18 years ago today I was the bride and can I just say it goes by in a blink of an eye. We wanted a ‘small wedding‘-having been in the industry I was fully aware of how crazy weddings can be. I soon learned that there is NO small wedding. You go through all the same steps, get all the same stuff but just have fewer guests. Which really is what we wanted. Just family and close friends. No friends of friends or friends my parents knew 20 years and 3 states ago-we were brutal with our guests list and learned how to say “No” really quickly. All 50 of us had a grand time. Only a few were on Xanex……I wore my Mom’s dress and my Mother-in-Laws mantilla. I made my Matron-of-honors dress and the guys rented tuxes. The whole event was held at the Shaffer Baily Mansion on Capitol hill which we thought was great (cause there’s more than a few drinkers in my family) until the very gay manager had a bitch slap fight with his boyfriend in front of my crusty old farmer Dad-curse words were a’ flying. Worth a giggle in my book. A number of other little foibles happened through out the weekend but really, after 18 years what really matters in the end is us not the whole pomp and circumstance. Don’t get so caught up in it all that you forget what’s its really about. Lesson learned.
I shake my head when I think about how much photography has changed in the past 18 years. First of all our wedding was shot on a medium format FILM camera. On average photographers shot 6-8 rolls of film yielding 120-240 frames with maybe 1/2 of those viable. You did 3-5 getting ready, what ever it took for formals and family, 12 during the ceremony, maybe 5 scene setters, 6 during the toast and 6 during the dance and cake cutting. Focusing was up to the shooter and flashes were manual. You really had to know your stuff and your gear inside and out. VS now – when I go to an event I shoot 1500-2000 images total and that’s conservative by many standards (having done the old school thing I’ve learned to wait for the moment). I dump 1/2 for various reasons and spend the next 25 hours editing on the computer. Sometimes I miss film…all you had to do was drive to the lab and drop it off and return to pick it up. Now for all practical purposes I am the lab, I just don’t do the wet part of the process. Our gear is smarter which is great but gets darn expensive staying current. Most of my days are spent on my butt in front if the ‘puter when it use to be on my feet in the dark room. Yellow page ads are replace with websites, blogs and social media. It’s a constant challenge to stay current-sometimes it can be over whelming to wear so many hats.
That being said I can’t imagine doing anything else. I take photos-it’s what I do.
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