Interview: Melli & Shayne – Destination Wedding Photographers and Creators of How I Shot This
Melli & Shayne are a photography team based in Germany. Our introduction to their work came in the form of a Reddit post talking about How I Shot This, an Instagram page they set up to serve as a unique educational resource for wedding photographers. After browsing just a few image slideshows, where they showcase beautifully stunning photos they have taken and detail in great depth how they managed to capture the shots, we had to reach out to get in touch.
One thing led to another, and we are here now to present to you an interview with Shayne where we discuss their approach to wedding photography, a passion for worldwide travel, and get to know more about the purpose and longer term vision of How I Shot This.
Reading through your About page, it is instantly possible to connect with you. In particular, the video feature you include adds a really unique layer of depth and personal touch that is unlike what we see many wedding photographers showcase. Would you care to share some key things about yourselves to bring our audience up to speed?
Sure! Well, before Melli & I met each other we were both big travelers with a love for photography.
I spent pretty much my whole life on an island (Mauritius) and so I was surrounded by water sports (surfing, diving, kite surfing) and it was through the diving that I actually really got serious about photography.
Melli, coming from Germany, was always a keen hobbyist and a passionate traveler.
We both came from two completely different worlds, but when we met in Zanzibar, somehow our puzzle pieces matched and I immediately knew she was someone very special. At this time, Melli was working in Finland for a large company and we decided that it would be a fun idea if I came to visit her. Needless to say the cold was quite a shock to my system!
We lived together in Finland for a year and then moved back to Germany where we officially started our wedding photography business together, and have been here ever since 2014.
We now are full time wedding photographers with a little Boston terrier who keeps us busy 😉
If video introductions are more your style, Melli & Shayne put together a great introduction in the following clip:
[penci_video url=”https://vimeo.com/173025802″ align=”center” width=”” /]
What initially lured you to Zanzibar where you both met?
Funny enough, Islands are like villages. They can get small real quick.
I left Mauritius to go to Zanzibar because, well, Mauritius got small.
My brother who was living in Zanzibar hooked me up with a place to stay and a good starting ground for my time there where I spent photographing weddings, hotels, water sports and pretty much anything to make ends meet.
Simply by fate, Melli was deciding between going to Hawaii or Zanzibar with her friend and they concluded with Zanzibar to go for their holidays. It’s an incredible little island and besides it having a deep hold my heart, I would recommend it to any traveler who wants to experience a rustic little island that isn’t too developed (just yet).
Tell us a little bit about your approach to photography – and wedding photography in particular.
We’re always after authenticity.
As much as we can, we work with our couples to let them be them.
Throughout the wedding day, we’re sitting by the side lines and letting the day move ahead. Of course, we’ll throw in advice and recommendations when our couples need it but for the most part, we’re all about capturing the real moments. Whether that’s during the ceremony, reception and even the couple shoot. The more a person can recognize themselves in our pictures, the better.
It seems that much of your focus as photographers is geared towards destination shoots. Do you see photography as an art form and career choice that enables you to fulfill your desire to travel?
Absolutely!
In fact, we had always heard about the “Destination Wedding Photographer” dream and thought that this would be something we would quite like, since we’re both big fans of traveling and exploring. We’re at that point now where we are traveling for weddings all over and we absolutely love it. It’s not always easy though, but it can be very very rewarding – especially at this point in our life where we don’t have kids to look after just yet.
What are some of your favorite locations you’ve visited so far? Are there any new places you plan to be visiting in the future?
It’s hard to name just a few, but off the top of our heads – Tanzania. That was an incredible experience.
The couple invited only their parents and took us on the safaris with them and treated us like we were close friends. It made us want to do the very very best we could for them and it was an experience we will never forget.
As for new places, it’s quite hard for us to decide where we will be going as it’s all based on where our clients are getting married. We’ll be in Greece, Italy, Finland, South Tirol, Portugal, Switzerland and Austria this year so far, and all of those places we’d never say no to visiting.
How do you find out about the new places you want to travel too?
As much as we’d love to browse Instagram and say “lets go shoot a wedding there”, it’s actually not determined by us. We are more than happy to shoot a wedding close to home as well as the depths of Antarctica (I wish!).
What inspires you to move from general interest in a place to actually making a booking and going there?
To be honest, as I mentioned above we have very little to do with where we are going for weddings.
We put out our marketing efforts in certain locations that we’d love to go to but most of the time, our clients are finding us on Instagram and being a hugely open and international platform, we’re getting asked to shoot weddings all over. It’s kind of like a “lucky draw”. Sometimes you’ll be asked to shoot a wedding in some exotic place, and other times it’ll be close to home (which is equally as enjoyable as getting home to your own bed after a wedding is really really underestimated).
For more on Instagram, check out our post: How to Use Instagram Search to Get New Photography Gigs
How long do you normally like to spend in the locations you travel too?
We always get to the locations at least a day or two before the wedding. That way we have enough time to arrive and make sure that everything came with us (no lost baggage and things) as well as location scout the wedding venue and where we can take our couples. We’re all about being prepared for a wedding as it has served us so well in the past.
If we could, we would love to stay longer in these places we go to and really take advantage of being there but it’s not always possible because we have to get back home, back up everything, and then prepare for the next wedding (often another destination).
What is the most challenging aspect of being traveling photographers that you’ve encountered? And – what has made it particularly rewarding for you?
The most challenging part is that we’re on a time limit. We can’t stick around for a week or two after the wedding since most of our weekends in summer are booked and may even be in a completely different side of the planet. There’s that main point as well as leaving our little doggo behind (She has a baby sitter 😀 ). I guess any pet-owner would understand that feeling when you have to say cheers to your little creature and watch those eyes stare at you as you close the door. Yes, we’re big softies.
