Photographing Weddings

This was my first job as a wedding photographer. I was shooting it on a film camera with no ability to check how things are going. In this age of digital cameras, we have all become so accustomed to looking at the back of the screen. We can examine the photos, getting immediate feedback on how things are turning out. Getting that immediate feedback seems invaluable now. You can see if you are overexposed or underexposed and can confirm that the settings on the camera are as you planned. Shooting on film there is no such feedback. If you have a setting wrong on your camera, you might be taking almost unusable photos until you make an adjustment. Particularly during sensitive moments at a wedding, which are very fleeting moments, you can’t afford to have the wrong settings for an extended period of time. 

Fortunately, everything went extremely well and the photos were strong. Not only that, I felt extremely comfortable and at home within the pressure and stress of the wedding. It was a huge relief knowing that there were some great wedding photos and I had managed to document everything in an authentic way.

Very shortly after this first event, I photographed my second wedding. Within a few months, my third wedding. The third wedding I photographed was a beautiful backyard event with a beautiful couple on a beautiful day. There was something special about it and that came through in the photographs. I submitted the photos to Real Weddings magazine and they published a three page spread featuring the wedding and my photos. One of the photos became the front cover of the magazine. From then on I knew wedding photography was my path. 

Since my start in 2006, I have photographed hundreds of different events. To this day I take a lot of pride in my work. I have a sense of responsibility to do the best job possible, documenting these important events in people's lives. Before my jobs, my wife reminds me to go and be a memory keeper. It’s a great reminder to keep my focus on the giving aspect of the job. It’s an honor to offer such a service to people. Everyone wants the meaningful moments and memories from their wedding to be captured. I get to provide that for them which is rewarding for me. Keeping this perspective is really helpful and allows me to feel the rewarding aspects of the job on a regular basis. 

​​Over the years, I have photographed some really memorable weddings. Some of them are memorable because of how beautiful and smooth flowing the day was - how everything just fell into place and flowed perfectly. Some of them are memorable because of all the things that went wrong. 

One story that comes to mind is a beautiful wedding at the Terminal City Club. The bride and groom were both getting ready at a gorgeous house in West Vancouver, right on the water looking out towards Stanley Park. We got some great photos of the couple and of the bridal party as they were getting ready. Then it was time for the ceremony. The couple had rented a vintage car to drive them from West Vancouver to the Terminal City Club. When they went to leave for the ceremony, however, the vintage car wasn’t powerful enough to get up the steep driveway from the house. The groomsmen had to get out and push the car up the hill as the driver was flooring it. It barely made it up the hill but off they went. 

After getting some memorable photos of the groomsmen pushing the car up the hill, I got into my car and followed behind them a few minutes later.  As I headed towards the Lions Gate Bridge, the traffic was at a standstill. I was completely stuck with nowhere to go. I was getting a bit stressed knowing the ceremony was supposed to start soon. I wasn’t sure if the bride and groom were also caught up in this traffic, if they had somehow managed to avoid it or had gotten through before it became gridlocked.

The traffic finally started to inch forward and I approached the on-ramp to the bridge. As I approached the bridge, I saw the vintage car pulled off to the side of the road with smoke pouring out from under the hood. The vintage car had died and was the reason for all the back up in traffic. I later learned that the couple had gotten out of the car and had been offered a ride in a beat-up Honda Civic from a group of young French-Canadians who had been hiking in the mountains. They were sticky and sweaty from a day of hiking but kindly offered the couple a ride! The elegant bride and groom crammed into the back of the car and hitched a ride to their ceremony. Fortunately, I made it as well, just a minute or two behind them and we all carried on as planned. It made for a great twist and a great story, despite being a little stressful at the time!

I’m looking forward to the upcoming weddings I get to document and seeing what new stories emerge from the day.