Photographing A Wedding

Just Married

I “did” a wedding in September.  It was my first photographic shoot of a wedding.  I tend to shoot in a photojournalism style, liking to be on the edge of the action and shooting with a long lense.  I just put together a proof album for the newlyweds to take with them to their family outings at Thanksgiving.  It has turned into a 121-photo story of their wedding day.  The more I looked at the photographs, the more I “saw” the story unfold.  In some ways I saw it better while putting together the album than I did during the actual event.  While it actually occurred in a small town, and is not an event on the streets of the Urban Landscape, it is a pivotal point for my photographic journeys.

Shooting a wedding is fraught with pitfalls and potholes anyway.  The “official” photographer is usually at a disadvantage during nearly all the activities.  For instance, I could not use a flash, nor be closer to the action than halfway  down the aisle at the back of the church.  Yet people were using their cameras and flashes as they sat in the front rows of the church or moved into the aisle to capture the precious moments of the ceremony.  It is very frustrating to the person who is tasked with capturing the moments “officially”.  Add the fact that I am related by marriage to the bride, and feeling under pressure as the outsider in a family event, I was fanatical in getting 5 or 6 shots of every moment that passed during the entire event so as not to “blow” a shot.

I will say that if one is ever an “official” photographer at a wedding, equipment is everything.  I invested a lot of money in the equipment I used, some well spent…some not so well spent.  The camera was instrumental in achieving the end result, however.  I am still amazed at how well the Canon 1D Mark II performed.  I had a 50 mm f1.4 lense and a 75-300mm zoom lense to work with.  I shot in the “raw” format.  And WOW! The pictures were crisp, sharp, and the colors were spectacular.

I don’t know if I will ever “do” another wedding, but it has certainly taught me some lessons to have done one.  I love photojournalism and telling a story with pictures.  I used to avoid having a person in my pictures.  Now I like to capture life, not just still life, and tell a story in the process that contains a decisive moment!