Rangefinder Magazine
March 2005

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Jeffrey & Julia Woods: Keeping It Real by Michelle Perkins

For Jeffrey and Julia Woods, wedding photography is all about being real. While many photographers design their wedding-day coverage to document the “fantasy” of a once-in-a-lifetime event, Jeffrey and Julia look for ways to capture a broader view, showing what’s important to the bride and groom in their everyday lives and what makes their relationship special. The result is wedding photography that is highly personalized and meaningful—to both the couple and the photographers.

Creating such work relies on the Woods’ ability to establish a strong personal relationship with each bride and groom, relationships they regard so highly that they have trouble referring to past couples as “clients”—they’re more like friends. Says Julia, “We work hard at getting to know the couple.” In fact, her first question to them is not about photography or their wedding—it’s about how they met and how their love story began. “I give the couple a chance, right from the start, to learn that our business is about them and who they are,” says Julia.

Gathering this information helps Jeffrey and Julia plan “miniature dates” for the wedding day. “We might go back to where they met, or we might find out their favorite thing is playing in the park with their dog, or maybe the thing they look forward to all week is that they do the grocery shopping together on Thursday nights,” says Julia. “Then, we incorporate these things into their photos. We tell them, ‘Forget we’re here.’ We allow them to be who they are and enjoy the part of their relationship that made them fall in love. As a result, when the couple sees the images, they don’t say, ‘Oh, I like that one.’ Instead, she’s remembering what her husband said to her at that moment, and he’s remembering what made her laugh. We capture the beauty of their true relationship instead of trying to create this façade of making them look intimately romantic when that may not be the reality of what they love about each other.”

Images with an editorial flair are sure to please brides who are fans of fashion-oriented wedding magazines.	The pure joy on this bride’s face lights up a simple, spontaneous image.	An eagle’s-eye view was used to create a highly graphic image that captures the guys just being guys.

These miniature dates aren’t just for the bride and groom, either. Jeffrey and Julia also talk with the couple about their relationships with the people in their bridal party and family, then they plan stops on their photo excursion to capture the fun of these relationships. Often, they visit as many as four or five locations—all in the name of creating images that are real and personal to the people involved. “As artists, there are photographic opportunities everywhere,” says Julia. “So many times we limit ourselves to the locations the bride and groom have chosen for their guests—the church and the reception hall. But we have found such life and excitement in thinking completely outside the norm and capturing images that mean something to each one of our clients.”

The couple’s style appeals strongly to young, upscale brides. “I think we’re going after what I call the ‘MTV bride,’” laughs Jeffrey. “Today’s brides know what they want, and they don’t really want to be bossed around by the photographer. They want freedom on their wedding day, and Julia and I allow that.” Adds Julia, “A groom told us the other day that he felt like they were making their own reality TV show! And that’s what we want. We want it to be about them and who they are.” Jeffrey notes, “We’re not afraid to get in there and mix it up and give them some direction, but then we step back and let them have that moment for themselves.”

Jeffrey and Julia have found that bringing out their subjects’ true personalities is easiest when they, as photographers, are also just being themselves and making the most of their individual talents. “We have really worked at using our gifts and talents to create the style we have,” says Julia. “For instance, Jeff is extremely trendy, and we’ve allowed that to come out in the work he does. It’s not something he has to work at, he’s just automatically that way. In high school, I was named ‘Biggest Spaz’—I’m a very crazy kind of a person, and we use that to our advantage. We just allow that to come out. We’re who we are, and we’re not trying to be something that another photographer has found works for them.”

Married for 13 years and parents of four, their own relationship is also a strength they draw on, working as a team in all of their endeavors. “We work hard on enabling each other to become better, in our business and as artists,” says Julia. Adds Jeffrey, “I really stay focused and in the zone. But Julia—she’s bubbly and the life of the party, so we feed off each other.” The couple once tried to do weddings separately to generate more income but soon realized it didn’t work. “I saw Jeff’s work missing in my images, and he saw my shots missing in his,” says Julia. “We decided it wasn’t about the money,” she says. “It was about enjoying the work and giving our clients the best we could offer. Together it was a better product than separate.”

When you get the bridal party to jump, it helps if there are a couple of professional stuntmen in the group. The groom is actually jumping over the bride!	Engagement sessions are planned for locations that are meaningful to the couple.	Love isn’t just about fancy gowns and diamond rings—it’s also about everyday pleasures. This couple looks forward to their weekly grocery shopping trip together, so Jeffrey and Julia planned a quick photo excursion for them on their wedding day.

The good time they have together as a couple is also something that strongly impacts their photography. “Julia and I have a fun relationship—we’re bubbly and happy,” notes Jeffrey. “We let the bridal parties see that, and I think they feed off it.” In fact, says Julia, “So many brides come back and say, ‘My bridal party can’t stop telling me that the most fun they had on the day of the wedding was the picture time.’ They’re not used to that—they’re used to the pictures being the part they dread the most.” Adds Jeffrey, “You have to know how to knock down those walls. We’re really adamant about them having fun. If they want to go have a beer or smoke a cigarette, we let them—whatever it takes for them to relax so we can get some great images.”

As a result of the memorable experiences they create, Jeffrey and Julia draw clients to the studio almost exclusively through word of mouth and personal references—and they keep their wedding clients coming back for portraits as their families grow. “The best clients are the ones that keep coming back, and this is where the word of mouth starts,” says Jeffrey. They quickly note, however, that building clients for life isn’t just important for them professionally; as with everything else in their business, it’s also important to them personally. “We build a relationship with these people and invest so much passion and energy into the story we capture for them,” says Julia, “that we want to be able to capture the rest of their lives for them.”

By honestly exploring and nurturing their personal gifts and talents, Jeffrey and Julia have discovered that getting beneath the surface of things usually reveals more beauty than any elegantly crafted façade. “When it comes from your heart, it unfolds into so much more than you ever knew it could,” says Julia. “I’m just thankful we’ve allowed those things to come out in us and allowed people to have an awesome opportunity that they never forget, and to create memories with their friends. We have the opportunity to capture that and to create images they’ll cherish forever. It means as much to us as it means to them.” Visit the Woods’ web site at www.jwweddinglife.com/.

Michelle Perkins is a professional writer, designer and image retoucher. She has written for PC Photo and is the author of Beginner’s Guide to Adobe Photoshop and Traditional Photographic Techniques with Adobe Photoshop (both from Amherst Media).