VELOCITIES by THE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER

There are times in a wedding photographer‘s day when it looks like he needs to be like the Enterprise ships from that TV series with the ability to warp or be like those quantum particles to be able to be everywhere at once hello mister Priest, I am the photographer who will be with you and the groom and bride, nice to meet you, are there any notes on what I can do in the use of space to capture the photographs that have asked me to take? Note one from priest one: see if the bride arrives as we are running late and I have mass afterward. Note two from priest two: see if you don’t bother me, you can’t photograph here, there, and there, but that’s how it is. Note from priest three, the one I like the most: have you ever said Mass? No. Then I’ve never photographed a wedding either, you do your job and I’ll do mine.

It sounds a bit like a joke from a wedding photographer given to humor but it’s a bit like that. That glorious morning that is not because it is sunny or rainy but because it is a day of love celebration, can become, for me, in anguish now see how I am going to do this or in the joy of trumpets in the baroque symphony, of course, Mr. Priest, I will see if the bride has already arrived so we can start the wedding ceremony. I must clarify that whatever the result of that small and clarified conversation with the priest on duty, the wedding photographer will do everything to do what he was there to do and at the same time, with respect and obligation, be in the place and with the duty he has to the couple that trusted him. It is not always easy, but it has always been done.

Now let’s look at the speed part: the wedding photographer arrives from the bride’s house following the path that that modern gadget shows him. The bride comes driven by someone who knows all the shortcuts, and biased paths and loves to be like a racing champion and when I arrive, she’s already there waiting to enter but wait a bit I still have to talk to the priest, that conversation above, photograph the groom’s entrance with his mother and see if the musicians they hired are in place. This is the organizing wedding photographer. Done. Now, the bride, like a soloist waiting for the conductor’s signal, I love the analogy, let’s go. The bride walks through the door and is always magnificent, of course, and with her father, she usually, walks majestically and nervously down the aisle of the church through guests who follow her with their gaze to her proudly awaiting prince. Then, afterward, at the front, they exchange rings and go on to be happy ever after under lots of flower petals and rice but the wedding photographer will certainly not rest. It’s too early for that, there’s much, much more. In other articles, I’ll tell you about it.