Paul Tombleson

Weddings are without a doubt one of the most challenging types of photo shoot out there. Yet they are probably the most underrated of the professional photographic disciplines. I always think of it like the old days of Movie v TV. Movies were always given the big billing and had Movie Stars and the TV crowd was at best a second-class citizen of the entertainment industry. This has and is changing now but I suspect there is some residue lingerin There is still a lot of residue to be rubbed off the lens when it comes to credit for those working hard in the wedding photography industry. I helped out at a wedding over the weekend as a second shooter. It was a small affair maybe 80 guests but it didn’t lack class, flare and a good old time in rural Rockingham County North Carolina. The ceremony was held in a sweet church set in the rolling hills of tobacco farms complete with an old tobacco barn out back. The reception was held in the town of Reidsville a short 10-minute drive away. Even as a smallish wedding the pace and logistics still presented a challenge to us and kept us on our toes.

Weddings are the closest thing to War photography I can think of. I know you think I’m nuts to make that comparison and maybe you’re right. But lets break it down… in war you never know what’s going to happen. All the weddings I’ve been too there is always something unexpected and you have to work around it. In war there is combat… weddings definitely can have combative moments and once you add alcohol then all bets are off! War photographers are always trying to anticipate the action so they can get the best shot and a good wedding photographer is doing just that and “running and gunning”. And the other major thing real wedding and war photographer’s have in common is once the action starts there is no calling a cease fire to re ”shoot” the action, it’s live and it’s “whizzing” by. Having said that this weekends wedding was a small skirmish with only a few casualties kissing the porcelain goddess.

To be a good wedding photographer you have to be part documentary, studio, news, and family photographer. What to speak of psychologist, confidant, friendly, aggressive yet not intrusive. You are also called upon to take (to me anyway), uninspiring pictures while keeping the creative juices in check in order to get to the creative ones that no time has been allocated for. Well you get the picture… well maybe not if uncle Joe comes along with his new digital camera. Go figure! Sounds like a pretty complex discipline to me and if I had a hat I would take it off to you underrated wedding photographers who do battle not only to survive but do so to continue to hone their craft to be the best they can in a competitive shrinking multi disciplined market.

Anyhow back to my little weekend wedding. It was fun as always to get that lens cap off and run around capturing emotions and lighting, as they rise and fall. To see all the players play out their parts from the father of the bride, the mother of the groom the sweetness of the brides maids the testosterone of the groomsmen, the aunts and uncles, the grandparents and that special look only a bride and groom have. And then it is party time, honeymoon and… well the next part is a totally different blog article for a different war so I will leave it there for now!

For a look at more pic’s from the wedding click here

This entry was posted on November 9, 2010 at 7:07 pm and is filed under Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.