The Big Jump Off

I'm on the big ride, nearly at the top of the hill. There's no looking back. I'm going to be shooting my first digital wedding this Spring. After years of trusting film, this is quite a rollercoaster. I've been blasting the camera at everything that moves (and quite a few things that don't) trying to prepare for this. But when it's over I know I'll have some shots that I really like (the couple's likes and dislikes are secondary... ;-) ). I have the assurance because I've now worked out some of the kinks that I was experiencing with my new gear, and it and I are getting along. It's almost to the point where's it's out of my way and I can shoot through it instead of with it. Almost.



But the job of the photographer at a wedding is only partly to make a record of the events of the day. The much bigger part is to integrate into what's happening, to offer reassurance to harried parties, to look for and celebrate the moments that hardly anyone sees. If wedding shooting was all stress and pressure, I'd never do it. But I find the things that I know the couple is going to want to remember and catch those fleeting moments for them. For me, the way I shoot, there's no convention, routine or tradition. Every situation is unique, because people are unique. It's my goal to find who the couple is. I want to find the soul of the union and harness it. When it works, I follow and the pictures happen naturally. And that's fun, in the truest, deepest sense of the word.

I wasn't the principle shooter at this wedding – that honour belonged to a friend of mine. It was fun to grab shots (nothing of what he set up, mind you) without any pressure, except that which I naturally put on myself.