Chicago Wedding Photography operation to the world of cyberspace.
Jai Girard is effervescent and a ball of energy. She adores her clients and considers them new friends, not just acquaintances up until the wedding. Her personality is her marketing and key to success. "One of my Jewish clients invited me to their Yom Kippur dinner--that's the kind of connecting I like," she explains, "where we become such friends before, during and after the shoot that each time they look at their images, the entire run of emotions from the day is replayed. And when we get together the memories of how much fun we had at their wedding comes back."
With a career angled toward broadcast, Girard started off with a focus different from wedding photography. While a student, she worked as a reporter and producer for TV and radio, then landed a fellowship with CBS News in New York before traveling to Switzerland to be a reporter for VOA-Europe. She returned to Chicago and was hired at WLS talk radio, where she worked for a few years before, she says, "I got fired." Not to despair, the very next day she landed a career lead. "This person knew of someone looking for a photographer to shoot at the China Club, a hot place frequented by rock stars," she notes. "I said I was a photographer (anything to pay my rent). It's like one of my favorite quotes: When they asked Greta Garbo why everyone thought she was so beautiful, she replied, 'I told them I was beautiful and they believed me.' With a mother who was, and still is, a photographer, how difficult could it be?"
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Hop On the Bus
Girard reveals that she didn't know the difference between an f-stop and a bus stop and only had bad childhood memories of having to swish photos in developing trays in the basement darkroom as a kid. Her mother loaned her a camera with a note taped to the back: "f/8 at 60." On Girard's first night of shooting, Dolly Parton came to the club to perform. Girard worked feverishly shooting black-and-white film, f/8 at 1/60 second. The next day she had the film developed. "When I saw the negatives, I couldn't believe there was even an image!" she says. "I didn't care if it was blurry, underexposed, etc. The fact that there was an image had me jumping up and down and clapping like a seal."
Inspired, Girard took to the club the next night and started experimenting with settings. "If that's what f/8 at 1/60 does, then what does f/8 at 1/30 do?" she wondered. "So there I was shooting all these stars at the club. I was creating an enviable portfolio of rock stars, celebrities and sports stars. Michael Jordan was always there. Then I started shooting charity events for free, and one thing led to the next. At one event I met Bob Love (a former Chicago Bulls basketball player), and he invited me to come shoot the games during the championship years in the 90s. How can you help but learn shooting with Michael Jordan running full speed towards me--manual focus, manual rewind, shoot fast, fast, fast."
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Wedding Favors
About this time, a pal asked Girard if she would shoot a friend's wedding. Why not? Girard sold herself by showing the bride a collection of celebrity photos. "The bride thought, 'Wow, my wedding photographer just shot Rod Stewart.' I didn't emphasize the fact that it was at a nightclub," she smiles. "That first wedding I lined everyone up like soldiers in a row according to height because that's what I saw everyone else doing. I cringe to remember this." She also added a few personal touches: "I was the first in Chicago to start shooting brides on Michigan Avenue. Over 10 years ago, I started doing all these unexpected urban shots. Back then there were no brides on the streets. Now when I go to my favorite spot on Michigan Avenue, it's like bride central; they're all there."
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In 12 years of shooting weddings, Girard recounts one crazed event reminiscent of her paparazzi heyday. She had been hired to photograph Mancow's wedding. Mancow is a popular Chicago radio DJ with a morning drive-time program. Girard quips, he's "like a Chicago Howard Stern." With his popularity, the nuptials event was certainly far from quiet or private. Adds Girard, "Imagine being just the wedding photographer and having to compete with the Chicago press corps--which he invited for a photo op after the ceremony. I was trying to get all the required shots, groom with mom and so forth, and everywhere I looked there were paparazzi leaping out of doorways!"
Aside from excitement like this, Girard takes her profession in stride and enjoys working with a small team. She's quick to credit them when it comes to keeping the gears in motion, especially when something takes her down for the count--well almost. "I broke my wrist the Friday night before a big Saturday wedding," she recalls. "I told my second shooter that he had to shoot as a main. The bride was almost in tears when she saw me with a cast, but I convinced her everything would turn out fine or I'd do it all for free and more." Girard reveals that at first her replacement was doing everything wrong. So she blurted, "Mark, snap out of it. Just shoot as if I was doing my thing and you were doing yours as usual." That did the trick. The pictures came out amazing and Girard went home that night crying--not from emotion but from the pain. "I 'forgot' to take my meds to keep me lucid for the event." The best part, Girard says she continues to get referrals from this client.
Why wedding photography? "Because after years of first shooting celebrities paparazzi-style at a club, I didn't want that any more," she says. "What was next? Hiding behind a potted plant? And when you think about it, the only good result of that work for me was that I brought great conversation to cocktail parties. I could open with stuff like, 'Guess what I shot yesterday."'
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Over the years, Girard has been cultivating a distinct style to her imagery. Her photos started off with an urban look, but that style is now dated. She's always refining, and her current work takes advantage of wonderful lighting and mood--with a touch of Photoshop. "You can never be too rich, too thin or too Photoshopped," she jokes. "Beauty is not how others think they see it, but how you want them to see it." Along with Photoshop, Girard also utilizes Lightroom and ACDSsee.
She's a recent digital convert, opting to use the Nikon D2X and D200 while she waits for the D3 and D300. Some favored lenses include a 105mm, an 80-200mm and 17-55mm, and a 10.5mm fisheye. "I went digital about two years ago," Girard says. "I joke that it's ruined my life--from having to drop off a Ziploc baggie of film at the lab on Mondays to a life waking up at 3:00 a.m. to edit. I guess I have the Photoshop bug; before digital, I didn't even know how to create a new folder on my computer."
Girard and her team work from a large studio in Chicago. "We're fortunate to have a very unique place to live and work," she says. In fact, Girard rents out the space several times a year for high-profile photo shoots. She has a 7000-square-foot dwelling on a double lot in Chicago. It's three open levels of steel, and on one wall is displayed a magnificent gallery of images. Overhead is a 70-foot catwalk connecting the third level, and higher up there's a skylight for illumination. Attached to the main building is her office/studio. Key gear in the studio would be several PCs, Epson printers, a selection of SB-800 flashes, two Quantum Q flashes with radio transmitters, and bags--very big ones that roll.
Clients are invited to her studio, and Girard meets with each personally, stating, "It's my interaction and relationship with them that makes all the difference. We are not cookie-cutter photographers." She loves to stay in touch with clients far past post-production; that equates to at least 50-60 new friendships with couples and their families each year.
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Eyes On The World
Girard claims she's not been one for networking much within the local pool of photographers. "I was never much for sororities, group activities," she adds. "I always thought I was such a great photographer--what a way to get over myself after attending my first WPPI conference! Now I have more than 50 photography sites saved. I am walking around the show and looking at these great images asking myself 'How'd they do that? I want to do that.' That's another reason I am up at 3:00 a.m. on my laptop in bed, googling, searching, learning." Girard mentions that in joining WPPI, her eyes are now open to a global atmosphere. "I was amazed there is so much more happening than in my little Chicago." In 2007, Girard entered images in the WPPI 8x10 print competition and received four Accolades of Excellence.
What's on tap for the future? In true and candid Girard form, she closes with, "My future never gets here. Somehow it's always the present, and here comes a wedding. So what I do today becomes my future and I can only watch it unfold. I only know the names of today's bride and groom. I can't even tell you where I was last weekend."
Visit www.jaigirard.com.
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Margaret Lane is a freelance writer and amateur photographer. She has more than 15 years experience as a corporate communications professional for non-profit, photography and technology clients. |
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