Rangefinder Magazine
April 2006

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Bruce Hamilton Dorn & Maura Dutra Peter Skinner
iDC Photography Infuses a Touch of Hollywood Into Wedding Photography

© Bruce Hamilton Dorn

Every now and then an exciting new wave of stylistic images ripples through the community of wedding photography. The recent offerings of a relative newcomer to the field, iDC Photography of Prescott, Arizona, could very well be a prelude to a trend-setting surge of creativity from the two talented principals of this studio.

And don’t be fooled by the “relative newcomer” bit either. Bruce Hamilton Dorn and his wife, Maura Dutra, offer a multitude of talents and experience based on many years in the competitive worlds of photojournalism, editorial and advertising photography; commercial film directing and production; film animation; and graphic design. So, when they walk onto the “set” of a wedding shoot, it really is lights, cameras, action! All the while, however, they know this is a one-time event with few chances for retakes. A wedding might be a smaller-budget affair than a Hollywood film, but it’s just as serious an event for all concerned. And that’s how iDC Photography approaches it, albeit in a fun kind of way. Hold that “fun kind of way” thought—we’ll address it further along.

© Bruce Hamilton Dorn

First, a brief recap of the work environment in which Bruce plied his craft includes about 20 years of film production in Hollywood. Prior to that he had been a cameraman, director and creative director for the biggest digital effects house in Hollywood. Before that, he honed his storytelling talents as a fashion shooter in New York and Paris. Bruce explains, “I bailed from the fashion biz—too bitchy for me—and hit up some magazines for editorial work.” He became a globe-trotting editorial photographer covering presidential campaigns, creating portraits of Fortune 500 executives and completing myriad assignments for United Press International, People, Vogue, Mademoiselle, Money and Business Week. Carving a niche in the advertising industry was the next step, a period during which he collected numerous major industry awards, including Gold Medals from the New York, Chicago and Los Angeles Art Directors’ clubs.

Entry into the world of motion pictures came in the early 1980s, when the director of a production company called to see if Bruce, whose career as an advertising shooter was well established, was also a motion picture cameraman. “I stretched the truth to the snapping point with the simple utterance of the word, ‘Sure,’ and spent the next three days in frantic research. I managed to bluff my way through the day quite well and soon added the words ‘action!’ and ‘cut!’ to my vocabulary,” he says.

© Bruce Hamilton Dorn

Presence of his efforts in the finals of the Clio Advertising Awards brought Bruce’s work to the attention of the biggest digital effects house in Hollywood and brought a subsequent job offer. “A few huge projects later, I was inducted into the Directors Guild of America and became the creative director of the company as well. I believe that was in 1984. Luck favors the prepared, and things just got better from there. I spun off to become Bruce Dorn Films in 1987,” he says.

From that time until about two years ago, Bruce Dorn Films created innumerable advertising films for a who’s who of clients, but eventually the hectic pace and relentless demands of Hollywood were the catalysts for a change of lifestyle and environment for Bruce and Maura.

“Creative types in Hollywood have a short shelf life—usually about five years before the ‘new’ wears off—but I did 20 before I grew weary of the pace. A move to the country to create personal works has found us just as busy as ever. Giant paychecks have been replaced with smaller ones, but we get a lot more heartfelt hugs these days—a fair trade, we think,” Bruce explains. Superbly complementing Bruce’s storytelling photographic abilities are the visual and design skills of his accomplished wife and business partner, Maura. Trained as an illustrator and holding a degree in fine art (as does Bruce), Maura is recognized as an artist and designer in her own right. Her career started in feature film animation, and after stints working for Ralph Bakshi on Lord of the Rings and Charles Schultz on Peanuts, she tackled the tricky animation sequences for Star Trek—The Movie. She then moved into the complex world of advertising and for 20 years contributed her design and production skills to campaigns for international clients such as Avis, AT&T, Cadillac, Levis, Nomura and Panasonic. As a music video designer, she worked with artists ranging from Michael Jackson to Placido Domingo, and her efforts in film were rewarded with multiple Clio awards and several Communication Arts awards.

