I raise my glass to you wedding photographers

[aussieskier]

I would like to say from what I have seen here that you guy and gals do wonderous work expecially considering the high stress situation and time aspect of this type of photography.

That said, I had a brief foray into wedding photography back in june and thought I would share my horror story and show my appreciation to you folks that do this. I was at my girlfriend's cousin's wedding and I take my camera everywhere so it was there at the time. Well, the wedding photographer's husband found out that her husband had just had a stroke and she had to go to the hospital just before the bride is getting beginning to get ready. I had already been offered the chance to shoot this wedding and had turned it down a few months prior, but all of a sudden every family member turns and looks at me and the only thing running through my mind was "OH CRAP" (well maybe a bit more explictive but this is a family show :) ). So suddenly I was expected to do this wedding with no real experience in group posing (luckily I knew a bit about posing in general). To make a long story short I made it through alive, but I swear it took years off my life, the plus is that I am very popular with my girlfriends family now (not that I wasn't to begin with but hey it can't hurt).

So I was just wondering what the trend is for this sort of thing, could you imagine running off on a wedding like that, I mean I would have thought she could have at least shoot the ceremony but I dunno I can't really say what I would do since I am sure I would want to get to my family member in hospital.

Anyways it was a rather long winded post and for that I apologize, but I would really like to tell everyone here that you all do GREAT work and I am amazed you can survive doing this stuff. Maybe when I get enough guts to post some of the shots on here ya'll can critique them.
Cheers
Riley

[picturecrazy]

yeah, it's a tough gig. But if you love what you're doing, then the hard work is very rewarding.

As for the photog not shooting, hey, life happens. If that happend to my photographer on my wedding day, I would totally understand and wouldn't have a problem with him leaving, as long as I got my money back. I'm sure not everybody sees it that way though.

[jessiper]

yeah, it's a tough gig. But if you love what you're doing, then the hard work is very rewarding.

As for the photog not shooting, hey, life happens. If that happend to my photographer on my wedding day, I would totally understand and wouldn't have a problem with him leaving, as long as I got my money back. I'm sure not everybody sees it that way though.

I agree. I would feel extremely guilty if that happened on my wedding day and I asked them to stay, even just for a little bit. If I was the photographer I'd refund all the money and give #'s for other photographers who may be available, especially if it were my husband or someone that close to me who had a stroke. I would drop everything if that happened, I don't care if I were about to meet the president...er, ya know.

[jessiper]

Oh yeah, do post some pics.

[EOS_JD]

I was helping a friend do a wedding on the cheap. She had a film camera and a 50mm prime and she thought she could do a wedding.... Well she needed help and I offered my services to take some candids. We had just arrived at the brides house and my friend's camera packed in! Roll of film got stuck and it was all left to me.

Luckily I'd taken all my gear and got some ok images. It was a shame that the brides car broke down and the location for images had no shade at all but she got a little more than she expected when I gave her a DVD slideshow so happy in the end but it was a stressful day for me.

[PIXI_666]

it is a stressful day for us wedding photogs hahaha but i think after a while the stress subsides a BIT...
If it were me and my hubby had a stroke, no questions asked, family is much more important and i would be there in a second, but i would have scouted around for my photog friends and asked if one of those could do it instead and they would get paid rather than me...so even tho i would see family first over ANYTHING...id still call around and find a replacement for myself.

[song4themoon]

So now where are the pics to the story? ;)

[tim]

Definitely understandable about the photographer pulling out, when a partner is at risk of dying you have to be there. I know a few photographers so i'd have tried to get someone else for them, but lucky you were there :)

[aussieskier]

Yea I am not saying I must say that I wouldn't have done the same thing, the more i think about it,if I were her, the reason I asked is because I over heard some people saying that they thought it was dumb/wrong of her to leave. All I know is the photographer was thankful that I was reclutantly agreeing to take over for her. I dunno I think that maybe the whole experience was worse for me because it was out of total surprise that I ended up doing it, I had come to observe the photographer (and the wedding of course :) ), and ended up being the photographer maybe someone is telling my my fate is in wedding photography (though I doubt it).

As for posting some of the shots from the wedding, when thing kinda calm down and I go on fall break for university, I will post some for ya'll to critique, might as well learn from the experience.

[jessiper]

[quote=matthewlrigdon;2045928 Well, actually when I read the above again, maybe you live in a really open community...[/quote]

True, I've been to Boring! ;)

[jessiper]

I will post some for ya'll to critique, might as well learn from the experience.

We don't say "ya'll" in Oregon! :p