She was born Elizabeth Marie Bishop.

Two years ago, she became Elizabeth Marie Zusi.

No matter. She's my daughter. Elizabeth, or "Liz", as her family calls her, is a professional photographer. A few weeks ago she won the Fuji Masterpiece Award in photography. The category was "Weddings".

Liz's award-winning photo showed a bride getting ready to be married. Liz captured the bride carefully applying polish to her toe nails. A last-minute touch. An original moment.

Liz, who's 32, grew up playing with cameras because her father owned several 35mm cameras and 8mm cameras.

While filming a documentary on the City of Newark titled "It's My Home", I let Liz join the film crew. She was 12 years old. She used a 16mm camera to shoot some candid shots of Newark's bleak homes in the ghetto on a rainy day. That's about as grim as it gets. Some of her shots wound up in the montage opening of the two hour motion picture documentary.

At Monmouth Regional High School, Liz won a handful of New Jersey Teen Arts Festival photo awards. She never told her mother or me about these Teen Arts honors. We found out one day when we saw some colorful ribbons in her bedroom. They were just lying there, in the corner of her room. We then learned she had won awards in three categories.

When Liz finally went into business for herself two years ago, I cautioned her that nine out of 10 small businesses fail within two years. She said she's going to be that one out of 10 that succeeds.

And did she ever. Elizabeth Marie Photography is now in its third year and she is turning away customers. The reason she cannot book everyone who wants her as their photographer is that she promises each customer she will be the photographer who will do the entire "shoot". Many professional studios "farm out" their work to other photographers.

While at the peak of her professional form, Liz must now turn down even more business. She is expecting her first child in the fall. She wants to work at least eight months during her pregnancy. Her special assistant will be her mother, Jeanne, a retired teacher.

Jeanne is the nucleus of the Bishop family. One of the reasons Jeanne retired last December was to help Liz and our other daughter, Jennifer, also a teacher now at home raising her three year old daughter. Jennifer is expecting her second child about the same time as Liz's.

One of my favorite pastimes is "hanging out" at Elizabeth Marie Photography Studio on Ocean Avenue, Sea Bright. Standing in the studio, gazing at the color and black-and-white pictures in various sizes, I catch an inner glimpse of my daughter's pictorial world by studying her stunning photographs. To be a top quality photographer in demand, you must possess a unique imagination. In a word, originality.

The moment Elizabeth started taking pictures in her teens, there was little I could tell her except to look through the lens and let her eyes and imagination frame the picture. Creative photography involves a lot of trial-and-error and gut instinct.

Liz is a gifted artist because her pictures tell a story. That's what photography at its best is all about.

Yes, a picture is worth a thousand words. But only if it tells a story.

Since going professional in her 20s, Liz has told hundreds of stories with her cameras. The cameras she played with growing up cost me about $100-$200. Her state-of-the-art cameras today cost around $5,000.

Photography as a craft is a costly operation.

But it's not the equipment. It's the person behind the lens making magic with every click of the camera.

And Elizabeth's "clicks" are being honed to perfection with every roll she shoots.

(Gordon Bishop, an author, historian and syndicated columnist, is the recipient of 8 Congressional Commendations, 12 National and 15 State Journalism Awards, including New Jersey's first 'Journalist-of-the-Year' - 1986 New Jersey Press Association.)
 

Elizabeth Marie Photography:
Masters of candid photographs

The days of the formal wedding portrait and stiff, posed photographs have passed. More and more couples are opting to capture the spirit of their big day with candid shots in both color and black and white photographs.

Photojournalism style (black and white candid shots) is the hot new trend in photography. The results are impressive. With the photojournalism wedding photography, the happy couple looks as though they just stepped out of the pages of Life magazine.

Elizabeth Marie Zusi, of Elizabeth Marie Photography at 1480 Ocean Avenue in Sea Bright, has found the very best wedding photos are produced when using the photojournalism method.

"The idea is to capture the joy of the day and a tender moment in time - a candid moment to be remembered years down the road", explains Elizabeth Marie of her photography technique. "The photographer using a photojournalistic technique is supposed to be nonintrusive in order to catch a picture-perfect moment before it passes. The bride and groom would rather remember the fun and romance of their wedding day, not the photographer who is making them pose."

Traditional wedding photographs that are staged have become a thing of the past. The formal portrait once desirable with our parents and grandparents holds little appeal for members of the new generation who are taking their vows.

"The candid shots tell a much bigger story. The atmosphere is more relaxed. The bride, groom and the entire wedding party are all in a more casual frame of mind and feel more at ease when they aren't given orders about where to stand and how to pose. All the participants are captured at their very best - while they are enjoying themselves." says Zusi.

Wedding packages have changed as well. Albums are still around and probably always will be, but sizes and styles have changed somewhat. Image boxes (with 4-by-5-inch framed photographs) are more versatile, as the separate mats can be easily displayed. Many couples get the image box as an add-on to their albums, using color photos for the album photographs and choosing strictly black and white photographs for those in the image box.

For parents, wall-folios are the newest trend, which can display an assortment of both traditional photographs and candid shots of the happy couple.

Tradition is not completely forgotten in the new millennium however. Black and white portraits are still desirable, and those that are hand-colored with oils for only a touch of color (a technique done generations ago) have a beauty and timelessness that will look as lovely and romantic 50 years from now as they do today.

It may seem that with all the video taping going on at weddings these days, the photographs are merely a supplement to the taped production. This simply isn't so.

"The photographs are far more valuable because they are timeless, something to be handed down from generation to generation" Elizabeth Marie reminds us. "They are romantic and tell a wonderful story. Photographs are tangible. You can hold them in your hand and study every nuance - shades, dress details, half-smiles and tears of joy frozen in time."

For more information on photojournalism photography technique and how it can enhance your wedding day, contact Elizabeth Marie Photography at (732) 530-5045. You can also view stunning examples of the technique at www.elizabethmariephoto.com.

By Jo-Ann Lamon Reccoppa
Independent News
February 23, 2000