Last month I shot my first wedding. Honestly, I was more nervous acting as a wedding photographer than I was 7 years ago when I acted as a bride. As a bride, my biggest fear was tripping down the aisle or spilling red wine down the front of my dress. I figured anything else that happened was about par for the course. My dad was instructed to throw himself down, if I tripped and he couldn't catch me, to make it look like he was the one who caused the fall. Knowing my clumsy nature to spill on myself I avoided all colored liquids the second my dress was on. Just one more reason to drink nothing but champagne :)
But as a wedding photographer - absolutely terrified. I had a 'top ten' list of sorts of photos that I had to nail in order to walk away feeling somewhat confident. I may or may not have even told both the bride and groom to kiss away during the ceremony to ensure I captured their first kiss. They even did me a solid and gave me a huge dipped kissing half way down the aisle during the recessional (another tip I gave them!).
I don't foresee myself becoming a wedding photographer anytime soon or at least until someone invents a pause button. Actually, if I could have gotten a "make these black pouring rain clouds disappear" button on that August wedding day I would have been most happy. Besides a few moments of "I wish I would have done that differently" my biggest regret was not taking enough time during formal portraits to get a few more shots of the entire bridal party and the bride and groom. In all seriousness, it absolutely POURED and everyone wanted to get inside before the rain came down. I guess going with the threat of rain worked in my favor because no one would have been happy soaking wet.
Even though there are those normal post-event-regrets, I'm really proud of myself for saying yes to friends and acting as photographer for 8+hours. That was something well outside of my comfort zone. Getting outside of my safety bubble is definitely something I want to challenge myself more in the future. The time to start is now.
What's the biggest challenge you've undertaken this year to your comfort zone?
These shots are absolutely beautiful! You are so brave for diving into wedding photography - I would definitely be more nervous than the bride :P
ReplyDeleteThis year I think the biggest challenge I've taken on is gathering up the courage to say one little word... No! I used to have so much trouble saying no to people, even if it was for stuff that my heart wasn't in, or that totally sapped me and took advantage of my energy and time. I started building a little private list of times I had weighed the options and was able to decline - and seeing what kind of time that freed up for new opportunities got me on a roll. More no's can sometimes make room for better yes'es! xx