Anyone shoot weddings with a hearing disability?

Hi all, I know a photog who does and have heard of other photographers having hearing disability as well, I'm wondering if anyone here does and shoots weddings and/or portraits and if so how you deal with certain situations if you have to at all? or knows of anyone who does?

I'm deaf. I've shot many weddings, not only with deaf clients, but with hearing clients as well. It's interesting - most of the hearing people that I've met are usually a little reluctant to hire me, but once they see my work, and get a chance to sit down and speak with me, they usually hire me right on the spot.

I wasn't always deaf though - I lost my hearing at the age of 5, but that enabled me to develop some speech and acquire excellent lip reading abilities so that helps me out quite a bit when it comes to interacting with my hearing clientèle. In addition, I also wear hearing aids, which I can hear about 90-95% of the environment and can recognize and understand speech as well, probably just as good as any hearing person. I'm also tri-lingual as well - I speak decent spanish, fluent english, and can sign perfect ASL (American Sign Language).

In fact, I think my deafness is an advantage. I'm forced to use my eyes more. I'm forced to look at things more carefully, because my sense of sight is usually my primary means of information gathering, with touch being a close second. Being deaf has nothing to do with understanding F-stops, aperture, lighting, posing your subjects creatively, and the like. Quite frankly, after doing 200+ weddings, I've seen pretty much every procession, vows, and I've got the timing down pat. I ask for a copy of the wedding event, so I can see what they'll be doing ahead of time, like lighting the unity candle, exchanging vows, things like that.

In addition, I also have a nice niche among the deaf community, and I usually get the calls first for their weddings. This June, I have 6 weddings booked, 3 of them from deaf clients.

I love my job. Nothing else would let me use my cameras and allow me to sate my creative juices like photographing weddings would.


As for how I deal with certain situations, like portraits, I'm not shy about walking up to a client, and with their permission, posing them how I would like to pose them. Most of my clients are repeat clients, so they usually very comfortable with me. Also, I usually arrive early to a location if I'm doing something like an engagement portrait, to catch some candids while the couple arrives with my telephoto lenses, using natural light. Some of my best engagement portraits have been of when I caught them unawares.