Sometimes when I am in full right-brained mode, words come out of my mouth that make no sense. Most of my photography assistants and wedding/portrait clients know exactly what I mean, despite what I say. I’ve been know to make lots of “RJ’isms” during my shoots and here are a few 2010 Hall of Famer’s:

“Let’s flash the beauty on them!”
(Let’s use the beauty dish as the reflector on our main flash!)

“Can you get the toast for me while I cull?”
(Can you create a few photographs of the toasts during the reception while I upload and edit a few images for the slideshow?)

“Can we walk it a down a few steps?”
(Can we “knock it down” a few stops by decreasing the ambient exposure by increasing the power of our flash and increasing shutter speed?)

“Do some individuals with the grooms over there.”
(Can you take a few shots of the groom paired up separately with each of his groomsman.)

“Before you stick my card in your slot, reformat it.”
(Since you are shooting Canon and the compact flash card I am lending you is formatted for Nikon, you will want to reformat the card first before shooting with it, otherwise you may risk corrupting the image files.)

“Can you grab all of that?”
(There is a lot of expensive and vast amounts of photography gear requiring the efforts of a least a dozen sherpa, but I believe in you and know you can do it… which is the reason I hired you in the first place).

“Crap, just ran out of film!”
(Please, help me stall because either my batteries just died or I just filled my compact flash memory card on my DIGITAL camera and I haven’t figured out which one at the moment!)

“Why do they call the bride a bride and a groom and bride’s groom? Why not just call him a groom?”
(Don’t ask.)

“That’s the oldest book in the trick!”
(You can figure that one out… I have mild dyslexia.)

“K you guys throw ’em ready go!”
(Go ahead and throw the dust that you are holding in your hands so I can create a romantic photo with the warm glow of the setting sun hitting the tiny specs of dust).

For proof, here’s an “RJ’ism” caught on film during a sunset portrait session at the Stanley Hotel wedding in Estes Park, Colorado.

The resulting image as seen through my camera:

And my fave: “Love that up!”
(Wow, turn around to savor the setting sun behind the mountains. It’s so romantic to watch your first sunset as a newly minted couple… awww.)

What I saw through my lens moments after:

I’m sure dozens of other “RJ’isms” quotables have lapsed in the recesses of collective memory. And while the word “quotables” used in the last sentence won’t be found in Webster’s, there will be many more “RJ’isms” to come in 2011! Cheers!