Do I look like a wedding photograher to you?
This weekend, in a small town near Ann Arbor, Michigan, my good friends Dickon and Jeanne got married. And I was honoured to be one of the guests and their photographer. I say photograher as by the end of the event I was the official photographer, but when I arrived I wasn’t sure if I was it.
Just two days before the wedding (at Heathrow Terminal 3) I get an email on my phone (my phone’s bad ass like that) and it’s the groom. He asks me, very nicely, if I would be able to take some photos for the wedding. “You know, just a few pics of the family.” Naturally, I reply that I’d be honoured to do it, just as long as I’m not the only photographer. I mean come on, I’ve never photographed someone’s wedding before! So I agree, as long as I’m the back up photographer.
It’s now the morning of the wedding and I’ve still not heard a peep from the groom. No reply to the email. No returned calls to my voicemails asking who the other photographer will be. Nothing. I’m starting to suspect that there might be only one photographer. Ol’ muggins here. So I pack with me, just in case, a second 1Gb card, and a 60mm f2.8 Nikkor lens in addition to the 1Gb card and 35mm f2 I own.
So after a four hour drive, we arrive at the wedding with the other guests, dressed in suit and tie, idly carrying my Nikon D70 like a tourist. And as I walk up to the chapel, I look around for the photograher that I’m still naively expecting to show up. And then when the minister comes up to me and says “Ah, so you must be the photographer”.
Shit.
So from then on, I become the photographer and it’s as simple as that. All in all, the wedding was lovely. The bride looked fabulous and the whole affair was sweet, loving and charming. Just like they should be. Maybe I should do more of this thing?
And if you’re wondering, the photos from the wedding are below. I hope they like ‘em!
Isaacs and Ragan Wedding, Livonia MI, Sept 17th 2005. Part 1.
Isaacs and Ragan Wedding, Livonia MI, Sept 17th 2005. Part 2.
