Rangefinder Magazine
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Profile: Tony Secker by Greg Rice
Bringing the Celebrity Wdding Style to the Pacific Northwest

Tony Secker says the key to successful wedding photography is giving brides and grooms what they want—and increasingly, that means wedding photojournalism.

His proof is the bottom line. Secker’s average wedding sale is about $4000. Other photographers can improve their bottom line dramatically, he predicts, by listening closely to what their clients want and including more photojournalism in the mix.

“I would say 90 percent of the brides and grooms out there are looking for a more spontaneous look at their wedding,” he says. “If you can become more spontaneous in your photography, and create candid images that are good quality, then sales are going to go up.
“Besides,” he says, “wedding photojournalism is more fun. It keeps every wedding album from looking the same. And it reflects the fact that weddings themselves are less stuffy, and more fun, today.”

He never assumes, though. Secker is a big believer in talking with the customer ahead of time, finding out what they want, and then setting out to accomplish just that. He doesn’t start off with a preconceived idea of “must” pictures, or a particular style of photography. He goes with the flow.

Which is why his wedding coverage is typically dominated by candid images. (The style may be known today as wedding photojournalism, but Secker points out that terms are just a sign of the times. In the ‘70s, it was called ‘documentary’ photography; in the ‘80s and ‘90s, ‘candid’ photography; now it’s photojournalism.) The key is that, like photojournalists, he shoots lots of film in order to capture the day’s most important moments.
“For our clientele, it’s not only what they want, it’s what they spend their money on,” he says. Secker estimates that in a typical finished wedding album, about 60 percent of the images are candids.

Clients who walk into Adams & Faith Photography, the studio Secker owns in Portland, OR, and choose him to photograph their wedding are generally looking for dramatic, candid images. “A bride goes out today, she looks in magazines and at bridal fairs, and sees advertising photos shot with a photojournalistic look. Then she shops for a photographer,” Secker explains.

He always manages to find—or create—images of the bride and groom enjoying a quiet moment together away from the crowd, always making use of existing low light to capture the mood. Looking through his samples, one quickly notices that the wedding party rarely smiles broadly for, or at, the camera; they’re having too much fun. The camera is just there to watch.

In a typical wedding, Secker may shoot 300–400 frames, in three broad categories: candids, formals and what he calls ‘romantics’ (including images of the ceremony). For the formals and most romantics, he shoots with conventional wedding gear: a Hasselblad loaded with Kodak Professional Portra 160VC or 400VC film. He likes the vivid color and natural skin tones.

But by far the biggest slice of a typical wedding is candids. For those images, he slings a couple of Nikon F4s over his shoulder fitted with Nikkor IF-ED AF-S 28–70mm or 80–200mm zoom lenses. For receptions, he may switch momentarily to a 20mm ultra-wide-angle or 16mm fisheye and actually shoot from the middle of the dance floor. “I get in there with the crowd,” he says. “About 95 percent of the people on the floor are out there doing the moves to YMCA. Nobody wants to admit it later, of course, but it makes for some really striking images.”

He shoots candids with Portra 400VC or Portra 800 film. “Most customers can’t tell the difference-even if they have a good photographic background—in prints they’re going to see in an album, because the Portra films produce very consistent color. With the various speeds you can go all the way from a bright sunny day to low light indoors,” Secker says.

For situations where he wants black-and-white—such as a room with only “hideous” fluorescent lighting—he uses Kodak Professional T400 CN chromagenic film. Also, he’s not afraid to push P3200 film to EI 12,000, which allows him to shoot in almost any room without adding light.

In fact, Secker prefers not to light candids at all. When he does light a room, it’s likely to be with units tucked away in the corners, bounced into the walls or ceiling, triggered with a radio slave. “It lets me be less obtrusive by not blasting away in people’s faces,” he says.

One of the interesting things about working in Portland is the architecturally striking buildings. Weddings and receptions take place in older ballrooms with mahogany paneling or elaborate gold and white walls—much more interesting than newer rooms, he says. Using a high-speed film lets him capture not only the subject, but also the rich backgrounds. “The less light I use, the warmer, more cozy feeling I can get,” he says.

Secker leaves the sales process to his wife, Lori. He doesn’t like photographers who impose their own idea of the best pictures on a bride and groom. After a couple has studied a set of proofs for some days, Lori sits down with them and divides the proofs into three piles—pictures they’ve got to have, pictures they’d like to have, and pictures they could live without, if need be. Then Lori sits down and creates the album. Albums range in size from 40–400 images.

“We’ve really changed our approach to albums,” Secker notes. “We don’t have a traditional album. We use an album from Kambara called Nouveau, and there’s no standard page. You create your own image sizes and borders.” He likes that because he often comes back with a sequence of images, and now the album can accommodate it.
Secker came by his photojournalistic approach to wedding photography naturally. He began his career as a kid in England working for a press agency that covered the royal family. Later, he worked on the Queen Elizabeth II doing a mix of formal and candid cruise-ship photography. In the ‘80s, he specialized in weddings and was the exclusive photographer for weddings at the Bel Air Bay Club. He covered hundreds of high-profile Hollywood weddings, and helped to define the celebrity wedding photojournalism style in that city. “So today I’ve brought that movie-style look to my own studio. We give customers a kind of celebrity feel and the candid moments that the celebrities want.”

Secker married in 1984, and when he and Lori decided they were ready to raise a family in the early ‘90s, they searched for any place to live but Los Angeles. That’s when they found Adams & Faith Photography in Portland. It was an older, high-volume studio with an undistinguished reputation. So Secker decided to renovate the operation and hopefully, develop a reputation for high-end work.

Today Adams & Faith has eight photographers, each bringing a unique style to the studio, Secker says. In the studio’s consultation room, there are several albums sitting out at all times, each one representing the work of a different photographer. “If someone wants more traditional formals, we have a photographer who matches their taste. You get a feeling for people straightaway,” Secker says. “You see them look at one thing, then stare at one type of work for a long time. It’s easy to see what they like.”

The majority of the studio’s work is weddings—Secker alone shoots nearly 50 a year—but this year, it’s expanding into fine- art family portraiture. The key, as always, will be listening to what the customer wants. And then executing the photography flawlessly.

“Though we’re a large studio, our focus is definitely on quality and on creating unique images,” Secker says. “If we give customers what they want, we’ll continue to be successful.”

Greg Rice is a writer/photographer based in Cloverdale, IN.