Thomas Gartman
Born: January 14, 1964
First Camera: Sexy Blue Imperial Mk XII Flash 620 Camera, 1970
First 35mm SLR: Minolta SRT-201
While I worked at Outer Banks Contractors my boss had a Canon AV-1 and I had a crappy Kodak point and shoot. He showed me really cool pics of blazing sunsets and the stamen of flowers; I complained that I couldn’t do that. He worked part-time at Jim’s Camera House. One day he walked in and put an old leather camera case on my desk. It contained a Minolta SRT-201, a 50mm f/1.7 Rokkor, a Soligor 28-85 f/4-5.6, a Focal (K-Mart) brand flash, and two rolls of Fujichrome 100. He said, “You owe Jim $100.00. You need to pay him Friday.”
Started work at Jim’s Saturday, June 10, 1989. My job description was to shut up and stay the Hell out of Maggie’s way.
Managed Jim’s from April of 1997 to December 1999 when I ran screaming out the door. Shot independently from New Year’s Eve 1999/2000 to the end of 2007.
Started at Shooters 2008.
I shot weddings for my friends for a couple of years for free before I ever had the courage to expect payment.
I believe the photographer is not a part of the show, and I try to stay out of the way and shoot inconspicuously. I rarely seek the attention of those I shoot, I prefer to get what happened as it happened. I don’t like to call my style “Photojournalism.” A wedding is not a news story, and I’m not from the New York Times. A wedding is a romance story and it should be photographed as such, not just documented. At the ceremony, my primary focus is, of course, on the couple; though I keep my eye on the rest of the show too. You never know when Dad will cry, Mom will laugh, or Granny will bestow that sweet, sedate, loving smile that melts everyone’s hearts. After the ceremony, I turn on the energy and take charge so the happy couple can get to the reception without further ado. At the reception, one of my goals is to get every face there. I become the wedding photo ninja and sneak shots of the people, decorations, cake, surprises and wellspring of happy emotions that tend to run rampant at weddings. Sometime during the night, my target is sunset (whenever one is available) I try to get the couple to sneak off somewhere for a few intimate shots of just them; then I abandon them to each other so that they might sneak a few moments with each other. They’ve usually forgotten all about me by the last few shots anyway.