© Bruce Hamilton Dorn

While the focus of this article is on the innovative and cuttingedge wedding imagery emerging from Bruce and Maura’s studio, iDC Photography, it must be emphasized that this duo’s creative talents are a resource for a growing pool of commercial clients who have recognized their visual problem-solving capabilities. As Bruce explains: “One of the things that contributed to my success in Hollywood was carefully avoiding being pigeonholed creatively. While some folks knew me as a ‘sheet-metal shooter’—i.e. automotive—others considered me an expert in ‘slice of life’ or ‘special effects eye candy.’ We currently accept and enjoy our share of wedding work, but really I think we fall under the larger umbrella of the title ‘digital artists.’ Maura and I re-entered the world of still photography to feed our inner muses and to explore the expansive possibilities of this amazing and emerging digital medium. The techniques we developed for our personal work just happen to work as wonderfully for weddings and portraits as they do for our commercial illustration clients.”

Given that they have such a comprehensive array of imaging skills that appeal to a broad range of clients, why have they, in the last couple of years, branched into wedding photography? “A whim,” says Bruce. “We live in the middle of nowhere, but there are brides and grooms everywhere. They set a stage, select their wardrobe, define their roles, and endeavor to play them out as perfectly as possible. Things never go exactly as planned, but go they do. Without a dedicated photographer, these moments would be trusted only to porous memory. What true storyteller wouldn’t want to chronicle such a passionate little play for the generations yet to come?”

Remember early on in this article that we asked you to hold the thought about “frivolity-filled” and “fun?” Well, in the insightful and helpful information piece Thoughts for the Bride, downloadable from the iDC web site, Bruce proffers this advice: “Remember that this day, while one of the most important in your life, should be a source of enjoyment not pressure. Remember, all fun, no stress.” He says, tongue somewhat in cheek, that the motto of their wedding business could well be “Serious but Silly.” However, the dazzling array of images they present certainly highlights the serious side of their philosophy.

© Bruce Hamilton Dorn

A distinct advantage of their fairly recent foray into weddings is that Bruce and Maura were not faced with the dilemma of transitioning from film to digital, or sticking with film as some experienced specialists have done. From the outset, iDC Photography has been all digital, with Canon gear being the equipment of choice. Bruce and Maura use an array of EOS 1Ds Mark IIs, a 1D Mark II, an EOS D60 (converted to infrared only), Canon lenses ranging from 14mm f/2.8 to a 600mm f/4 IS, and zooms in the 24–70mm f/2.8, 70–200mm f/2.8 and 100–400mm f/4.5–5.6 range. With Bruce’s Hollywood background, it’s no surprise that continuous light sources, such as daylight- balanced HMIs, numerous incandescent 3200K Mole-Richardson models, and an assortment of 12-volt daylight and fluorescents are in his lighting arsenal. For flash work, Bron Mobilites, Photogenic monolights, Metz speedlights and several Canon EX speedlights can be brought into use. “I love inventing gadgets and entertain myself endlessly by trying to create clever lighting solutions. It’s something I picked up during my years working with many great grips, gaffers, and DOPs (directors of photography) in Hollywood and around the world. Those guys are unbelievably resourceful,” says Bruce.

The real beneficiaries of Bruce’s lighting skills are the brides, who are offered everything from professional photojournalistic coverage with ambient lighting, supplemented by fill-flash when necessary, to full-on theatrically lighted sets. So far, however, no bridal couple has opted for what Bruce terms “the full Monty” in lighting, although he and Maura remain hopeful they’ll get this opportunity one day.

“We have sold a number of packages that involved somewhat extensive reception and fashion lighting packages, and an increasing number of clients do consult us as to the light orientation of their outdoor venues. We also have a compact and handsome lighting solution for outdoor twilight ceremonies. For commercial and editorial shoots, however, I do pull out all the stops,” says Bruce.

