Portraits And Weddings

Mirrorless seems to have found a friend in portraiture

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SPORTS and landscape photographers may still be quite traditional, but one genre in which mirrorless cameras are becoming increasingly common is portraiture – particularly weddings, travel, family portraits and even advertising. For weddings and family portraits, the size issue pops up again.

‘I do sometimes get funny looks at weddings when people see my Fujifilm mirrorless,’ says pro photographer Saraya Cortaville. ‘Some of the “Uncle Bob” guests [family and friends who come with cameras] may have a bigger camera than me. It doesn’t bother me as I know my work is good enough. On the positive side, when photographing children, smaller mirrorless lenses are a godsend. A big 24-70mm SLR zoom can intimidate kids, but with mirrorless it’s much less of an issue. With the crop factor and rear LCD I can get so much closer to them.’

The same goes for Saraya’s travel work, where she spends three months a year working for charities and NGOs. ‘I’d go to places like Nepal or Tanzania and the villagers wouldn’t speak to me for a couple of days as they were so freaked out by my DSLR gear,’ she says. ‘They didn’t understand why I was there.’

Mirrorless discrimination

However, it can cut both ways. John Nassari, a commercial portrait and wedding photographer who shot the cover image for AP 13 August, has also faced resistance to his camera choice, but this time for choosing mirrorless over more traditional kit.