Most, but not all, of the people reading this blog know that I am an assistant wedding photographer on the occasional weekend. Most of you also know that I am an introvert. Tomorrow I have a wedding to shoot in Wake Forest and I have already started to prep myself. Deep breathing and all that. It is the weirdest experience to show up as a stranger on someone’s wedding day and insist upon being there during the most personal and intimate moments of that day.
I think that I, consciously or unconsciously, begin counting down until time to go from the moment I arrive. Because Gah! Strangers! Public! Talking! Gah! I am not sure an extrovert can truly understand what the physical and emotional affects of being an introvert are. Predominantly, it is exhaustion. It also makes us kind of weird.
Having said all of that, tomorrow should be the best kind of wedding since we are going to be given full creative freedom. Meaning I am free to take pictures of the bride’s eyes, a hand on a hip, hands tying bows, etc. instead of the more traditional straight poses.
I’ve been doing this for… 3 years? Two? I can’t remember now, but it’s been good. Despite some bumps I have learned a ton about how to be a better photographer. I love getting a shot that I know will thrill the bride and groom, or their family. This makes me happy.
People hearing that this is my job ALWAYS comment: “Oh I bet you know EXACTLY what you want for your wedding then!”
I do. I want to elope.
7 comments
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October 26, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Linda
You are brave to be a wedding photographer, Amanda. I am an extrovert, but I would be scared to death of taking bad photos and ruining one of the most important days of their lives. Talk about GAH!! Of course, I agree with you on the eloping part. The only fabulously big wedding I have ever been to was my brother’s to his second wife and it was torture. Everything was perfect. And they divorced two years later. True story.
October 26, 2008 at 5:51 pm
carrie
If I were a betting woman, I would lay odds you are the perfect complement to the main photographer at these weddings — just for the heightened sensitivity you have to the intimacy of the act.
Also? Can I say brava for choosing a vocation that has you repeatedly facing what is so exquisitely difficult for you? I will. I will say it.
October 28, 2008 at 9:19 am
amanda
Linda,
That is a sad story. A photographer I used to work for tended to judge the success of the marriage based on their reaction when she asked the new couple to hand over their rings so that she could photograph them. If they didn’t think another thing about it she took that as a bad sign. There may be something to that theory.
October 28, 2008 at 9:19 am
amanda
Carrie,
Your comment is high praise. I like to think that you are right. Thank you for that.
October 30, 2008 at 10:50 pm
thegirlfromtheghetto
I love photography but would never want to take wedding pictures, that isn’t my scene. I eloped myself!!!
November 17, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Vanessa
Hi! I wandered over here from Haven’s website because I have lots of laundry to do, so I thought I would surf instead. It sounds like you are a great photographer. For my wedding I hired a photojournalist and told him I didn’t want any photos of anything we wouldn’t do in “real life.” Like stare at our rings or sit in a martini glass. : ) No posed kissing pictures either. He took fabulous candids and that’s all I wanted.
I also liked the discussion about introverts. I’m an extrovert married to an introvert and at this point (13 years married) I go to the parties and he stays home with the kids–everyone is happy!
November 17, 2008 at 3:40 pm
almostclouds
Vanessa,
WELCOME!
Your comment made me smile. I think we might be kindred spirits.