The most rewarding part about traveling though is the fact that we get to see so many different cultures and sights and sounds. I grew up in a very multi-cultural island and so I’ve always been a fan of seeing new places and new ways of life, and wedding photography has gifted us this opportunity to see the world while doing something we really love.
What is your preferred camera equipment? In certain conditions, do you use flash or prefer to stick with natural light photography?
We really like to keep our equipment to the minimum as we’ve discovered through a few unnecessary purchases that you don’t actually need all the latest fancy gear to shoot a wedding, and to shoot it well. We have 4 Canon 5D mark IV’s (2 cameras each, and as I film videos too I do quite like it for filming), 5 lenses, 2 flashes with Gary Fong diffusers, a drone, stabilizer and a bunch of memory cards and batteries. That’s basically our kit and it’s just the right amount to travel with too. We work primarily with natural light since we love capturing things as authentic as it was, but of course we’ll use flash in the evenings when the light is just not working in our favour.
How I Shot This is the new Instagram account you both began as a means to showcase to other wedding photographers how specific photos you took were captured. What inspired you to start How I Shot This?
Melli and I were chatting one evening and reminiscing what it was like when we first started being serious about wedding photography. We talked about what resources we had available at the time and what things helped us, and what didn’t.
And we came to the realization that one of the biggest hurdles we faced was learning how an image was actually created. Not just with camera settings, but how that photographer posed that couple –
- What did they say?
- What did they do?
- Why did that do that?
And we brainstormed further and noticed that those questions can be asked to all parts of the image (composition, editing, settings, focusing etc…). It was like a flash of energy that hit us, and we said to each other “lets fill that gap! Lets create something that we wish we had when we first started and see how it goes!”, so we did.
We brainstormed for ages on how we could present this information and where to show it (a website or Instagram for example) and eventually, after 10,000 pieces of paper and mockups, we decided to launch How I Shot This on Instagram.
We had no idea that it would be so well received by so many people.
There were a few things that captivated us when we came across HIST online.
First, the actual images themselves popped as your photo editing style is very natural and beautiful. Care to share some thoughts on the photo editing process?
Sure, so we use our own presets and have stuck to them for a long time. We believe in consistency and it’s worked well for us and for our clients. Our presets do most of the work and then we simply correct / adjust each image individually to stay correctly exposed, and toned. There isn’t really anything too special that we do like taking the images into Photoshop or another app. Though, what helped us a lot is that we really pushed ourselves to get it right in camera (exposure, composition etc…) so we spent less time on each picture in Lightroom.
Second, the detail you provide by covering the Story, Posing Directions, Composition, Focus, Equipment & Camera Settings, and so on add a whole lot of value. It is really unique in particular because you are giving this type of content away for free, while so often other photographers would package this up into a sellable product. Would you say there is a benefit to taking this different approach to things?
Well, firstly we have some really big ideas for this project such as bringing in other photographers and starting a whole community. We will always have content for free though, for sure. We wanted to do it this way since we had no idea how people would react to it – whether they would indeed find it useful or perhaps even boring. So, one could consider it a bit of “market research”.
We love to teach and especially to know that we’ve helped someone in some way. We find the benefits of offering our information for free to totally out weigh the negatives (Which, we can’t seem to think of any) since we’re building this community that we want, and people are really enjoying these posts.
Examples of How I Shot This:
Out of all the photos you have shared through How I Shot This, the one that sticks out to us the most is this one taken in Tanzania. It is a really powerful photo, and one that is beautifully complimented by the silhouettes of the giraffes in the background. Can you tell us about this photo? How did it come to be?
This is also one of my favourite shots.
It all happened spontaneously.
We had just finished our couple shoot in the late afternoon / evening out in the safari and the light was fading pretty fast. While we were driving back to the sun-downer location for champagne (we were a bit late) we saw the Giraffes moving across the plains and it just happened. We asked our couple if they’d be keen to quickly grab a last few frames and they jumped on the opportunity. We pulled over, and had our couple walk out towards the giraffes (very slowly and carefully as they’re quite skittish animals). We gave them a brief idea of the pose we wanted so that we didn’t have to raise our voices for them to hear us. At that moment, when they were out there, the giraffes noticed us and stopped. Stared at us. And then figured we weren’t much of a threat and kept walking. This moment was simply incredible for us. The sky was lit with the sunset colors, the giraffes were but 100m away and our couple, standing there with each other after an amazing day – it was really really special.
How do you envision yourselves expanding on the theme of How I Shot This?
We really want to grow this platform into a resource for wedding photographers, and photographers in general. Our dream is that it becomes a place that people visit often to learn about new techniques, new styles, new ways of shooting things and so we do have quite a few plans underwork at the moment. We already have a website platform that’s going through the final phases of testing, and we have a bunch of photographers who are keen to jump in on the project. We are going to expand it to different genre’s of photography as well as throw in some new side projects. Like, Podcasts and tutorials.
Where do you see yourselves in the next couple of years? Sticking to the same journey of much traveling, or settling down for a few?
We’re at that point where we’re thinking about starting a family and as much as we’d love to keep traveling as much as we do now, we may want to be a bit closer to home. Wherever home will be. We’re putting in so much effort and energy into HIST and we would really love to make this project become our main focus since we can tick off all the boxes that we love doing: teaching, staying close to home and still shooting weddings from time to time.
We hope you found our interview with Shayne to be as interesting as we did. Just reading through his responses, it’s really eye opening stuff and surprisingly authentic.
To learn more about Melli & Shane, we highly recommend giving them a visit and, if you’re a photographer, check out their shop and preset packs.
