Profile: Joe Elario by Jen Bidner
The Fresh Look of Digital
Joe Elario turned his Albany business completely digital last year, and loves the freedom it provides.
“ I couldn’t have done this shot with film!” exclaims Albany (NY) photographer Joe Elario while discussing his portfolio. “In the old days,” he says, referring to the year 2001, “I would have needed strobe to illuminate the wedding party’s processional down the aisle. The lighting would have been flat, and the background dark—so it was never my highest selling shot.
“ Then one day after I went digital, I just switched the flash off. My son, who was assisting me, started making panicked motions from across the church to warn me of my ‘error.’ But I realized with my Canon EOS 1D and an f/1.4 lens, I could squeeze out 1/90 of a second and get all the advan-tages of available light.”
His results with this technique are glorious, and needless to say his processional shots are now selling exceptionally well. The ambient light of the church shines through, the faces of the guests with all eyes on the bride are clearly visible and everything is sharp, even if he enlarges the print for wall display. Compare this with flash, where all but the closest guests would have fallen into darkness because of the light falloff.
This freedom to shoot without strobes is only one of the many perks Elario has found with digital. The fast lenses and Canon’s Image Stabilization (IS) capability also help him achieve sharp pictures without a tripod. He also loves the ability to check his results on the fly, and then in-stantly back up the images to a portable hard drive.
When he first switched over to digital last year, some brides were worried. Anyone who has ever used a computer has experienced the dreaded crash that results in a lost file—so they worry the same might happen to their wedding shots. Elario insists that they’re actually safer in the digital realm using his methods. “I explain that before they’re even eating breakfast on the first morning of their honeymoon, there are already six copies of the wedding images! The risk of the lab ruining the film or a roll being lost is actually much greater.”
Elario begins by carrying at least five gigabytes of memory cards with him to every wedding. He downloads the cards on-the-fly into a Mind-Store portable hard drive during breaks, such as the car ride from the bride’s home to the church. This hardy unit is only slightly larger than a pack of cigarettes and holds 10 gigabytes of memory. The memory cards themselves are not erased, so now there are two copies of every picture.
After the event (especially on out-of-town shoots), the day’s work is transferred from the Mind-Store portable hard drive to his laptop computer (copy three). Upon arrival back to the studio it is transferred to a workstation for a rough edit using Cerious ThumbsPlus 5.01 software so they can be viewed more easily (copy four). The edited version is sent to a server (copy five), and a DVD is then burned (copy six). The DVD is immediately sent to off-premise storage in case of fire. Try doing that with film in the first 24 hours!
Taking the creative, business and archiving ease of digital into consideration, Elario insists, “I wouldn’t go back to film for anything.”
Long before he gave up film, Joe Elario had a digital presence on the Internet. His site www.joeelariophotography.com has been up for years. “Today, it is overwhelming for a bride to search the Internet for potential photographers,” reflects Elario. “But in the ‘90s, I was one of the few pho-tographers in the area to have an Internet presence.”
Today, most of his clients are the best kind—word-of-mouth referrals. “These days I really only use my website as a quick way for potential clients to see my work. They call and say, ‘I heard about you from a friend or cousin’ and I give them my web address. ‘See if you like my work,’ I tell them. There is no sense in wasting each other’s time unless they like my style
”“ I sell them my style, and not packages,” he clarifies. “I don’t want them to hire me because of my price—I want them to hire me because they like my work.
Elario cringes at the label “photojournalistic” wedding photography, but readily admits that the spontaneous and fresh look of his images fall into that category. “I’m not one to stage photographs. I prefer to melt into the background and jump on opportunities when they arise!”
One wonderful example of this was at Joe and Donna’s wedding on the beach. He quickly gathered the entire group as the light faded on this autumn night. “With film, this would have been a ‘Hail Mary’ shot, but I was able to do it with the Canon EOS 1D and just an on-camera Canon 550EX flash,” he explains. “If used correctly, this little flash can look like a studio unit. I can even sync it wirelessly with other off-camera 500EX units to light the reception hall.
”During the group shot he noticed the toe rings on all the bridesmaids, and elicited their display for a memorable image. His 17–35mm wide-angle lens gave him the digital coverage he needed, and the 550EX again illuminated the scene.
Another “photojournalistic” flavor to his work is his decision to convert most reception dancing images into black-and-white. Although he shoots them in color, he creates a grayscale version for the proof book. “The dancing images are usually very busy to begin with, and removing the color eliminates one of the major distractions,” reveals Elario. “It also has a nice retro look.
”Usually he places wireless Canon 550EX accessory flash units on stands around the room to light up the dance floor. They are automatically slaved to his on-camera 550EX, providing excellent light and mo-bility for the photographer during the session.
Good candid photography is not easy. You have to start by putting the bride and other subjects at ease, so they become less aware of the photographer, and less staged. Next, you need to find those images that tell a story. “That’s my goal with every image” he explains.
“I also like to keep things simple. You don’t need exotic locations to create exceptional photographs,” Elario insists. For example, the flowers in the foreground of the image on page 55, lend a romantic feeling to this bridal portrait. They could have been potted plants along the ugliest driveway in the world, but the result is an enchanted garden. Limited depth of field was emphasized by the Canon EOS 70–200mm IS f/2.8 lens shot at its widest aperture.
Although he does not stage photographs, he will occasionally orchestrate a good photo opportunity. He has interrupted many meals if the perfect light presents itself, such as the twilight image on Lake George shown earlier in this article. He rousted the bride, groom and guitar player from their dinner to sneak out to the dock for a few minutes. Later, the bride thanked him for his initiative because this picture ended up as one of their most treasured.
By keeping his eyes open and his imagination in high gear, Elario is able to put elegance and style into any setting. Only the photographer, and the bride and groom know that the romantic setting for the moonlit dance shown on page 55 is actually a parking lot at the end of an alley behind the reception hall!
Elario relies heavily on Miller’s Professional Imaging (www.millerslab.com) for his post-shooting work. Millers produces quality 4x6 proofs of each images, or delivers “magazines” of 10x15-inch pages with six-up proofs on a white or black background. These oversized pages are then bound in an elegant leather binder for presentation. So nice is this magazine presentation, that more than a few mother’s of the bride have bought the proof book for their coffee tables.
Aside from his shooting ability, Elario’s son Joe Jr. (“JP”) brings fresh new design ideas for the albums from his studies at Savannah College of Art & Design. JP gives the albums a graphic flair that complements his father’s (and his own) shooting style. The albums are then assembled by Capri Album Company.
At the time of printing, Elario was hungrily awaiting the shipment of his new Canon 1DS digital SLR. Although pleased with the 4 megapixels of quality of the 1D, this new camera will offer over 11 megapixels. He plans to use it for commercial clients, annual reports, the “money shots” and other images that will potentially be enlarged for wall prints. The greater resolution will make cropping a non-issue, and the EOS 1DS camera’s fast performance and 3fps capacity will match Elario’s needs for spontaneity.
Joe Elario can be reached at his studio, 1084 Madison Avenue, Albany NY 12208; telephone 518-438-0989.
Jen Bidner has over 17 years experience in the photo industry as an editor, author, Internet content manager, public relations professional and photographer. She is the author of seven books on conventional and digital photography, including the top-selling Lighting Cookbook and the soon to be released Kodak’s Digital Basics.
