When I first started doing photography, …. Scratch that. BEFORE I even started doing photography, I had this friend that enjoyed good photos. One day I was stalking checking Facebook and saw she told some guy he had great photos. Curiosity was instantly sparked! So I stalked browsed through this Roman guy’s work. I looked through his stuff, and I was totally amazed. At that time, I only had a little point-and-shoot camera. I decided to strike up a conversation with him, and found out he was actually friends with two of my high school friends. Small world, right? When I finally bought my camera, my first lens came from him- an 85 mm 1.8. I also bought a camera bag off him, and hoped we’d stay in touch. The idea of doing weddings then scared me to death. I didn’t feel I was qualified enough, didn’t have faith in myself at all, and just wanted to stick to what I knew and what I found to be ‘safer’- because let’s face it, the idea of YOU being the one having to capture the most perfect moments that will only happen once on someone’s big day, YOU being responsible for everything if anything goes wrong, and YOU being required to edit over 1,000 images…. IT’S TERRIFYING. In fact, the first time someone asked me to do their wedding, I gave them this speech as to why I won’t ever do weddings… and her response was, “Never say never! I love your work, and I want you to do my photos! I have faith in ya!” At that time, I hadn’t found my style I was looking for, and I hadn’t any idea how to photograph weddings other than what I’d previously observed. I had my dad second shoot with me, and he did a great job! He even hung out at a beauty salon that morning with the bride to get photos of her getting ready. What a man! He did talk to me about hiring someone next time… Roman immediately popped into my head for this. I knew that if I ever did another wedding, he’d be my go-to.
At this point in time, I still honestly feel it’d be rare for me to even agree to do a wedding without any sort of help from a second shooter. There is just WAY too much going on that day for one person to handle everything in the way I want to handle it. With my business, I strive to provide images of the wedding day as a whole- photographing what the bride’s doing at the same time as the groom. That wouldn’t be possible alone, and I would need to get some anxiety medication. True story.
On a wedding day, my focus is to capture the details, capture what I know the bride and groom want, capture what publishers would want, run here, run there… My mind is going a million miles per minute. Your second shooter is there to capture moments you may miss because you are capturing everything else. They also capture the same moments, but at different angles.
The first wedding Roman and I did together was for Sarah and Lee. I somehow had this image in my head that I’d need to be on point with this, making sure he knew where to be and all that stuff. I guess when I stress, I resort to organization for comfort. Roman showed me that’s not the case at all- just relax, breathe, and photograph. He has made this job so enjoyable because I know that he captures what I need him to capture, he has the right professional equipment that I require for my work, I feel his style compliments mine, and plus he’s just an all around great guy.
If you go back to my photos from Jeannie and Troy’s wedding, you can see everything I’ve posted. I’d like to revisit that day by showcasing only Roman’s work. These are all the moments that I am so thankful to have him by my side on these special days.
Roman, thank you for all you do! I am truly grateful to have met you, and have you there as a companion while photographing such beauty.
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