Client Questions: How did you change from a newsroom photographer to a wedding photographer?

For those of you who may not know I got my start in photography as a newsroom photographer. I shot for numerous publications throughout Southern Colorado. During this time I covered all kinds of events BUT it was the tougher events, the least interesting that gave me my eye for photojournalism. I remember being sent to a ballot counting. I watched as a county clerk fed ballots into a machine and wrote down the numbers. How in the heck was I going to find an interesting angle for this one? Business openings were the worst, owners in front of cash registers finding the "photojournalism" angle and not just posing them fictitiously was the real challenge. These assignments helped me to develop the ability to see what is going on behind the scenes. Take something that the normal everyday person would see a certain way and give them a completely new angle on it.

I shot my first wedding as a favor to a couple of friends. I did not charge merely accepted enough money to be able to buy myself a professional flash for the big day. Climbing on the furniture capturing the bride laughing with her bridesmaids, photographing her mom's face when she saw her daughter for the first time, 30 minutes in and I was hooked forever.

Weddings are a whole different animal when compared to news. News is so fleeting, so momentary. Although you do impact history as a record in my opinion its nothing like the record you create with wedding photographs. The market for wedding photography is so saturated nowadays. One thing that immediately put me off was the fact that people willing to pay top dollar seemed to often be coupled with a photographer who cared less about what he was photographing and more about how much money he was raking in.

As a wedding photographer I realize the responsibility I have to my clients. They will remember their wedding largely from their photographs. What is photographed, when and where is up to me, their photographer. Their photos will adorn walls, scrapbooks, photo albums, dvd's etc... They will be mailed to grandma, given to aunt susie as a gift and passed down throughout their family as an heirloom. Prized possessions and a lasting reminder of such an important fleeting moment... As most brides will tell you as was my own experience your wedding day goes by in a second. Before you know it's gone...

I do portrait work, dabble in sports photography and still occasionally chase after editorial work. But its with my camera in my hands, watching for that magic moment, recording history that makes me most happy in this lifetime. Do what you love... what else is there?

Here is one of my very first wedding photos.