I`ve seen everything from the sublime to the ridiculous

FEATURED
JEFF ASCOUGH
"I’ve seen everything from the sublime to the ridiculous and every
facet of human behaviour on a wedding day."
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MASTERFUL WEDDINGS
AN: Please introduce yourself. Where do you
live and work?
JA: My name is Jeff Ascough; I’m forty-four
years old and have been a professional wedding
photographer for twenty-two years. I’m based on
the North West coast of England where I have
my home and my studio. My work takes me all
over the UK and into Europe.
AN: When and how did you get into
photography?
JA: In the late 1980’s my father started a
wedding and portrait business. He was a
university lecturer and was hoping to take early
retirement so that he could become a full time
photographer. I was between jobs looking to go
to college to get a degree in psychology. I had
no interest in photography at the time. My dad
didn’t get the retirement package he wanted, so
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Interview with Jeff Ascough
they were left with no one to run the business
which is when they asked me if I would be interested, I was, and the rest is history.
AN: You are well known for your photojournalistic style. What inspired you to shoot in this way?
JA: Around 1995 I got sick of the posed, traditional style of photography that was prevalent at
the time. I wanted to be a proper photographer,
not someone who just directed and posed people.
The actual photographic content of what I was
doing at the time was very simplistic and mundane. At a wedding, while I was posing people
and staging the photographs, I saw all these
great little moments around me that I thought
would make good pictures but felt trapped by
what the market expected in terms of wedding
photography. One wedding day I took a 35mm
camera with me to the wedding and in between
shooting the staged pictures, I started to shoot
JEFF ASCOUGH
little candids of the rest of the day in black and
white. That was the moment that I decided that
this is what being a photographer was all about,
and from that day I’ve shot in a photojournalistic
style.
AN: What are your influences?
JA: My influences have always come from outside of wedding photography and I have always
had a great affinity with street and documentary
photographers. Winogrand, Salgado, Alex Webb,
Don McCullin, James Nachtwey, the list is endless. The thing for me has always been to try
and understand how these photographers shoot
in terms of their approach and mind-set rather
than just trying to copy their photographs. If I
had to choose just one photographer that has had
the most influence on my work then it would
be Henri Cartier-Bresson. His book The Mind’s
Eye taught me how to be a photographer and his
images simply resonate with me. His very mathematical approach to composition I can relate
to, and his concepts and ideas on taking pictures
sit very comfortably with me.
AN: Most wedding photographers wouldn’t be
caught dead without an elaborate flash set-up.
You, on the other hand, shoot exclusively with
available light. How did this come about?
JA: I have always found flash to be incredibly
intrusive. As someone that wishes to remain unnoticed on the wedding day, it is important that
I don’t draw attention to myself while shooting. As soon as my subject becomes aware of
me then I have little chance of getting another
picture or exploring a picture further.
Flash is the one medium that immediately
signifies the presence of a photographer. I also
feel that flash always adds something artificial
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JEFF ASCOUGH
to a scene. It isn’t a natural light source, so any
‘flashed’ pictures will have a falseness to them.
AN: You are known as one of the world's top
wedding photographers. To what do you attribute
your success?
JA: Personally I don’t ever think about the
accolades—I’m just a photographer who has a
style which certain people like. If you want to
quantify success, that to me is having clients that
like what I do and a standard of living which
comes from that audience. There is also a lot of
hard work that goes into what I do, and a constant obsession with developing my own style
and approach so that my work never becomes
stale or static. Each year my pictures have to
be better than the previous year, but they must
always look like I shot them. I never follow fad
or fashion within photography and always try to
take pictures that I like rather than worrying too
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much about what other photographers think.
AN: Please tell us about a memorable experience
while on a shoot.
JA: There have been so many. I’ve seen everything
from the sublime to the ridiculous and every facet
of human behaviour on a wedding day. Alcohol
is usually involved in most of the funniest and ridiculous things but perhaps the most bizarre experience was when the groom secretly organized the
whole wedding, including the bride’s dress, and
then told the bride that they were getting married
in three days time. Nobody at the ceremony was
sure the bride would turn up. She did though, with
a dress that didn’t fit, and a look of total disbelief
on her face. That was a strange day indeed.
AN: Earlier in your career you were shooting
with Leica cameras and lenses. In recent years
you have made the switch to Canon, not only as a
JEFF ASCOUGH
consumer, but also as an ambassador. How did
this come about?
JA: I actually started my career with Hasselblad
then moved onto Canon 35mm when I made a
move to photojournalism. I took up Leica rangefinder cameras several years into my career when
I began explore the possibilities of shooting in
lower light without flash. Leica gave me the option of doing that. I used Leica exclusively up
until 2005 when I saw a Canon 1DMKII camera
and realised the game had truly changed and
there was no economic or artistic benefit in staying with film any more. Leica didn’t have a digital rangefinder, and for me the familiarity with
the Canon system and the fact that I had all my
old Canon lenses made the move to digital very painless. Three years later Canon
approached me to become an Ambassador
for them.
under extreme pressure for long hours and often
without any rest. They require a fit mind and
body, but above all they demand a photographer
that is one-hundred percent dedicated to producing the very best images for their clients. There
are no second chances if you screw up and after
the wedding day the photographs become the
most important thing to the client. If you can
handle all of this and you have a good head for
business and a style of shooting that is different to others in the marketplace you may have a
chance of being successful. ♥
See more at: jeffascough.com
AN: Please tell us a little about your post
processing. Are there any special programs
that you use?
JA: Post processing is very simple. I
process all of my RAW images in Adobe
Lightroom and export those images as
colour 16 bit jpeg files. Black-and-white
conversions are done in Photoshop CS5
using my own actions to recreate an
authentic film look to the pictures. Any
retouching and enhancement is also done
in Photoshop as I still think it is the best
software for this.
AN: What advice would you give to a
young photographer wanting to get into
shooting weddings?
JA: Weddings are one of the easiest genres
of photography to get into but they are
also one of the hardest to survive in. Weddings need a photographer that can work
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