a photo blog about people in love » wedding + engagement photography

There are many things that will differentiate a professional photographer from the hobbyist photographer.  I won’t get into many of those things right now because I prefer that my blog posts be about, well…my clients, couples who are in love.  But there is, however, some value in helping educate couples who are looking for wedding photographers and so I would like to take a minute to do just that.

There are many “photographers” out there who can take nice photos.  When the light is just right, the couple looks their best, the venue is just oozing style and class…it’s hard NOT to take a good photo.  But what happens when there are scheduling conflicts and church lady is kicking you out? Or the wedding planner is urging you to hurry up with taking those pictures so everyone can get to the reception in time?  What happens when a sunday school room in the back of some church where a bride is getting ready is plastered with hospital-green paint and posters of Noah with his animals on the Ark?  What about when it rains on the outdoor ceremony?  Can the photographer STILL perform in these scenarios?

The evening of Rachel and Jason’s e-session it called for rain.  We had their session scheduled months ago…and with my calendar booked solid and clients who have jobs and other commitments, “re-scheduling” is not easily done.  So what does a professional do?  We shoot anyway.  In fact, I embrace “random” conditions…I almost look forward to them, because they’ve always turned out to be some of my most favorite shoots.  Rain, hurricanes, snow, sub-zero temperatures…I love it all and it makes for some special moments with the couple that the “hobbyist” photographer would have plain missed because they don’t want to hurt their camera by shooting in the rain.  :)

Rachel and Jason are such a sweet couple.  They are both solid individuals who are very much in love…and into each other.  When the rain came they continued having their moments together and almost forgot that I was still their taking photos of them!

I’ve dubbed this shoot, the “Notebook” session, because what happened on this evening was straight out of a movie.  It was cloudy, overcast and lightly raining and I was miffed by the fact that I was getting neither a good hard rain to make a fun shoot out of or some yummy scrumptious evening light.  Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere it started raining harder…and then the sun started to break through in western sky.  I could hardly contain myself!  I’m sure while Rachel and Jason were out in the canoe they heard me muttering some crazy randomness while I was running around on the shore.  The experience was almost spiritual…Rachel and Jason were in the canoe, paddled out to the middle of the pond, the rain started and the sun broke though!  I mean, you just can’t plan stuff like that…and I thank God I was prepared and he enabled me to capture such an inspirational moment.

Congrats Rachel and Jason!  Can’t wait for your wedding!

Here was the magical moment…I kid you not, this image is straight out of camera.  No photoshop or color enhancements at all.