Dramatic: A couple is captured on camera on their wedding day by photographer Roberto Valenzuela.

A picture is worth a thousand words, the saying goes. In the case of photographer Roberto Valenzuela, he seeks to be a storyteller of happily ever after through his work.

A wedding photographer by trade, Roberto Valenzuela was originally a professional concert classical guitarist for 10 years before becoming a high school teacher, where he picked up photography as a hobby.

“I was a business teacher and I usually taught economics, finance, accounting and marketing,” Valenzuela told The Jakarta Post over dinner in town.

During his time as a teacher, then-United States president George W. Bush handed a grant of US$90,000 as he wanted students to learn about business by running a real business.

“The students had 24 hours to decide what kind of business they would run and they came back the next day with photography,” he said.

Back then, Valenzuela himself did not know much about photography, and was not even aware that the camera and its lens could be separated.

It was after the students started buying the necessary equipment that Valenzuela started developing his
passion for photography, and his love for the trade grew after studying the art further.

By then, he had gotten into photography so much that he decided to quit his job to pursue full-time photography as a career, something that he said was “a very stupid move” since the school district had given him tenure that year, meaning he could have the position for life. But he has no regrets. Although he liked his teaching job, he was not 100 percent sure it was what he wanted to do.

Roberto Valenzuela

As a photographer, Valenzuela enjoys wedding photography the most, having made it the subject of his latest book Wedding Storyteller Vol. 1, with volumes 2 and 3 coming out later.

He got into wedding photography as he was getting married when he lived in Tucson, Arizona, which is not known for its fashion scene.

“There’s only two things you can do in Tucson: you can shoot weddings or you can shoot portraits. I went with wedding photography,” he said.

Even after moving into the glamorous, star-studded Beverly Hills in Los Angeles, California, Valenzuela said he still preferred wedding photography. “It’s the most difficult kind of photography you can do to master. Not to shoot it, but to master it. You have to be good at everything, including people skills.”

Wedding photography brings with it several unique challenges, as nothing is set up for the photographer like in fashion photography.

A wedding photographer, he said, has to be ready to adapt to various situations.

Valenzuela said he found a way to stand out from the myriad of wedding photographers in the industry: storytelling.

“When you have emotional stories, stories that mean something to the couple, that’s going to make the client love you more than any dramatic shots. I still take one or two pictures like that, but that’s not what made me
different from the rest,” he said.

In order to work magic into his storytelling, Valenzuela works closely with the couple, having discussions with them to get a sense of where to be and what to do.

And instead of presenting them with hundreds of photos to choose from, he presents them a series of photos that tells a little story behind them, like the bride seeing her father for the first time, or them both getting ready to walk down the aisle.

In the moment: A bride is seen through photographer Roberto Valenzuela’s lens.

One thing Valenzuela always asks the couple is whether they have someone they are close to. For instance, if one of them is close to their grandma, she will be the center in many photos in the story. If they don’t like their father — which happens, Valenzuela said — then he will not be as involved in the story.

Valenzuela discovered his system by accident. In one of his earlier assignments, a flower girl, who was supposed to throw flowers behind the bride, started pulling off the flower petals and throwing them in the middle of the ceremony for no reason.

“When she ran out of petals, she went down on the floor, picked up all the petals, put them in the basket, and started the process all over again. I took that entire story because I thought it was funny,” he said.

“It turns out, my client purchased the entire story for their wall. They put an entire two layouts of an album, and I charge a lot for layouts so that was a lot of money. I said, ‘Why did you do all this?’ and they’re like, ‘I love the story’.”

From that day on, Valenzuela said he stopped taking pictures the normal way — instead, he develops a story beforehand.

Along with his award-winning wedding photography, Valenzuela is also sponsored by Canon USA as a member of the Canon Explorer of Light program, which highlights the works of notable photographers around the world.

Lady in white: By telling stories, Roberto Valenzuela has found a way to stand out in wedding photography.

In fact, Valenzuela considers Canon’s EOS 5D Mark IV campaign to be one of the hardest assignments he has ever done to date.

“Canon called me up and they told me they wanted me to open up the box of the camera, photograph the entire campaign after I opened the box, and in less than 24 hours they were going to put my printed photos at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. That’s a lot of pressure,” Valenzuela recalled.

Canon also invited prominent critics to the gallery to judge his works and put it up on YouTube for the world to see.

With most of Valenzuela’s time spent between promoting his Instagram account, meeting with clients — limited to 20 annually — and teaching workshops, he still says that photography gives him the drive to press on and innovate.

“Photography seems like a good combination of art, technique, technical ability and software. It feels like photography is always pushing you [...] I find the career for me has been very fulfilling. If it was easy, it wouldn’t be fun.”

— Photos courtesy of Roberto Valenzuela