Vendor Relations

Johnston Photography was recently hired by a wonderful family, who had planned a surprise engagement party for their daughter. They requested that we take 25 pictures! As the details of the event were unfolding it became appartent that this would not be your typical engagement photo session! Typically we take the couple to a spot of their choice and photograph their interactions together, this event was to be MUCH bigger! With excitement we picked the couple up at the family home and took them to their location of choice to take some more intimate images of them together. Our next task was to deliver them to the hall that the family had booked for their engagement party. The couple had been told that they were stopping into the hall to make an appearance at another couples party and then they would move onto the resturant they were meeting with their immediate family members for their engagement. SURPRISE!
As with every venue we have not already taken photos at we visited earlier in the day, we are looking at the lighting situation, potential areas to do posed formals etc... The hall was beautiful! It had a wonderful ambiant lighting that was going to look spectacular in their photos! Upon delivering the couple to their destination I was HORRIFIED to see that the family had also hired a videographer, who had bright spotlights every 8 feet the entire distance around the hall! The innitial reaction was "oh crap! there goes my lighting" Like all photographers I worked my way around the lighting and found a way to use it to my benifit. We introduced ourselves to the videographer and quickly reolized this was going to be an amazing evening with wondeful results. The first thing the videographer said to me was... "Do whatever you need with the lights! Feel free to turn some off when you need to or turn them towards/away from the shot if you need to, and I will do everything in my power to stay out of your way" I was amazed with their professionalism and willingness to work with us. For the rest of the evening we worked closely with the videographers to ensure the client got the very best of both their photography and their videography. We all left at the end of the night feeling great knowing that the couple was going to get a great video of the evening and great photo's to comemorate their special day!