First Wedding

December was a busy month. Between all the stuff going on at church and preparing for Christmas with kids and grand kids, I was able to squeeze in a wedding, my first wedding.

I have done hundreds of weddings as a minister. This, however, was my first wedding as a photographer. Now that Christmas is over and I have delivered the pictures to the bride I can finally take a breath and reflect on the experience.

WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHERS EARN THEIR MONEY. First, a good photographer will have from $10,000 to $50,000 invested in equipment. Secondly, in addition to the wedding itself a photographer will spend a great deal of time before the wedding checking equipment and talking with people to make sure there are no mistakes or slip ups. Also, a great deal of time after the wedding editing, and preparing and delivering the pictures. Thirdly, there is a tremendous amount of stress involved. You are dealing with people that you do not know and all their relatives. At least 50 people show up at the wedding armed with a Kodak disposable camera and they know more about taking pictures than the photographer. Also, there is the stress of knowing that you have one chance to get it right. If you miss a shot then it is gone forever. Also, the photographer must be in the right place at the right time. This takes a lot of pre-wedding strategy. A capable assistant is a must for a photographer, even for small weddings.

As for my first wedding, I would give myself a B minus. I had no equipment malfunctions. I had a capable assistant.(Linda). All in all the people were pretty good to work with. I got all the important shots. I took over a thousand shots and weeded them down to about 400 which I passed on the the bride. My biggest self criticism is in the area of creativity. I need to spend more time in setting up shots and creating unique, one of a kind poses. Also, I need to be just a little more familiar with my equipment. There is nothing more frustrating than taking about a hundreds shots before you realize that your ISO setting is way off.

"Would I do it again?" Yes, I think so. I learned a lot from this first attempt.