wanna see more work .
Wedding Photography Journalist Association Awards, 2017 TRI-2
Wedding Photography Awards
Photo competitions are a mixture of good luck, the jury’s preferences and, of course, the photographer’s choice of photos. Some people claim that you don’t only have to excel at editing, but also be extremely lucky if you want to win a contest. As we all know, jury members are often faced with thousands of images that get sent in every single category. Therefore, we felt rather chuffed when Michal got two awards, the second and the twelfth place in one category, WPJA TRI-2 Creative Portrait of Groom Category, at the Wedding Photography Journalist Association Awards.
Creative Portrait of Groom
One of the images, Kuba’s portrait, was inspired by Tom Ford commercials and fashion generally. On the other hand, there’s a strong reportage story behind the other image. Mateusz broke his arm in a bike accident shortly before his wedding and this image reflects it perfectly well. ‘Of course, it didn’t just happen by pure chance,’ concluded Mateusz when he heard his portrait had won an award. Yes, we agree. We always are very meticulous in our preparations for a reportage so that we can grasp such details. Thanks a lot, Sylwia and Mateusz! Full entry dedicated to their wedding here: STORY
Here you will find the material from Kuba and Lyndon's wedding. CLICK! Thanks for an amazing cooperation.
WPJA TRI-2 Creative Portrait of Groom Category - 12th Place
WPJA TRI-2 Creative Portrait of Groom Category - 2nd Place
Documentary Wedding Photography, Sylwia and Mateusz
Documentary Wedding Photography
We're having a meeting with our couple at a cafe'. We make ourselves comfortable on the sofa ready for people watching, which can be as fascinating as photographing them. There's no way you cannot get engaged in the microcosm of a cafe' life and what happens between people, all their gestures, bold or surreptitious glances people cast at each other. Cafes are tiny ecosystems with their own rules. They are a perfect reflection of life.
When Sylwia and Mateusz enter we know it's them. They both look beautiful and laid back despite the fact that Mateusz is getting married with his arm in plaster. An accident on the bike just before the wedding would be a major crisis for many, but not for these two. After all, we want emotions and moments. They don't want any session or posing on their wedding. Our heads fill up with a million light bulbs. So the standard question follows: Is it supposed to mean you want natural-looking portraits? 'No! No portraits at all,' is the response.
The worst wedding scenario.. and maybe the best one?
It turns out that design is not the only passion we share with Sylwia and Mateusz, who are both architects, but also the love for black and white, pure emotions and classic reportage. This is ideal! When we need to work within clearly set boundaries, for example no posing, our adrenaline rush is even stronger. There is no place for tricks anymore. There is light pressure and a million questions. What if nothing happens during the wedding and they're going to just sit there and talk for 8 hours? It may be boring. Predictable. Or just common.
Keep Moving, Keep Shooting
And here comes the cafe and the best part about it: a million looks, gestures and smiles. The atmosphere, the mood, the climate. And this is what we can focus on. And here we come! #KeepMovingKeepShooting!
The wedding was awesome. Emotions were bubbling. And Sylwia and Mateusz just rocked! Congratulations once again! And big thanks for your trust. We made a fantastic team!
Here are a few words from the Bride and Groom, Sylwia and Mateusz:
Shall we say something about ourselves? We are a couple of architects. We appreciate beauty, we focus on details and we catch moments. When thinking about about our wedding, we did not have a perfect ceremony or ideal moments in mind. We wanted it to be natural. We wanted to be present in every single moment. And we knew that our choice of wedding photographers was going to be crucial since we would always go back to our wedding day through their eyes. Dorota and Michal were simply fantastic. They managed to perfectly capture all the emotions which accompanied us on the day, ranging from stress and tears to laughter, joy and affection. They both emanate brilliant energy that rubs off on everyone around. Thanks to their way of working with people we did not feel any stress during the session at all.
‘There is nothing in the world that would not have the decisive moment,’ wrote Cardinal de Retz in the 17th century. There were many moments on our wedding day that made up the most beautiful day of our lives.
Thank you again! You are fantastic!
All the best, Sylwia & Mateusz
Editing is a big part of our job. It's very demanding and time consuming. Good workflow is a key. Shootdotedit recently have written a great article full of tips - How to edit wedding photos - Check it out!
When a photographer hires another photographer, Magda and Kamil
When a photographer hires a photographer
Imagine an exam you're totally unprepared for. Or even worse - a public speech in front of thousands of strangers. Let's dig deeper - your presentation doesn't work and your notes are gone. Your anxiety levels are getting higher and higher, you're sweating like a pig and your mind goes blank. Do you know the feeling? You have two options: either give up or act upon it. What are you going to do?
Stress makes us tick
Adrenaline rush makes you think on your feet. Take a deep breath and #KeepMovingKeepShooting!, which simply means move your body and start a creating process! Do not freeze! Move your legs, move your brain, start from little details and bigger things will follow. It goes without saying that before every public performance, workshop, session or reportage we do have butterflies in our stomachs but this means we're ready to work.
The most stressful, but most motivating job is when our client happens to be a photographer
Especially when it's a wedding photographer. Trust, cooperation and understanding of what it means to work together, perception of light, more artistic freedom, no limits, more time devoted to a portrait session and so on and so forth. That’s what we get when we work for other artists.
Kamil, a Polish wedding photographer and the owner of FlatRock Studio and his wife, Magda, are artists themselves. We share the same values and expectations and that is why our cooperation proved to be plain sailing. We were able to focus on the emotions between the bride and the groom and managed to capture the mood of the day. We even got an award for Magda and Kamil's wedding! Thank you guys for such an amazingly breathtaking cooperation.
What we love the most is working with people who value cooperation with personal storytellers with an artistic twist. Don’t hesitate to drop us a line if you match the description.
