R-e-s-p-e-c-t
I finally did it. I photographed a wedding. Not a wedding, exactly. A reception. But the issues are the same. Weddings and similar rites of passage are events that cannot be reproduced. The pressure is on to get things right. Yet professional photographers know that things always go wrong. Missed focus, storage card failures, injuries, lighting disasters. It’s always something. So we plan ahead with redundancy in mind. Extra SD cards and batteries. Spare lenses and camera bodies. More lighting than we will every use.
And that says nothing about content.
When people asked me to photograph a wedding I had a standing response: I won’t photograph the wedding but I’d be happy to photograph the divorce. It was a rude joke meant to tell those who ask, don’t ask. There are wedding photographers who thrive on the stress of shooting these events. It’s a highly developed skill and I admire them. You can find these amazing artists by Googling world’s best wedding photographers and similar phrases, plus your location. Minnesota is full of wedding photographers, and many of them are highly skilled.
Even so, some dear friends asked me to photograph their daughter’s wedding reception after the photographer they had initially hired had to bail out on short notice. I had known the bride practically since she was born. I reluctantly agreed. They assured me that whatever I could get would be fine. I loaded up my car with enough gear to shoot five receptions and headed out on a 175 mile drive to Island Lake, Minnesota. The reception was at a lakeside home owned by the bride’s maternal grandmother and her husband. The incessant summer rain had threatened but the weather broke right on cue, providing beautiful skies and temperatures for the entire event.
I did my best. The photos captured the spirit of the reception but I wouldn’t compare them to the work of those who do this for a living. I am happy to leave this sector of photography to the experts as I return to my humble pursuit of photographing dance, portraits, headshots and street scenes.
It’s not too early to book your family portraits for the holidays.
