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    They Shoot Weddings, Don't They?
    They Shoot Weddings, Don't They?
    They Shoot Weddings, Don't They?
    Ebook85 pages1 hour

    They Shoot Weddings, Don't They?

    By Lisa T. Snow

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Belligerent brides, crushed cakes, and wrecked wedding gowns are all part of this true-life memoir of Western New York weddings in the 1990s.

    A candid, behind-the-scenes look at wedding photography in the days before digital. This poignant, honest, true-life tale reveals the intense, sometimes humorous, but never boring love-hate relationship that can exist between photographer and subject.

    The weddings take place in and around Buffalo, New York, but the setting could be anywhere. The themes are universal and the lessons learned from these true stories are timeless and relevant to anyone planning a wedding – or any rookie photographer thinking about shooting weddings.

    Along with straightforward accounts of wedding day pitfalls, missteps, and triumphs, this book contains a wealth of unexpected insider tips for both brides-to-be and aspiring wedding photographers.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLisa T. Snow
    Release dateDec 28, 2013
    ISBN9781310093616
    They Shoot Weddings, Don't They?
    Author

    Lisa T. Snow

    Author Lisa T. Snow is a former professional photographer and Western New York native. She writes alone and with her husband, John, across a range of genres including Travel, Young Adult, New Adult, and Historical Supernatural Fantasy. Lisa and John reside in the Dominican Republic.

    Read more from Lisa T. Snow

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      Book preview

      They Shoot Weddings, Don't They? - Lisa T. Snow

      THEY SHOOT WEDDINGS,

      DON’T THEY?

      By

      Lisa T. Snow

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright © 2013 Lisa T. Snow

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system without prior written permission of the Author. Your support of Author’s rights is appreciated.

      Though this book is based on actual events, many names, dates, and locations have been changed to preserve the privacy of the participants.

      Introduction

      The old ways are gone. This book is an attempt to describe what it was like to work as a professional wedding photographer back in the 1990s, before digital. The photographic process itself remained unchanged for decades, but the visual language of wedding photography was changing. The art form grew up. Brides finally began to abandon dated, cringe-worthy wedding clichés like the face of Jesus superimposed over the couple at the altar in favor of real photography.

      Brides now clamored for black & white, for photojournalism, for candid shots capturing the couple expressing themselves: laughing, running, and kissing. This was a big deal. The mundane corniness inherent in standard weddings had put off many fine-art photographers, me included. Now we joined the wedding fray, late to the party but driven by the opportunity to have our work both appreciated and parlayed into cash.

      But while we were out shooting weddings, a seismic shift was taking place. Advances in digital technology conspired with the proliferation of cheap personal computers to create an affordable camera anyone could learn to use. The medium of photography was not simply evolving – it was turning itself inside out. The silver nitrate process had endured for over one hundred and fifty years. A system that never became antiquated was about to become obsolete.

      Suddenly, an early-adopting photographer with a good color printer could instantly crank out high quality photos for his customers without the intercession of a photo lab, AND make those images available online. This was irresistible to consumers. Digital wedding photography went from an expensive fad to the industry standard in an alarmingly short time. Professional photographers lacking the money, brains, or inclination to invest in new technology were eventually forced to quit. Nobody wanted a guy that still shot weddings on print film. It was laughable – they might as well shoot Polaroids.

      In retrospect, how did we stand it? A film camera was a little black & chrome tyrant in our hands, a tiny despot with an elaborate array of dials, grips, openings, dark slides, levers, buttons, attachments, cables, and counters all demanding constant attention. It required support from a twenty-pound tripod – an unmanageable steel octopus we had to carry along with cumbersome camera bags full of needy film backs whining to be changed and cranky flash units with rechargeable batteries that drained themselves of power seemingly on a whim.

      We stood it because it was the only way to record permanent images on film. Back then, we didn’t have the luxury of immediate visual confirmation. We relied on experience, expertise, and instinct to gauge whether we were exposing our shots correctly, or if they were shit. Imagine the anxiety of shooting six hundred photos and not seeing a single one until a week or ten days later. Imagine spending eight, ten, or twelve hours per wedding, dozens of times a year, and never managing to shake that flying by the seat of your pants feeling until the prints came back successfully from the lab. There was no other way to feel. What if our little tyrant was secretly betraying us with an imperceptible malfunction that would reveal itself too late, on miserably underexposed and useless prints? Film was unforgiving and expensive. Plus, we had to carry around enough of it to complete each job and then deliver it safely to a photo lab. And what if some idiot at the lab screwed up and ruined our film? More anxiety.

      But wedding photographers also enjoyed a status that is gone. Prohibitive equipment costs deterred mere hobbyists and amateurs. Acquiring the skills to produce consistently successful results on film, wedding after wedding, represented a substantial investment in time. We were a solo act, and solely responsible for the photographic record of the day. Newlywed couples and their families contentedly waited weeks to see our results, usually in the form of a single proof book that they had to share.

      I remain in awe and envy at how easy it is to shoot a wedding now. I have no sympathy for any photographer who never shot a wedding on film and thinks their work is hard. I do have sympathy for how much less value their work has – their skills reduced to something anyone with a decent phone and the right app can almost accomplish. Wedding photographers are on the verge of extinction. Their competition is insidious and it isn’t from other professionals. I cannot imagine the anxiety of worrying if my photos – the ones the couple paid for – look better than the two hundred shots the groom’s fifteen-year-old niece uploaded ten minutes after the reception ended. Not to mention the countless photos posted online in real time all day long, complete with a variety of hip special effects.

      Now everyone has not just a voice, but also a vision, and a way to share that vision. The democratization of wedding photography ensures that every couple’s friends and family can easily access thousands of photos. But these are virtual images viewed on an electronic screen, like watching television.

      Newlyweds and their families no longer have to wait for that wedding proof book. Carefully lifting the book out of its box, they would delicately remove the protective tissue paper and gently set it on a table or rest it on their lap. They held

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