| Features |
|
| |
| |
|
| Columns |
| |
| |
| Departments |
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Rangefinder
Magazine
February 2003
Profile: Martin Schembri by
CharMaine Beleele
Reading the Blueprints of a Bride’s Heart
 When
Martin Schembri of Australia prepares to photograph a bride, he masters
some of her secrets to ascertain her unique style. Recently he said, “The
bride spends a lot of time and money preparing her wedding and the thing
she strives hardest at, is putting together a theme that suits her personality
and taste. Therefore, with this in mind, I approach my photography to
suit her. I do not shoot a carbon copy of a wedding I shot the week before.”
Where does Schembri find the courage to do this? In the bride’s
eyes. He added, “Sometimes just a whisper of a smile or flicker
of the eyelids can give away what she is truly feeling inside.”
Tender brides sanction him to look into their private hearts in order
to peruse the blueprints of their wedding dreams. They trust his storytelling
photography because he is endowed with an artist’s power of observation.
As he walks into the event he not only sees details, he actually becomes
the eyes of the bride. He acquires her vision as he absorbs a kaleidoscope
of data and detail. He assimilates design elements from the landscape
of the wedding—color, proportion, basic shape, clean lines, contoured
curves, architecture, light and shadow— all elements of the bride’s
blueprint for her wedding day.
 He
stated, “I quickly study the dress, the accessories, the color of
the bridesmaid’s dresses, and then work on creating photography
that suits the bride’s personality and outlook.” He has only
two goals for every image that he creates: Number one, An image “must
capture a lasting impression.” And number two is that the image
“must express the couple’s true reason for getting married.”
To create images of the bride that accomplish these two goals, he has
a three-step process. “The first thing I set up is a natural pose:
A bride simply leaning against a wall with her arms folded or just resting
against her dress, helps towards creating a relaxed mood.” Secondly,
Schembri engages his power of observation as he “keeps the ambiance
quiet and looks for expression and confidence in her eyes.” As a
matter of technique, the third step is fulfilled by “using a long
lens so she doesn’t feel that I am obtrusive and will respond accordingly.”
And to this comment, he added a little lesson in Bridal Psychology 101:
“As I shoot, I am constantly remembering that the bride has dreamt
about this day ever since she was a little girl. This is always a very
important element to acquire her vision.” The Schembri promise is
“No stiff poses or false smiles, just relaxed and natural photography
that reflects today’s lifestyle.” Although his methods are
cutting-edge modern, his brides also know that his award winning photography
is heirloom quality and timeless. Schembri, as he states on his dazzling
website, “specializes in producing wedding images that you will
treasure for a lifetime.”
 If
his style of singular elegance was all there was to Martin Schembri’s
wedding albums, it would be extraordinary enough, but it was not enough
for Martin. He always hated having a selection of his images “placed
in an outdated album concept that hasn’t changed in 20 years.”
He became an innovator, creating a distinctive 21st century look not only
for his images, but for the album, which showcases them. Again, it was
his analytical ability to study people and that became the catalyst for
a completely new genre of wedding photography album, “the magazine
style.” He commented, “I’m not too sure I was the first
one to develop the concept, as there are many claims out there stating
that they were, but I don’t really care. I found what I was looking
for.” It was in his early days of experimenting with Photoshop that
he invented his creative page layouts with their distinctive designer
style.
The ideas for his designer pages came from the flavor and character of
his own magazine reading and video watching; from the DVD generation,
from his clients, from the blueprints he read in the multimedia-saturated
hearts of modern brides. Actually, his true innovation began when he was
not artistically pleased with his first Photoshop results. He said, “I
learned to apply certain vignette techniques, selective softness and many
other elements that I have always wanted in my photography. At first I
thought by hitting filter buttons and playing around with curves in photoshop,
it added a difference to my work that I was looking for, but within a
short period I soon realized that what I was creating was corny and dated
images.” In his search for something new to match a stylish bride’s
taste, he drew on his magazine experience and the design side of his commercial
photography. He recounted, “a lot of my clients are in their early
20s and have also played with the same filters in photoshop with their
own snaps, and they probably knew more about the program than I did.”
