Wedding photography is HARD! I think we did a pretty good job all in all, but I was astonished at all the things I learned in the process. I've always wondered how photographers can charge so much for taking pictures at a single event - now I know why they make the big bucks! After over seven hours of panicking about getting all the right angles and negotiating with guests about pictures, I was ready for a drink! Beyond assembling a small (necessary) crew of two and our equipment, the first rule of thumb I learned:
"Know your territory." This may seem obvious, and I actually did go to the church and some of the other areas we'd be taking pictures ahead of time, just to get the lay of the land and the lighting. But when you're scrambling to capture seven important moments of a wedding within the space of five minutes, all things learned fall to the wayside and you’re alone with your instincts.
“It’s not your day.” At weddings when I’m this near to the wedding party at all times, I typically feel the need to help however possible – fetching, tidying, towing, cleaning, or carrying whatever the bride needs. However, I had to force myself to take a much more observatory role and simply be the documentarian, not a participant; tough for me!
“Expect the unexpected.” Perhaps not so shockingly, not everything was as I thought it would be. Upon arriving at the church, we were asked not to shoot from the aisle, not even from the back of the church. Given the layout of the church, this gave us very little leverage to get the angles we wanted. We had to get creative quite a bit, and it made me particularly thankful there were two of us!
“Think Professional.” This one also may seem obvious, but it was important for me to remind myself that the couple would not particularly want pictures of wasted guests or red wine stains on a wedding dress at the end of the night. Typically, I would probably snap these candids just the same, for the sake of art. But weddings are a whole different league. So I steered clear.
“Bring a backup.” This is perhaps the most important lesson I learned from the experience. And, thankfully, we did! We had five cameras (three of them loaners), several spare memory cards, an auxiliary flash, and a tripod in all – and still I felt panicked about the equipment – realizing a contact issue with my camera early on in the day that required me to switch back and forth between cameras in the event that the problem popped up again.
This particular shot is a deliberate blur of waitstaff running around, probably equally frantic, to get all the dinner served efficiently. Would I do it again? Perhaps not, or, if I did… after knowing all the right questions to ask ahead of time! The wedding was beautiful and I hope we did it justice… back to touching up the pictures...
