Chris Marchetti is a photographic factotum. He does commercial work, he's done architectural…read morephotos for my in-laws, and his downtown studio is lined with artistic and outdoor photos that he will tell you (perhaps only partially truthfully) that he does for fun. Don't let that give you the impression he's the jack of all photographic trades but master of none. He's just plain good at what he does, the result of an eye for detail, an insistence on getting the details right, and over three decades to hone his craft.
Although he does not promote himself as an event photographer, he does hire himself out as one. You will pay more for his services than you will for an upstart's. The pictures you get will be better than most from people who do advertise themselves as event photographers. It will be worth every extra penny, perhaps even to bring him down to Phoenix.
My wife and I chose him after reviewing the portfolios of several Prescott area photographers. During this search we were largely bothered by what we saw: photographers choosing to show off shots that were poorly thought-out and sometimes mis-lit or mis-exposed--for example, a bride and groom's seemingly disembodied heads looking down from a window--but impressed by Marchetti. And his work for our wedding shows that his portfolio shots are not out-of-the-ordinary happy accidents but actually representative.
It almost never rains in Prescott in October, but it did on the day of our wedding. The weather was unrelenting, alternating between drizzles and downpours with only one break in the clouds. Our planned outdoor ceremony and partially outdoor reception was hastily moved indoors. Needless to say, the lighting was very challenging. But Marchetti was up to the task, and without cluttering up our setting with obtrusive studio-style lighting. With a bracket-mounted strobe, a light dash of postprocessing, and a lot of care he took for us a set of much better than passable--well-composed and without bad shadows--photos of the ceremony, pre-event posed shots of the wedding party in various combinations, and candids and semi-candids at the reception.
Technical skill aside, what Marchetti is able to get people to do really sets him apart. He has a "strong personality", meaning he's abrasive at times when doing the posed shots, but at the same time possessed of the personable quality an ability to patter more common in barbers and bartenders. He can get his subjects to relax, and give natural smiles and lively eyes. Good taste helps, too; there were none of those stupid "tilt you heads toward each others'" in either the posed shots or the candids. The strained smiles, awkwardness, and snapshot-esque "deer in headlights" candids all too common in wedding photos were absent in what we received. Poses were natural and candids--which we requested be the emphasis at the reception--felt truly candid but had that added sparkle that can be brought only by a photographer who knows how to get people to act naturally when the lens is pointed their way. Among the results was the best photo in years of my parents together. And my great aunt and great uncle. And my in-laws.
We visited the studio the next day, on Marchetti's request, so that shots could be taken in "good" light. The only thing we couldn't get was a full-length shot of the train of the gown--he's just not set up for that--but what we did get more than makes up for it. I'd expect any professional worthy of that adjective to be able to get these right but Marchetti really made them pop with his control of the lighting and ability to get us to loosen up even during a long session that began (for me) with the awkwardness involved with wearing one's tux at noon. And the icing on the cake: he even had enough good humor to put the digital gadgets and instant checks aside and take a few shots on one of my last rolls of Kodachrome, which were perfectly exposed, bright and luminous with white and black just where they should be, as though he was still shooting film daily for business purposes.
To sum it up: for an event or wedding photographer (and he isn't even an "Event Photographer" or "Wediing Photographer") Chris Marchetti is far above average. If our experience is representative--and his portfolio makes me think it is--a customer can count on him to deliver relaxed, natural poses and candids, even under technically difficult conditions.
