Here Comes the Photographer

I’m shooting a wedding for a friend that’s coming up pretty soon – like a couple of weeks from now.  Every photographer I’ve talked to has said basically, “Don’t do it.  For the love of god, if you want to keep your friends and sanity, back out now!  Claim that you’ve got SIDS or SARS, or some other acronym, but just get out!”

The thing is, as a photographer, there are a billion ways to screw up someone’s wedding, and of course, this is the most important day in their lives.  These will be the pictures that they show everyone ‘til their dying day.

So, I’m a mite bit nervous, but I think it’ll go ok.  I’ve talked to both brides, and they both like my journalistic-style photos, and they both abhor the ‘produced’ feel that the pro photographers were offering.  They also have told me several times that they want the posed shots at a minimum.  They want candid shots and crowd shots and some other basics.  I think I can do that.

Frankly, I’ve worked with a lot of photographers who have done wedding jobs for strangers for pay, but I’ve only known one guy personally who is trying to do weddings full time.  He was/is not a sane man.

It seems like a particularly masochistic thing to do.  You insert yourself into some of the most intimate times of a couple’s lives and have to have the class and artistry to turn it all into ‘the’ history of the day.  And heaven help you if the only clean shot you got of the favorite uncle is when his zipper was down, or if your shot of the garter throwing shows the tattoo that the bride had been trying to hide all day.

I’ve got another photo job today, too.  I’m hoping there wont be any brides, grooms or uncles…