As anyone who has talked with me for any amount of time in regards to my photography will know, I started this journey take landscape photos. Why wouldn't I? Okinawa has so many breathtaking views to capture coupled with ever changing whether to change the look and feel of each shot you take. This was one reason I was able to latch onto photography so easily. Since the start only a couple short years ago, I have been asked by a few of my close friends to be the photographer for their families, causing me to explore the different types of photography I had previously just kept away from. Long story short, the more work I posted from the odd jobs I was requested to do, the more my friends and family would reach out to me with requests until finally I was asked to be the photographer for a wedding.
This request alone caused me to take a step back and think things through. Wedding photography is unlike any other form I have dealt with thus far and for one big reason. Not only is this the most important day for most couples, but if you miss a moment, as a photographer, that moment is likely gone for good. That's a tough thing for a lot of people to bear in mind especially if you're embarking on this adventure as a lone shooter rather than having a secondary, and in some cases a tertiary, photographer to catch the things you can't. Needless to say there was a lot of learning that had to take place in the year I had to prepare for this big day. As you can see from the photo above, I managed to survive the wedding just fine and have been happy thus far with the results I am seeing and do hope to start sharing some of the moments I was able to capture with the rest of you in the coming weeks.
My biggest take away from an event like this was a simple thing really. Coordination. Given I was going into this event knowing I was solo and would have to remain hyper aware of all the moving parts around so as to minimize the missed moments, I knew some sort of coordination would have to take place with the bride and groom to determine exactly what it was they wanted to focus on. This really applies to any job you might take on as you're now providing results for a client rather than creating for yourself. Still I bring this point up because after talking with the bride to be about what they had wanted to capture, it all kinda narrowed down to one particular moment. She specified a single moment during the ceremony that she wanted captured and noted that all else would just be extra at that point. This took a rather large weight off my shoulders and actually helped allow me to more smoothly transition into my photographer's mindset through the day rather than stressing over capturing every single moment. It was quite an experience for me, to say the least, and one I'm glad to have endured, though I still have a lot to learn by way of wedding photography.