What it’s like being a wedding photographer…

Being a wedding photographer is something I’ve done since 2003. I also owned and operated a small specialty espresso bar for a few years, but that’s another story for another time, and before I even considered photographing weddings, I worked with advertising, b2b, industrial and commercial clients.

Wedding photography was never, ever on my radar, but I found it fit with both my personality, and interest in making candid documentary style work.

Wedding photography is in my opinion one of the most difficult, yet rewarding types of photography to do as a business.

Emotions are high.

Expectations are even higher.

The clock never stops, and we’re expected to make perfect work each and every wedding.

Depending on your personality type and what you enjoy doing, wedding photography can either be the best form of creative work, or a complete nightmare.

One of the elements of my work that I actually enjoy the most is people watching and interacting with those that I photograph.

While the majority of the work and style of photograph I produce is considered “photojournalistic” or “documentary”, there are a lot of photographs that I make during the day where I’m not just an observant, I am in fact participating in that split second moment with the person or people in front of me.

That might be a quick glance, a smile, or a short conversation, and you can get a sense of what those images look like in the “Candid Snapshots” section of my site.

The photograph above was made years ago in Bahamas for a prominent family on the island at their private residence.

The couple had hired me almost a year earlier, after a short phone call. They live in New York, and found me through a google search of some sort.

Like most clients, I don’t actually know much about them other than what we share with one another in our initial phone call. (This is one of the parts of this job that can be stressful for some).

I flew down to the Bahamas for the weekend, and photographed their pre wedding “welcome party”, and the full wedding day - this one started early in the morning and ended at about 3am!!

I met this couple during the welcome party. I don’t remember their names, but I do recall having a short conversation about living in Nassau as Canadians. They were very cute together and while I covered the event, I noticed how much attention he gave her and how affectionate he was - clearly this was something new! And I was right! I approached them, had a little conversation and then snapped one shot.

I had mailed this one to him a few weeks later, and while this was made a long time ago, I wonder if this image of the two of them remains in their family.