My First Wedding

I shot my first wedding. It was exciting, difficult and amazing all in one. I believe it went well especially considering I shot it by myself. Unfortunately, I was only hired to do the ceremony, however it was great. Everything came together as planned. I did face obstacles with the church, but my experience with events helped me to work around them.

I got there at my scheduled time to shoot. The first thing I did was shoot the bride and bridesmaids preparing for the wedding. The area they were using was small and I was shooting with my 50mm lens. This places limitations on the type of shots I could get. The room itself was big, however it was being used to store things. I compensated by getting creative with the angles I shot from and utilizing the depth of field. I also did my best to avoid the clutter occupying the space.

Next, I shot the groom and his groomsmen. They were outside. It was at this point I realized how many people were in the wedding party. There were about ten bridesmaids and groomsmen. Shooting the groomsmen was fairly easy, especially since it was more so candids of what was happening behind the scenes. I was concerned about shooting the ceremony in the church because of it being small and there being such a big bridal party.

Once I came inside to prepare for the ceremony I noticed the windows were half covered and there were white pillars throughout the isle. This makes shooting more challenging because of the glare from the pillars and windows. For those that may not know, light bounces especially off of things that are white. 

The ceremony started and I was able to get decent shots of the bridal party entering. Shots of the bridal party were difficult for the reasons I previously said, however, I made it work with a ton of relocating.Constantly moving to find the right angles. As the bridal party was leaving I was able to get some more great shots. I was also able to breathe a sigh of relief because the hard part was over. We took some posed group shots outside of the newly married couple with their family and friends. This was my first wedding experience as a photographer.