It was like every other summer day- sunny with a chance of rain,my hands itched in tune with the pounding of my heart and the twitching of my right eye. My nerves announced today was to be the day I shot my first wedding. Two weeks earlier my friend’s older sister had contacted me, her friend needed a photographer who would capture a wedding ceremony and reception in Brooklyn at the Chapel of love church. They decided to ask me since I was always seen every where with a camera in my hand…I accepted eagerly, excited at the prospect of shooting a real wedding – you see I day dream in color I imagined everything working out beautifully where as in reality I had no external flash and no car- yup in new york you can live without a car and still get everywhere you need to be. I attended the rehearsal, met the couple’s friends and family, scouted the location and was a bit intimidated by the lighting of the church – a photographer’s nightmare- I dream of perfect natural light, no shadows no highlights well in nightmares its the opposite and in this reality it was white florescent.
The day of the wedding, I headed over with a second shooter – a friend who also wanted to be photographer and who had a car – to the bride’s house, photographed all the detail shots, as well as pictures of the bride and her bridesmaids. It was all going smoothly, then we noticed the car to take the bride to the church was late, this definitely caused tension – which is the last thing you can ever want for your bride- we want our brides to be happy and smiling. Needless to say we all got to the church three hours late. Emotions ran high with the minister threatening to start the event without the bride- it basically went down hill from there – my batteries went flat, my borrowed flash stopped working, my bride stopped smiling, it started to rain- when my flash stopped working I used the videographer’s light to light my subjects after all we were documenting the same event.
Looking back I can say now, I enjoyed every bit of my learning experience, since that first wedding I have shot many more weddings, but I always cast my mind back to the very first time when I took my camera and shot a wedding of a wonderful couple who trusted me with their special day – and each time I realize I would not change that experience for a single thing.
Since pictures make posts more fun, here is one of my favorite pictures from my very first wedding.
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