© Bruce Hamilton Dorn	© Bruce Hamilton Dorn

In his mind’s eye, Bruce envisages a client’s wedding day memories being bathed in glorious light and sees no reason why the pictures of the event shouldn’t be the same. “While I would prefer low-angle, magic hour daylight or banks of north-facing windows for almost everything, I find I must often use low-intensity incandescent or flash illumination to sweeten uninspiring ambient light,” he says.

“I can spot a great pool of light as well as the next guy, but for situations that are not blessed with such gifts, I simply feel obligated to do what I can to bring some drama to the moment. Filmmakers routinely light elaborate scenes that may last only moments on the screen, but take weeks to stage. Given this need for continuity, lighting must always be considered and controlled. I see lighting as a character whose performance can range from subtle and meek, to dramatic and opinionated. I try to consider each phase of the wedding as a scene, and the venue as my stage. Combining these elements with my knowledge of the intent of the players, I formulate a lighting design. Some scenes require nothing more than opening some curtains and turning on the existing fixtures while others benefit from considerable thought and a little quick rigging. I do what little I can while not interfering in the natural flow of events. The more time I have, the better things look,” he says.

© Bruce Hamilton Dorn

To that end, Bruce and Maura have made a significant stipulation before accepting a wedding assignment—they will only photograph couples willing to see each other for photography prior to the wedding. “We photograph a lot of dusk weddings in our area and have learned that we cannot do the couple justice if we don’t have some quality time with them together, alone and while there is still some daylight left to play with,” says Bruce. Another offering that has made an impact is iDC’s Photo Impressionism ®, a style they developed and trademarked during the creation of their iDC Art Editions. “Everyone seems to be touched by the romantic and neo-classical feel of our Photo Impressionism ® imagery. ‘Contemporary, yet classical,’ seems to be the most common response,” says Bruce. “While the notion of great hulking wedding wall-paintings might be a bit too ostentatious for many young couples, doting moms and dads frequently go for a large display print and these renderings find welcome inclusion in many of our albums.” The Photo Impressionism® style has also been a hit with the good folks at Canon who, on seeing the work at an iDC portrait seminar in Las Vegas, signed Bruce and Maura to help them develop and promote Canon’s new line of high-speed archival wide-format art printers.

Getting away from “staring into the lens” portraiture and branding what they term “Passion Portraits” has proven another profitable strategy. “Passion Portraits, as we promote the notion, feature the subject deeply involved in the pursuit of their private passion. Dancers, equestrians, bikers, whatever—give me someone deeply involved in something they love, and I’ll make them a very cool portrait. And we’ll have a lovely time doing it. Thanks to strong support from both Canon and Corel—we also use Corel’s Painter software—we’ll be creating a series of entertaining instructional DVDs to demonstrate our approach, from capture through completion,” says Bruce. iDC pulls out all the stops during a wedding assignment. Shooting in RAW mode for the greatest latitude and highest quality, they will create hundreds of images. The images are edited and color-corrected, then presented on a DVD and loaded to a website for the client’s preview. Ultimately, Maura will work with the client to produce an album. Worth noting is the fact that Bruce and Maura have received the Kodak Professional Innovators Award, and their first wedding album was selected for PPA’s Loan Collection.

© Bruce Hamilton Dorn

So, given that this couple brings such a wealth of photography, filmmaking and design experience to any wedding assignment, it would be fair to say that when the final crumbs of wedding cake are eaten, the last wedding guest to depart (in whatever state) will turn around and exclaim with the greatest confidence: “That’s a wrap!” On one final note: What does iDC stand for? Take your pick: “I Desire Cake,” “I Dig Cake,” or how about “Inspirational Design Consortium”? Actually, it’s a carryover from the title of Maura’s graphic design business, Identity Crisis, IDc. They simply moved their art operation into that entity but are still toying with the actual meaning of the acronym. It changes with their mood—serious but silly. For more of their work: www.idcphotography.com.

Bruce Dorn and Maura Dutra will be presenting a program at WPPI 2006, entitled, “Weddings in the Cinematic Style.” The program will be held on Monday April 10, 8:30–10:30 p.m. in BALLY’s Bronze Rooms 3 and 4.