All right, welcome back everyone. Thank you for tuning in today. We have Demetric from United Photography on the show. Welcome, Demetric. Hey, how you doing, man? Thanks for having me on. Yeah, thanks for tuning in. Super excited. Yeah, no, I'm a big fan of your work and so I just wanted to kind of have you on the show and specifically regarding weddings, you do a good amount of weddings. So I just kind of wanted to chat with you regarding that kind of work. How did you first get into weddings and then I guess to take a step back from there, how did you first get into photography in general? Yeah, man, for starters, you know, you know, I'm always thankful whenever someone stumbles across my work and actually sees the value that I'm putting out there because, you know, as a photographer, you spend so much time just trying to like find your style and find the message that you want to put out into the world and I guess like that journey never ends though, you know, but I've spent a lot of time just trying to get there and so it's always cool, man, to see people reach out and just showing appreciation for the work I put out there. For me, my background is in street photography. So I remember when like the iPhone 4 specifically came out and I was that member in the group of friends that always wanted to find the good lighting and, you know, the girls are always like, no, no, let let Dimitri take the picture. He always he cares, you know, and it kind of grew from there. And then I grew up in Arlington, which is several blocks, several blocks I feel from DC. So I used to walk around DC and I took pictures with my phone of like the art of the buildings in DC and then from buildings went to, you know, just doing phone portraits of people. And then when Instagram kind of blew up, I started a iPhone photography page and then that kind of just, you know, slowly just started snow snowballing from there and then I bought a bought a cheap DSLR. And then I was at this time I was a I was a project manager and it was, you know, it was tough long hours. I have a family, I have kids and it was just it was getting to me just being away from home a lot. And then I remember just sitting down and I was trying to think to myself, like, what is the one thing that I like to do that I feel like I can just do it every day. And I like, you know, kind of looked over and I was like, man, take pictures, like, let's let's try to do that. And, um, yeah, I had that Canon T6 specifically, and ended up doing an engagement shoot for like 40 bucks. And then, you know, it's like, it was like the rest was history from that. It kind of turned into a wedding of a friend of mine for like 500 bucks. And then I found that weddings are almost like street photography is very unpredictable. And you're always looking for the moments. And it could happen at any given time. And that that's what drawn me to weddings, because like I said, my background is in street photography. And that's why I just kept going along with him. And so now, you know, I got a couple photographers on the team, and we do anywhere from 60 to 70 weddings a year. We also do a lot of conferences in DC, you know, but um, you know, weddings is definitely the big interest when it comes to photography, though. For sure, man. So that's, that's a lot of weddings. How many how many of that is you versus your team? So I personally probably do around 40. I did like 40 this year. And the rest were just associate shoots. My associate shooting the wedding. So we do we do quite a bit of weddings, man. Yeah. What's your what's one of your favorite places that you've shot at? So it's funny, I sometimes get this question from like my couples when like, we're trying to figure out where to do the engagement sessions. And so my answer is just it's corny. Right? It's a very it's gonna be a very corny answer. And I always lean. I always kind of bounce that question back to my couples, like wherever my my, my clients are most of it. Sorry. Motion detector. So wherever my clients are most comfortable at, wherever, whatever place that brings out their authentic self, makes the shoot just fun. And when they're having a good time, I'm having a good time. And when I'm having a good time, my creativity just, it just opens up. And you know, like I can turn. Are you familiar with a lot of DC photographers? Um, I mean, a little bit, I guess. You know, his name, Sam heard? Yes. Yeah, so. So like, I learned a lot from Sam took a lot of his workshop. So like, when I get into that creative space, it's like, you can pretty much turn anything into a good spot to shoot, right? In terms of like, venues, if you want to go like that route, St. Francis Hall, I don't know if you've ever been there, is, is probably one of my favorite venues in the in the, specifically in DC. Cool people. It's a it's beautiful. Like the outside, they have this amazing gardens. Amazing church. It's just all around nice. But um, but yeah, so like, as far as the wedding venue, St. Francis Hall, hands down my favorite. And then wherever my couple is, you know, wants to have the most fun, like, we will get pizza and have a shoot in the pizzeria, we'll get some ice cream and do a little ice cream shoot, whatever. Awesome. Yeah, I mean, you mentioned you mentioned about, you know, the wedding, kind of getting into weddings from street photography and kind of the similarity similarities there. But I think, you know, looking at your work, you definitely have, I think, I think a certain look, a certain feel and a certain like, I don't tell you what, how did you, I guess, kind of develop that style? And how would you, I guess, describe the way you approach when you start? Yeah, so I like to, so since my background is street photography, so my composition stems from shooting a lot