Free The Bird Takes Flight With Evocative Film and Digital Wedding Stories

January 28, 2015

By Laura Brauer

Brought to you by our friends at Richard Photo Lab

freethebird digital-1-13

All photos © Free The Bird

When couples hire Free The Bird for their weddings, they don’t have dove releases in mind— the unique business moniker is the brainchild of Melbourne, Australia-based photographer Jai Long. “It’s a concept of freeing your imagination, so for me it fits my personality and also exactly where I want my photography to go,” says Long, who runs his company with graphic designer and illustrator Leelou Leniart. Free The Bird produces wedding photography that is emotive and dreamy: couples small against sweeping views of nature, or quiet moments in intimate spaces. Working with Leniart adds a second dimension to Long’s photography; the two artists appreciate tactile pieces and take care in producing gorgeous wedding albums and engagement books.

freethebird film-1-15
Long’s photography career required a leap of faith: in early 2014, he decided to quit his job as an electrician and start shooting full time after two-and-a-half years in the wedding business. The self-taught photographer’s active social media presence, which he uses to showcase his work and personal side, contributed to his photographing 30 nuptials in Australia and the United States in his first year alone.

Many of the events Long shoots are destination weddings, and he has documented celebrations across a diverse number of coordinates, from big cities like Chicago, to the open deserts of New Mexico, to the wine regions of his home country. For most of the images of the big event and the goings-on leading up to it, he reaches for his Canon 5D Mark III. Yet, about 20 to 30 percent of his wedding shots are captured with old medium-format cameras like a Pentax 67 and Mamiya 645. He explains, “I’m a quiet person, and film tends to slow things down, you tend to be in the moment more. You think a lot more about a shot, the composition, the colors you’re using, the film stock that you’re using. So much more goes into the process of taking one photo, and I’m very into breaking things down and working things out. And in film, tones are very soft and natural, and I’m totally into that.”

freethebird digital-1-24freethebird film-1-6
Long, with his inclination toward both film and digital, formed an easy relationship with Richard Photo Lab while shooting in Los Angeles last June. He continues to mail them his film from far-flung locations, and they turn around his scanned negatives within two to three days. The Los Angeles lab, like Long, has built its reputation on word of mouth, and the team offers an amiable, highly personal approach to their business. Richard’s community stretches far beyond the West Coast—Long is not the only client who ships his film across multiple time zones. Richard also offers a range of print services, custom products and Color PAC, a consultation for branding, marketing and a photographer’s very own Color Profile.

freethebird digital-1-16freethebird film-1-9
There are alternatives to sending his rolls on a nearly 8,000-mile (13,000 km) voyage to LA, but Long appreciates Richard’s customer service and high standards for quality. “When I’m always busy, I really need people who look after me, and those people are right there. If I send them an email, they’re going to email me back in a couple hours,” Long says. “And how closely they work with me to produce the work I want is just amazing . . . It would be pretty hard for me to walk away from them.” Or, perhaps he should say, fly away.