HOW TO FIND OUT by THE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER IN PORTUGAL
Some photos of the bride preparing for her wedding with friends and their dogs
What a wedding photographer does
If you ask me what my work consists of, I can answer in many different ways. I photograph weddings, sometimes baptisms, and once in a while some event that has nothing to do with the other two.
I may say that I will go to the houses of the people, usually, those that belong to the parents of the groom and the bride to whom I am going to tell the world the story of their wedding day, and from there, I become a car racer until the door of the church or the entry of a Quinta, where the wedding ceremony will take place, I keep inside my cameras everything they can catch and, after, at my home, I cherish each one the photographs that resulted from the adventure day and, I choose and make them combine each other to tell a story, in a book to keep forever.
A runner without being an athlete
I also run a lot, I climb stairs four steps at a time, I do hundreds of squats a day, I walk over walls and chairs, and I stay very quiet in the corner of the rooms, like those human statues that we see in the streets of the cities until some photo appears that I always knew that was somewhere over the room, I carry several kilos of cameras and lens, sometimes at great distances because the guests gathered all the available parking places near the ceremony site, for their beautiful cars, and do not were kind enough to let one place for the wedding photographer.
Invisible for photos with truth
I made myself invisible so they do not pretend to be in the photos I take of them, the newlyweds and guests, and do not imitate artists or models not tailored for the job, also, I go away for a while to clean the mind and come back as new until the end of the feast. So, I could say that I am an athlete.
But, in reality, I feel I am something completely different, for which the other two are extremely important.
The habit of peeking to discover photos
When I see the photos I have been taking and cherish them with my computer to pour them on paper in the building of a book, which must be the natural place, I find myself thinking that they result from an ugly thing that we never should do. It is used to say that it is a great lack of education, but what can I do if, on the one hand, I am paid to do it and, on the other hand, I can not fulfill my duty and deliver what I was paid for?
So, I have no choice but to exercise my true function. Peeker. I peek in the houses where I go, I peek in rooms where the important things happen to get couples ready for the wedding, I peek inside the cars that deliver them from one side to another, I peek inside the churches, between vases of flowers and candlesticks, between people to get another people and so on until, finally, in a party that it was and full of peeking everywhere, without apologizing, I go home with my peeking day accomplished.
That is my job.
