A vent on wedding photography

I don't think I ever pictured myself as a 'photographer', though I have been taking pictures since I was old enough to click the camera. By the age of 5, my parents had bought me my very own camera - little more than a glorified disposable camera. It was bright red, rectangle, and durable enough for an active 5 year old. One of my earliest pieces (if someone were to look back on my work, hah) is one of a girl about my age at the time, running up a dirt road in a replica old western town. I didn't know the girl, I just wanted a picture of her running up the dirt road.

One of my other 'early' pieces was a video to my grandparents. After our 'permanent' move from New York to Colorado, my parents decided to make them a video. I believe they had visited once, so I don't remember the occasion. But for whatever reason, I was entrusted with the glorious video camera, so out into the backyard I went. The result was a thrilling documentary of every dandelion and piece of poop I could find. Not to mention the fact that I had no concept of "panning". If the video still exists (and I don't doubt that it does somewhere), my husband will never see it - it might give him motion sickness.

I took pictures at the concerts that I went to, not that I went to many. I have a particularly spectacular one of Peter Furler's feet when I got front row seats at their tour in 2000. My high school years were particularly well-documented, though half of the time it was through disposable cameras. My talent (or at least, my habit of always having a camera on me) resulted in my homeroom teacher (also the head of yearbook), asking me to take pictures for yearbook. I didn't have to do any of the other work required for yearbook - I was simply the photographer. I got to sit up in the otherwise off-limits balcony during the choir performances and snap away. On field trips, I got shots of downtown Philadelphia. After high school, I just ran out of things to take pictures of. (Except for myself. I find that my hair is particularly well-documented during these few years.)

So when it came to choosing a wedding photographer, I wanted something good. If you do a google search of "Lapeer Michigan Wedding Photographers", you'll probably see why I ended up with who I did. A lot of the sites are ... dismal, at best. As a certified graphic designer, (hah) I am all for the use of photoshop, but not the abuse of photoshop. Sure, we booked the first person we looked at. But compared to what we saw around us, we didn't think there was much of a choice. (Matt's parents flipped a lid when they found out about it, despite the fact that they weren't paying for anything. The first of many such inputs.) When it came down to it, either you paid 5-8 thousand dollars for a photographer, or you got someone who liked to photoshop flower girls and ring bearers heads free floating into gazebos.

I had a bad feeling about our photographer rather early on - probably the next time we interacted with them after booking. I might have canceled, but for parental input. My mom was sure that his quality would outweigh him being difficult. Matt's parents - well, their lack of discretion in picking their battles over our wedding and simply battling over everything led to rather adamant feelings on my part that we would NOT cancel our photographer. Already, his parents had pitched fits over everything from location, to theme, to food. Our photographer refused to call us for anything. I broke down and called more than a month (or was it two?) after our engagement pictures were supposed to be in. They were in, of course, but he had never bothered to call. In the pampered chef world, that gets corporate called on you. (ha!) In the world of wedding photography, it just means that you're expensive. (ha ha!)

What bothered me most about our wedding photographer, in the end, was not that he was impossibly hard to deal with, or that he was way over-priced, or even that my friend Amanda does better pictures than him. What bothered me most, was that my day wasn't "documented", it was created. I was essentially ready by the time the photographer showed up, but we had to take my veil off, and then put it back on, slowly, with two of my bridesmaids, while I looked in the mirror. Our photographer chased us around our reception, instructing us to move to the next 'event'. (I regret that I didn't get to visit properly with a lot of my relatives because of this) The one thing we *did* do on our own, he asked us to "re do" because he hadn't gotten images he was happy with - even though we warned him in advance of our plans.

On top of that, we still don't have our wedding pictures. Oh we have a pretty and impressive looking album. But I have nothing to frame, I have nothing to scan, nothing to share with my family, nothing to look at day-to-day. Why? It's not because we had to buy our proofs, because I would have gladly done that. It's because he won't sell us our proofs for two years after the wedding - something he did not stipulate up front.

This, this, is why, after our wedding, I went "huh. I think I should be a wedding photographer."
I don't want a lot of money from it.
I just don't think it's fair that people should have to choose between good pictures and their wallets. That people should have to be dragged around their reception. That they have nothing to "show" for it.

It only mildly bugged me before. But now that I have the ability to hang pictures on my walls, it makes me sad that I have nothing of my wedding to put up, and that, even if I DID, it would only be manufactured poses. Would it really have killed him to take a picture of my bouquet, for instance? Or the back of my dress? Or my tiara? Couldn't he have captured a moment, rather than stealing one from me?

So, as I pour through these wedding photos, it's really bittersweet for me. I know I'm not the best photographer in the world by any means, but I'm giving her my best. I'm working hard, and I really believe that she and her new hubby will be happy with them. (Or at least, I really really hope so!)

There's this one picture in particular...
Maybe the lighting isn't as pretty as the room I was in at my wedding. Maybe it's could have been done from a better angle. But she looks like a bride who is actually looking at herself in the mirror for the first time, not someone who is being told to. Priceless.

I hope they really like their wedding photos. I hope they're happy with them. I hope they get prints, whether it's through me or taking the cd to walmart and printing them out. I really hope that they look back on their wedding in the months and years to come, and I hope that they appreciate that they weren't told exactly how to hold the cake cutting knife, and even more so, that they still got a good picture out of it.

I hope someday, that I'm good enough, and have the right equipment, to photograph lots of weddings...and I hope it's because I'm a good photographer, and I hope that it's because I care. Because dog gone it, caring has hurt me a lot in 22 years, and I'd like to think that it's good for something.