They may not be looking for unusual settings—or, at the very least, atypical backgrounds—for their wedding images, but they sure have a knack for finding them.

“Actually, we differ in our approach to locations,” Jamie Reichman says. “I like to see the place ahead of time if possible; Todd prefers to go in and work with whatever we discover.”

“We travel for a lot of weddings,” Todd says, “and sometimes we have time to check things out, sometimes we don’t. And sometimes we’ll check things out at noon and by the time we have a chance to shoot it’ll be four in the afternoon and the light is completely different. It’s kind of a weird situation; you have to get a sense of what the light is going to look like later.”

“I’ve learned never to plan too much,” Jamie adds. “If I get something in my head right away, it almost certainly will not work out. But I do take little mental notes as I’m walking around, and if I see something I have the opportunity to use later on, I’ll do it.”

The staircase photo for example. “I had done all her bridal portraits,” Jamie says, “and basically we were done. But I’d seen the stairway, and it was one of those shots I’d had in my head for a long time but had never before been in a venue that had anything like that. I thought, well, she was going to walk down those stairs anyway, so I just straightened out her dress, got in position and got the shot.”

While the Reichmans always look for settings that will give the bride, groom and guests a subtle sense of the place chosen for the wedding, once in a while a location plays a major role; the windmill for instance.

“That was in the UK in a coastal village called Rottingdean, in the Brighton area,” Todd says. “It was the groom’s hometown, and the bride was from America, so the wedding wasn’t just about the wedding, it was also about her family traveling to the UK. For us it was important to capture a sense of the whole experience. We went a couple of days ahead of time because we knew how important the travel was for them, and how important it was that we capture a sense of two worlds.”

While settings and backgrounds make for signature dramatic photographs, they aren’t Todd and Jamie’s primary goals. “We want to shoot great shots and get dramatic images without the people remembering what we were doing,” Todd says. “We try not to be too in control of what’s happening. For me it’s about being comfortable with what the circumstances are, and not getting caught up in wanting something to look the way I want it to look.”

“I always had a good grasp of composition,” Jamie says, “and once I got an understanding of light, I felt I had the ability to go into any situation and create a great image. I always have control of the angle I’m choosing to deal with how the light is falling; the situation doesn’t always require me to control the people in the image.”

“And for us, on a technical level, that means working on a very small scale,” Todd says. Meaning, they go in light: not a lot of people, not a lot of gear.

“Everything fits in a shoulder bag,” Todd says. “We found the more stuff you have, the more people pay attention to you. And the more stuff, the more people think the stuff is what’s taking the picture instead of the photographer. The less you have, the more they assume you must be good at what you do. It’s a calculated choice we make.”

“We realized the benefit when we switched to Nikon,” Jamie says. “The zoom lenses were so much better, we were able to pare down significantly. Now we each carry two bodies and a 24-70mm and a 70-200mm—plus a few lenses for special situations, like the 14-24mm [AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED] and the 105mm Micro VR [AF-S VR Micro-NIKKOR 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED]. Before Nikon, I was always switching primes, and every time you stop, it makes the client a little bit more uncomfortable. Having those zooms means working quickly and efficiently; it’s is a huge benefit.”

“If I have a situation where I’m going to be working in a short room, I know I can have one camera with the 24-70mm and not need anything else,” Todd says. “Later if I’m shooting portraits, I need only the 70-200mm on the camera. There are very few times of the day when I need two cameras and the bag. I can get it down to one lens, one camera, and that makes me less stressed, and when I’m less stressed the clients are too. It’s not the most important thing about our photography, but what we’ve found over time is that it’s the accrual of small things that helps you get to the level you want to be.”

When natural light isn’t enough, Speedlights provide the rest.

“I usually use an SB-800 for off-camera remote shooting with the SB-900 on my camera as the controller,” Jamie says. Todd’s preference is the SB-700: “It’s light and small, and that’s a big benefit.”

In the past year they’ve added a third person to the team in order to offer video to their clients. “We wanted video to be handled by someone dedicated to it who’d use a D-SLR,” Todd says. And so Jason Link became their dedicated videographer, video editor and producer. He shoots with a D7000 that’s alternately fitted to a tripod, a monopod, a slider, a shoulder rig or a Steadycam, and now Jamie and Todd can provide a five- to seven-minute video that covers, in storytelling fashion, the events of the day, including the entire wedding ceremony. They also include a special edition video that offers an extended view of the wedding day.

“Stills and video work seamlessly for us,” Todd says. “When you know what’s important to shoot, when you have a definitive goal, it’s easy to make the right decisions about what you’re going to do.”

You can view the team’s wedding videos and many more still images at www.reichmanphoto.com.