ok, part of this is tongue in cheek, given some of the rants about wedding photography lately, but this was the deal...
it was about 9:45 this morning, and i was on the phone with an editor, discussing some upcoming assignments, and my cell rang. i saw it was a friend of mine i hadn't been able to catch up with for months on end (lots of trading emails, vmails, but never connecting). so i told the editor i HAD to take this call. picked up the cell and started catching up with my bud Bob.
after a few minutes, he asked if i could do him a favor. he told me he was getting married at 11:45 this morning and he wanted to know if i could be his photographer...
oh, what a freak out! all i could think was, "what do i charge?" "do i have the right equipment?" "what am i going to do?" AYYYYYYYYY.
just kidding. i told him i had another job to shoot at 11, but i could probably get it out of the way pretty quickly, then get over to the church where he was getting married. and that's pretty much what happened.
i got there, met his best friend and his best friend's wife, and met Bob's daughter. this whole thing literally came together in the past 24 hours. not due to illness or anything, just something they had been meaning to do for the past 18 years and finally got around to getting serious about it. bob didn't even tell his daughter until this morning, and even then she thought he was joking.
once we were all there, bob, jean, blythe, the minister, and bob & jean's two friends, we headed out to the church garden and they exchanged...penguins! instead of rings, they opted for something that they felt was more fitting. this was an absolute joy. there was so much love and laughter in the air, it was a pure pleasure being able to do this for my friend.
some fyi...
i shot these primarily with my 24-70. took a handful with my 70-200, but not many. all with natural light, no flash.
epilogue
how did this happen? thanks to dpc! how is that? well, a couple years ago, there was this music challenge. i went out looking for live music and got this shot:
as i noted at the time, it was serendipity in that the drummer was a friend that i hadn't seen in 15 years or so. we've stayed in touch off and on over the past two years, and today i shot his wedding. how cool is that!
Say it ain't so, Skip!
Where are your scruples?!?
Putting the pro's out like that and showing up late to boot!
Chilling!
Cool, though, penguins exchanging people like that...
;)
Wonderful story Skip! I was kind of taken aback when I saw wedding photos posted by you on the "Recently Uploaded" page. So Skip's breaking into wedding photography now, I thought to myself. There's got to be a story behind this and sure enough there was. :)
Exchanging penquins, now that's a new one! Super-sweet. :)
i've done a few ;-) while it's something i really enjoy, i'm not going ever put myself out there as a 'wedding photographer'. i'll leave that to julia and debbie.
Originally posted by matt0:
dont go all soft and stop shooting sports!
no sweat--i'm covering 5 soccer matches, 2 field hockey games, and a volleyball game this weekend.
Originally posted by matt & kadi:
cutting out the pro's
but, but, but, but, well, they couldn't afford a real photographer and well, i don't value my work or time.
I just wonder how comfortable they'll be wearing their penguins all the time.
Bemused Stranger: "Excuse me? Is that a penguin on your finger?"
Jean: "Why yes. 24 carat. It's nice, isn't it?"
Bemused Stranger: "Yes, I can see it's big..."
