Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Wedding Day Jitters

A couple of months back, a friend asked if I would help her photograph a wedding for a co-worker.  The bride-to-be had originally planned to hire a professional photographer.  However, circumstances changed and she could no longer afford one.  So, as a favor and a present, we offered to document the wedding for her.

I have only attended three weddings that I can remember, one of which was my own.  Most of my photographic endeavors involve the outdoors.  But I wanted to help out this young lady and gain experience.  Was I scared?  Yes!  I was petrified I might mess up.  But I was excited too.

As the wedding day approached, however, I began second guessing myself.  How could I hope to do justice to such a special occasion?  I'm just an amateur outdoor photographer with big dreams.  I stressed over it.  By the eve of the wedding, I was downright dreading the whole thing and feeling like a heel for it.

I spent the next morning on the phone with my friend going over last minute details, checking my equipment and charging batteries.  Going through my mental checklist, I felt a little better, even started looking forward to the day again.  Little routines are great to stop unfounded fears in their tracks.

Once we arrived at the chapel, we realized the weather had changed the lighting inside, making everything much darker than we had originally anticipated.  Scrambling, we focused on taking practice shots as the wedding company practiced.  I can't speak for my friend but it forced me to concentrate on the subjects and not my fear.  This helped me to settle down and start having fun.

The bride was beautiful, and funny -- very easy to photograph.  Little girls twirled in and out of the dressing room in their dresses while she got ready.  Downstairs, little boys wrestled around on the floor, bored with the whole affair.  Everything ran smoothly, giving us plenty of time to take lots of candid pictures.

And then suddenly, it was Time.

I was to photograph the flower girls, ring bearers and the bride and her father walking down the aisle.  Seemed easy enough but I couldn't figure out why I had to scoot so far back to get them in the frame.  I thought my lens or camera was messing up.  But I plowed ahead and managed to get some good shots in.

My friend and I each took a side of the chapel and got the pics we could.  At this point, everything went pretty fast considering the previous easy-going pace leading up to the ceremony.

Afterward, we did the requisite posed photos of the entire wedding party.  This is where you need good communication with the other photographer.  We worked in tandem, she getting the close-ups and me working with the tripod further back.  By this time, the kids were cranky and the adults were ready to eat.  Thankfully this was a small group as it took nearly half an hour to photograph everyone.

Afterward, everyone hopped in their cars and booked over to the Holiday Inn for the reception.  We encountered a totally different, darker set of lighting 'problems' there and ended up with shadows in the cake pictures.  By this time, we were nearly 4 hours into the photo shoot and getting pretty tired.  We were also running out of space on our cards and running low on battery power.  I'm glad I thought to bring my laptop and charger, though one of us had to drive back to the other vehicle to get it.

At the end of the reception, I thought back over the day.  We were exhausted but I realized my friend and I were very lucky indeed.  Though it was a special day for the bride and groom, we were privileged to have been allowed into their circle of family and friends and to share their day with them.  I will say that it is a very different and gratifying feeling of accomplishment than I have previously encountered and one I hope to repeat often.


What did I gain from this experience?
  • Don't just double-check your equipment, triple and quadruple-check it.  Remember I mentioned my lens seemed off?  It was because I had forgotten to change back to my kit lens, the 18-55mm.  I was attempting to take close-ups with a 70-200mm zoom lens. Whoops!
  •  Mental checklists are good but written ones are better. 
  • Always bring the laptop and the battery charger.  They WILL be needed. 
  • Having to think on my feet forced me to dig in and relax.  Ultimately, I had a blast once I loosened up. 
  • Spend time with the people.  Talk with them, joke with them.  Share.  It helps everyone relax and makes the experience so much more enjoyable. 
  • Don't be afraid to take on new tasks.