Christian and Yakaly have a love story that romantics would swoon over. Considering their success at the helm of Fire & Ice, an award-winning photography and cinema production company who create fine art photographs and videos for clients wanting to do something a little different, it’s no surprise they come from a pretty spectacular love story themselves. Having locked eyes at a photography conference and losing each other for four years only to find each other again, their intertwined personal history almost seems too much of a fairy tale to be true. Now, working with couples, they help other people’s fairy tales come to life, too.
What is fine art photography?
The easiest way for us to describe 'fine art photography' is that it's the opposite to documentary photography. Everything in the frame is under the complete control of the artist, including posing, lighting, composition, expression, connection, etc. The art you want to create (and the ideas you want to see come to life) are more important than the subject's personality. At Fire & Ice we have certain 'in house' terms for various kinds of shots. Candids, Candid Bangers, and Bangers!
- Candid - A candid moment that happens without any prompting or direction from the artist. Examples - The first kiss at a ceremony, bride laughing with her bridesmaids, guests laughing etc...
- Candid Banger - A candid banger is a scene created by the artist but whatever happens in that scene is a candid moment... For example - A first look with the bride's Dad. (we would set the Dad up in a scene with the best lighting, best background and then ask the bride to walk towards him as he turns around to see her for the first time). Now even though we have had complete control over the overall scene, whatever emotional connection we capture between father and daughter is considered a candid moment.
- Banger - A banger is what we consider 'Fine Art Photography.' Everything is under the complete control of the artist. Lighting, posing, composition, expression, grading etc... At Fire and Ice, this is what we do! It's all we show across all social media platforms and our website as these are the clients we want to attract. You will not see us posting candid moments even though they make up a huge chunk of the clients gallery.
Where do we draw our inspiration?
We draw our inspiration from each individual wedding. We plan every single wedding based on several factors: the couple themselves, the venue, the wedding dress, the color scheme, style, the engagement session etc... We have an in-depth questionnaire that the client fills out for the sole purpose of inspiring us. In our offices, we have a huge client planning board with individual cards describing the couple and location. As a team, we would sit down at a round table in our office, pin the planning card to a whiteboard and story-board/plan out shots and films based on the above information.
Example one
When we carried out a formal consultation with this particular bride, she brought along her sister and niece. The little girl was so fiery and sassy in the consultation that it inspired the following shot
Example two
Millie and Nick were musicians (singer and guitar player) so for the engagement session we created the following film.
How did you get into fine art photography?
I (Christian) in 2017 was a wedding photographer based out of the UK shooting around 30 weddings a year. I met my now wife, Yakaly Di Roma on a Facebook group. Yaky was based out of Florida, shooting fashion, family, and weddings. I flew over, married her, and we combined our businesses.
Our style was born. We combined Yakaly’s fashion experience and my posing experience with wedding photography.
What would be your advice to someone starting out in fine art photography?
Our advice would be the 4 p's! Planning, Practice, Prepare and Perform. All of our big shots are planned. It can be challenging trying to execute intricate shots under the pressure and pace of a wedding day but if you plan, practise and prepare for them, you have a much bigger chance of performing on the day.
If you’d like to see some fine art photography in action, be sure to check out Fire & Ice. Even if you’re not fully ready to take the plunge into shoots or videos with super high production values, looking at their work can help you understand the many ways you could conceptualise or style your next photoshoot!
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