Category Archives: Photography

On being behind the camera

I’ve been lagging soooo behind on my picture duties. I’ve just now finally wrapped up the picture processing of Kevin and Katina’s wedding from mid-December (see here for their engagement pictures from last summer and here for pictures of the bride getting dressed), and I can’t wait to share the rest of the shots with you guys! (Katina was glowing. Kevin was dashing. Etc, etc.)

Consequently (since I’m trying to deal with my pictures in chronological order so I don’t get confused all to heck with where I stand), I haven’t made it through any of the Christmas pictures (except for the small batch of James shots), or the complete batch of New Years photos.

If you’ve been with me for a while, you may remember that every year we celebrate the New Year with the same group of friends, and a merry group it is!

I love those guys. Some of them we see throughout the year, and some we only see once, at this party. Due to some pressure from facebook and my own inherent guilt, I finally threw a couple dozen or so pictures up on facebook, with the promise to go through them all later and actually get the complete set made public (task completed as of Monday!). As I doing my quick intial scan of the oodles of pictures, selecting a few here and a few there for immediate sharing, I was thrilled that there were a couple good shots of me and my husband!

(by the way, isn’t my husband’s nose fabulously straight? I hereby wish that nose and that nose only upon any future children of ours)

Being the girl behind the camera at most events in my life, there aren’t that many pictures of me–probably less than 0.01% of the total pictures taken with my lovely Nikon. And having a slightly weird face when it comes to the camera (don’t worry, I’m at peace with my face–it’s just not at peace with a lens), there are even less good pictures of me.

I also feel bad asking anyone to take pictures of me, first because I’m still slightly self-conscious (“will they think I’m, like, super vain???”), and second because I have to explain how to use the camera in order to obtain a focused, non-blurry, generally A-OK shot (“you can rotate this part of the lens to zoom in; yes, you have to look through the eye-hole-thingy instead of just looking at the screen; press halfway down on this button to focus, then the rest of the way down to shoot, but don’t hold your finger there after shooting because it will keep shooting and could burn out the flash; it you want to take a vertical shot you need to rotate the head of the external flash like so so that it points towards the ceiling and bounces off at the right angle . . .”). And frankly, that’s got to be kind of annoying to the poor person designated to take my/our picture. And in the process, I end up feeling like a micro-managing, controlling female fiend.

So thank you to whoever took these!

I think it was Liz.

They make me happy, and my nose doesn’t look 5 miles long. Yay!

More pictures to come!

My first wedding! The bride gets dressed.

I’ve only recently started offering up my services as a paid photographer. And let me say for the record that I didn’t initiate this venture. I blame my pastor, Tom, who mentioned my name and hooked me up with my first paid shoot.

I hesitate to even label myself “photographer” since I’m such an amateur, with a limited range of experience and less-than-professional equipment, but what else can I call myself when people are paying me to take their picture?

Fine! I will say it: I am a photographer. Hear me roar . . . or a least miaow.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the engagement shoots, business head shots and event shoots that I’ve done, and as you may remember, in December I shot my first wedding.

How did this come about, you may ask?

I will tell you.

Kevin and Katina loved the results of their engagement shoot so much that they asked me to be their wedding photographer.

I was flattered, thrilled, freaked out, spazzed out, and obsessed with the idea. All at once.

The idea made my head spin, as if I were contemplating a big uncertain leap into a pool from a high dive, with no promises that my bathing suit wouldn’t fly off upon contact with the water.

(For the record, that did happen to me . . . once.)

I spent a sleepless night obsessing about what I should say and what equipment I would need to purchase if I wanted to make it work.

(Sorry, must pause to have a Tim Gunn moment: “Make it work, designers!“)

Anyway, while I was intrigued by the idea, ultimately I knew that I didn’t have enough experience.

And looking back at the split second that I thought “maybe I could do this,” thank heavens I slept on it and showed some sense!

Photographing a wedding is nothing short of monumental.

It requires skill, the right equipment, indefatigable shooting for hours and hours on your feet. Crouching, leaning, bending and contorting yourself to get the right angle. Not to mention a quick trigger finger and the ability to capture that moment that will only happen once.

Right after thinking “I could do this!” I thought, “What if I mess it up? Big time?” Therein lay the question.

There’s no replay button for moments like the kiss, or the cutting of the cake.

Plus, I was already on the bandwagon–one might call it the “band bandwagon,” heh heh–to sing/drum/tambourine/strum as part of the wedding band at the reception, and I thought that multitasking might be too stressful.

So, with my heart torn, I declined.

However, they counter-offered–what if I came and took pictures of Katina getting ready with the ladies, plus candid shots whenever I had the time?

Kevin’s brother would be the official photographer, so I could just shoot what I could.

YES! What a perfect solution.

The experience of shooting a wedding without the pressure was an ideal situation.

So this post is part one of the wedding photographs.

To follow in the week/s to come, I’ll share my shots from the ceremony and the reception too.

I loved being the invisible eye witness of this sweet time that Katina spent getting ready for her walk down the aisle with the ladies in her life–her friends, her Mom, her sister.

Even this little one who gave me the Stink Eye.

(and subsequently had to be comforted by the bride herself)

It was fun to essentially be allowed to eavesdrop and oggle; to look at everyone’s faces as emotions played across them, listen to the banter, capture their expressions as the women poked fun at each other, encouraged one another, and gave their feedback on Katina’s hairdo.

It’s a great fringe benefit of photography–you get to watch.

In fact, you’re getting paid to watch.

I’ve also recently received another inquiry about my wedding photography experience, abilities and availability. Even though I haven’t officially been asked and may not be (believe me, I’m totally fine with that!), I’m having a sense of deja vu . . . obsessed, flattered, terrified . . . yes, I think I’ve been here before.

We’ll see what happens.