What Martin Schembri was “looking for” was a visualization
of “an album that had titles, creative layouts and something that
truly reflected my style of photography.” None of this concept evolved
overnight. “Slowly I began to introduce digital collages with a
graphic feel.”
 He
was slightly jealous of the creative freedom given to videographers from
whom his brides accepted “whatever the videographer has edited and
they have  trusted
his skills to produce the final result.” He added that, “This
freedom allows him the opportunity to cut and mix clips with funky music,
emotional editing and outstanding presentation.” Gradually, Martin
began to customize his storytelling approach and to develop pages that
utilized a graphic design layout and soon “every album included
some form of digital design within the layout.” The rest, as they
say, is history: “As this evolved, I envisioned an album that was
entirely digitally designed with a magazine feel about it, and started
to talk to my album manufacturer, Albums Australia regarding the concept.
They soon worked out the method and before I knew it, I had a fully designed
magazine-style album.” It was David Cimino of this same company
who requested that Martin show off the book at the national convention
in Melbourne about three years ago to gauge a response from other photographers.
Schembri reported, “I must say it certainly took a lot of people
by surprise and before I knew it, I was lecturing around Australia and
New Zealand on the concept.” Cimino stated that “seeing Schembri’s
work and thedigital album broke other photographers’ fear of digital
photography by showing the creative benefits of this new approach.”
 |
|
|
 But
this was not the end of the story of the innovative album. Inquiring photographers
wanted to know how to specifically create each designer-look page without
Schembri’s extensive commercial background. Martin explained, “At
first, I thought that the idea of putting together a software program
with my designs would be impossible, but after talking to a few photographers
who also wanted to introduce the concept into their work, I figured that
the idea wasn’t so bad after all. So with a programmer and a lot
of time, we soon developed my Pre-designed Digital Templates.” Schembri
promised, “pre-designed digital templates are easy to use. With
a general knowledge of Photoshop (Mac or PC), you will be able to simply
drag and drop any size images into these templates and within minutes,
finish a beautiful layout that your clients will admire for a lifetime.”
He has packaged pre-sized template layouts for great looking multi-image
compositions, into four different modules. Each of four modules has 20–25
templates and a bonus that contains over 40 more to entice the photographer
to buy the entire collection. The software also includes actual printed,
finished samples and step-by-step instructions, so that you can’t
go wrong.
 Working
hand in glove with Schembri’s Pre-designed Digital Templates and
Albums Australia is Pixel Perfect Pro Lab, which, according to their web
site, has combined “precision laser technology, international standards
and advanced color management ‘know-how,’ to achieve printed
results not previously achieved anywhere.” Best of all, they offer
“free dispatch to Albums Australia if ordering their unique magazine
album.”
It would be nice if brides really gave blueprints of the wedding day to
their photographers, but that is not how it is in the modern world. In
the real world we have to “read” their hints and details and
hope they enjoy the stories that we tell with our images. It is fortunate
for us that we have innovative thinkers and artists like Martin Schembri.
He sees through the 21st century bride’s character into her story
as if he had a schematic, and he can help us to do the same thing. For
great points on portrait photography and many hidden lessons in artistic
design, visit www.martinschembri.com.au. His work is truly a blue-print
of the future, which is now.
 Martin
Schembri is an award winning portrait and wedding photographer from Australia.
He, along with his friend and colleague, David Williams, will be the opening
speaker presentation at WPPI 2003 at Bally’s Las Vegas. The title
of their program is “Kangaroo Feathers, The Leading Edge of Wedding
Photography.”
Charmaine Beleele, with an MA in Communication, owns a small studio,
Angel Kissed Studio, and teaches communication, at Westark College. She
also writes part-time for a small newspaper in Fort Smith, AR. She can
be reached via e-mail at: Beleele@aol.com.
|
