In the fall of last year in a meeting with a couple, (who by the way had some awesome questions for me regarding their wedding photography) they asked me this question: “Why did you get into wedding photography?” I answered their question with something similar to this, “From an early age, I started taking photos—with all kinds of cameras. I love capturing the moments of life, and weddings are such a beautiful collection of some of the most incredible moments in a person’s life.”
But I really started to think about the why, while the above answer is very true and how I feel, I started to really look into what led me in this direction. I love the opening scene in the Wedding Planner where Jennifer Lopez’s character is a little girl marrying Ken and Barbie, makes me smile every time. I was a big Barbie fan, but my Barbies didn’t get married, they were too busy having adventures…and actually, my Barbies preferred my brother’s GI Joes…but I digress
When I was a girl about the same age as Jennifer’s character, my mother and her friend started a wedding consulting business. At first, it was a home spun business…but it quickly went to a storefront with different aspects of a wedding in one place (wedding dresses, invitations and connections with other wedding vendors). I helped out often and since I was pretty tall I got to model junior bridemaid dresses in their fashion shows. And then in high school, I went on to model in various department store wedding fashion shows, sometimes even getting to be the bride:).
Fast forward to my cousin’s wedding in 2004…of course, I took my camera (it was/is pretty much an appendage of me). I took some shots, but didn’t get in the way of the actual photographer; ) My cousin loved the photo I took during their first dance. She told me it was one of her favorite shots of her day. I was hooked. Of course, now I see things I wish I had done differently and this was before I had high quality digital camera. But it was an intimate moment between her and her husband and I was honored to have captured it. Shortly, after this wedding I purchased my first Nikon DSLR! The D50…wow, hard to believe! And then in 2006, I started second shooting for other wedding photographers. In 2007, I made some investments in professional glass and a new camera body … And the rest as they say is history….
It is pretty incredible how life is like a connect the dots puzzle!
