Marcus Bell: Best Wedding Photographers 2011

Studio Impressions Brisbane, Australia marcusbell.com

Though Marcus Bell started shooting weddings as an unpaid assistant, he was in it for the money. And as he carried bags for experienced wedding shooters in exchange for a chance to learn how they operate, he noted they mostly relied on formulas. When Bell struck out on his own, he followed their lead and reserved his true passion for personal projects—the landscape work and street photography that first attracted him to the medium. All that changed one day when he asked a couple of commercial photographers when they found time to do the work they really loved. “They said, ‘This is what we really love. It just happens that we get paid really well for it,’” Bell recalls. “It was like a light bulb went on.” Since then, Bell has been applying his landscape and street talents to create vivid, textured images of the events he’s hired to shoot. The change brought him both more business and more pleasure. “Now my wedding photography is what I love doing the most,” he says. His best tip for getting great pictures: Stop listening. “I cut out all the noise,” he says, “and just look at the body language, the eyes, the hand movements, the gestures. They speak louder than the words people are saying.”