Sugar and spice and everything nice That's what weddings are made of.

Weddings – what can I say ….

...... they are beautiful and touching and every girls princess dream come true to one day walk down the isle in a cinderella white dress. While almost every girl – it really wasn’t a primary dream of mine. But that’s another story altogether.

Wedding photography is an art skill all on it’s own. No room for error. One must be able to capture that special moment in a seconds notice while assessing all types of photographic environmental situations. You have to know your equipment intimately so you can react instantly to various lighting conditions and unexpected acts of love and kindness that seems to unfold in copious amounts.

There is no going back to re-enact a scene. Can you image asking the officiant to re-insight the vows because you didn’t quite catch the moment of the ring being slipped on her finger? I always steered clear of wedding photography because of this – the stress factor price tag that accompanies such shoots. What if I miss the shoot or my gear breaks? What if the bride / groom don’t like my images? Worst yet, what if the parents don’t like it, as they are the one’s that usually fit the bill.

My answer to that: bring two camera bodies and two focal length lens (70 – 200 & 24 – 70 is what I have). Hire an assistant (to share the blame in case everything goes bust). But seriously, having an assistant was key for me – what I missed he caught, and vise versa. And lastly: relax, capture the mood and the emotion that so embodies weddings. If you can master that, then you will for sure at least win the hearts of your newly married couple and will be able to provide them with cherished memories forever.

One Man’s Treasure is Another Man’s Inspiration

In this case it's one woman's treasure is another woman's inspiration. Sometimes it's good to take a step back and evaluate all that we hold near and dear. That is, why would we waste time and effort on subject matter that really doesn't interest us? Right? Wrong actually.

Just because a particular subject matter doesn't fit into your immediate mold of "things I love", doesn't mean you should dismiss it so quickly. There will always be a piece or element about things we hate that could be turned into things we love. I believe the word is .. "keeping an open mind".

An example: I'm not particularly drawn to the subject matter of light houses. Sure, they're cool and all if you're standing at the edge of the Gros Morne watching 50 ft wave swells, barreling down on the larger than life night lights that call to every lonely, salt licked sailor of the Atlantic. But the Great Lake lights pale in comparison to such icons. Non the less, my good friend Maureen loves them, which is why we always try to include a light or two on our photo excursions.

On one particular trip, we stopped by the Hamilton light located under the Skyway bridge (I'm sure Maureen could tell us the proper name), I was able to envision the image in my mind with heavy texturing (something I'm really lov'n at the moment) in post processing. I was actually first inspired by an image I saw in Flickr by pareeerica. Together with my love of textured images and inspired by both Pareeerica's amazing talent and Maureen's luv of light houses, I was able to create an image / master piece, that would have stayed buried deep in the recesses of my mind. Here's to being open minded to other people's treasures. ~