of architecture, right? So I always find a big wide composition, and then find a good place to place my couples versus I know a lot of people tend to lean more towards the emotion, which I do as well. But I know the fun and like, like weddings and couple sessions for me is being able to like create these grando-esque, I think that's the word, kind of photos. If you're familiar with Two Man Studios, they do. Yeah, man, check them out. They do a lot of like, big places, little people type of photos, which, which I love. And as far as like my style goes, it's it kind of goes back to what I was mentioning in the beginning, just repetition. I got I do tons of weddings, I do, you know, tons of shoots. So it's one of those things where you just keep shooting and shooting and shooting. And then your style is going to evolve, like just over time, naturally. I remember like a couple days ago, I was like, just, I just happened to be like, looking for a specific photo. And I came across like, one of my very first, like weddings I did, it was like two or three wedding, two or three. And then I was like, dang, I was like, I thought I was like, decent, like, okay, back then. I'm pretty decent. Like in the photos, when I look back at those photos, and like, like, people actually paid me for this. So it's just, it comes with time, and you get you get influenced by a lot of people, whether it be like their style or the way they they post process their colors, you may lean more towards, you know, a saturated green or desaturated green or reds or blues. And, you know, it's just there's so much influence, especially with social media. So I would say as you're just consuming content on a daily basis, and you're just shooting weddings after weddings after weddings, your style just just naturally evolve, you know? Yeah, for sure. And I think as somebody who does primarily just a lot of video work, definitely, definitely your, you know, that growth over time when you look back, and it's just like, you know, but I think that that comes through, you know, like you mentioned, like pushing yourself doing it a lot, and getting that inspiration, looking at a lot of work, too, and then just counseling each wedding, just trying to do like a little bit better and change something up, improve a little bit. Yeah, kudos to you for doing video man videos, videos a beast. Yeah, well, one time I offered a free video for one of my couples, because I had it in my head, I was like, I could do video, right? You know, like, I can anticipate moments in weddings. So I can do I can do video and I can't do video. I just can't do it, man. People people kind of put it put it in the same categories, photography, but it's it's there. They do have their similarities, but they are very, very different. It's very different. So kudos to you, man. For sure. Well, just to wrap up, shortly, I always like to end with this question. But if you had, if you had just, I guess, one word of advice for couples who are planning a wedding, maybe looking for a venue, a photographer, any anything that you would say to them? Yes, yes, yes. I love, I love, love, love this question. One of the things I always like to wrap up whenever I have an initial consultation with couples is that you will, they want to find someone that they can genuinely connect with. Right. Cameras are so advanced nowadays, your average person can grab a $6,000 camera and take a good photo, a decent photo. Right. But the thing is, what separates the the average from the good, better, best photographers is their ability to connect and to, and to, and to really just vibe with you and your, your partner and your family, because you're inviting them into the most important part of your entire day, entire life. And then so you actually want to like genuinely like that person, because the more comfortable you'll feel with that person, the more you're going to be yourself. And the more you can be yourself throughout the entire day, the better emotions and the better photos and images we would as photographers and videographers will be able to create for you. So that when 20 years from now, you're looking at your your wedding video, your album, and you can actually feel the clips and feel the images instead of just, you know, just kind of looking at some stills and not feeling anything really for sure. So it's, it's, it's all about getting to know the person that you want to join on your day. Obviously, budget matters. But spend more time asking questions about that individual versus what kind of camera are you shooting with? Do you shoot film or digital? Like those questions are absolutely it's all about the person get to know the person. Yeah, absolutely. I, I agree with that. So I resonate with that a lot. Because I mean, as a as a video for your guitar for two, you're there next to the couple like all day, right? So it's that much more important that they like you, they connect with you, you know, just as a person. And I think that, like you said, that adds so much more when they do look back photos, they it's a it's a completely, you know, positive experience and feeling versus maybe they just didn't know that didn't connect with didn't have that, I guess, connection with. Exactly. Exactly. 1000% man. Cool. All right, Demetric, United Photography, thank you for being on the show. I'll link your socials and your site and everything below. So people can check that out. But yeah, I appreciate you joining us today. Awesome, man. This is this has been fun. This is one of my first times ever being interviewed as a photographer. So thank you for the opportunity. I definitely look looking forward to checking out that episode whenever you put it on there. Awesome, man. Well, thank you everyone for tuning in and we will see you next time.