I don't DO weddings!

I really don't shoot weddings - that is until a good friend, who had seen me through the recent bad times, practically begged me to shoot her daughter's wedding. At the same time the ol' checking account, fridge and gas tank all came up empty four days before payday. So what's a girl to do...shoot a wedding cheap, that's what.

Saturday saw me at a local clubhouse wondering how the heck do I do this. Flash? No flash? During the ceremony? Not? My normal nerves of steel abandoned me and I remembered why I don't do weddings - too stressful - if you mess up, not only do you not get paid, you let down the folks who are counting on you to provide them with memories of the splenderferious day of which they will be too stressed out to remember later.

I think I had a stomach ache the whole time and no, that isn't because my piece of wedding cake had all the extra icing piled on top of it. Mmmmmm, mmmmm, good.

Cake is good for only one thing and that is as a genteel way to get the frosting to your mouth.

But I digress.

Back to the wedding. The bride was beautiful. The groom, not.It was a typical wedding.

The photos are ok. Not great but then I warned my friend that I am a newspaper shooter not a wedding shooter and those are vastly different specialties - at least for me. But she'll have some nice ones out of the bunch.

I ended up with two pics I really like, the portrait of the bride - taken in the bathroom door because the light coming in was wonderful - and the tossing of the bouquet - with the mad scramble to catch it. Oh my, those girls just about knocked over a table and each other in order to catch it - and it was caught by a girl about 10 years old. She has a while to wait I think.

click to see full size image

 

This was absolutely, positively, my last last lastest wedding. Forever until death do me part this mortal coil.

click to see full size image

 

Lara Hartley
< lara@digitalstoryteller.com >
Photographer
Desert Dispatch, Barstow, CA
Other journals by Lara Hartley
362 April 28, 2000 Stand-off with a dead man
302 July 14, 1999 When the steam train came to town.
298 July 8, 1999 Time flies and the older you get the faster it boogies..
274 May 1, 1999 ET Phone Home
266 April 20, 1999

Time off - HAH!

241 March 3, 1999 Things that go boom in the night and Military Police
231 Febrary 21, 1999 The hunt for red, (or green, or cyan) wild art.
218 February 8, 1999 I don't do weddings.
217 February 7, 1999 James K. gets to have all the fun.
216 February 4, 1999 Vultures or newsgatherers?
214 February 2, 1999 Ain't PhotoShop wonderful.
211 January 31, 1999 Life really is just a country song, and when I die I am goin' to Willie's house
163 October 27, 1998 So, what's your work space look like?!
133 August 12, 1998 Personal work
131 August 8, 1998 Just Because
122 July 29, 1998 Kids make great pics
121 July 28, 1998 What is fear, really?
116 July 19, 1998 The wannabe emperor has no clothes.
98 June 18, 1998 To da dump, to da dump, to da dump dump dump.
96 June 16, 1998 T-shirts to tombstones
90 June 9, 1998 Miss Exotic World
83 May 30, 1998 All the world a stage
80 May 27, 1998 Lately it seems as if it is coming too easy.
62 April 18, 1998 Snakes and Saints
53 April 1, 1998 Dating - part deux - update
50 March 31, 1998 The beauty of the bloom
37 March 15, 1998 Kelso Dunes (Photo Essay)
34 March 1 , 1998 I love B1
31 February 25, 1998 BORING, BORING, BORING
27 February 23, 1998 Faces in the ferris wheel
24 February 21, 1998 Dead bodies have blue feet
23 February 20, 1998 Hoop Skirts and Harlots
17 February 13, 1998 Friday the 13th and a full moon - oh my!
14 February 8, 1998 Parts is parts.
12 February 3, 1998 There are few things that are more frightening than dating
1 January, 1998 The word pictures answer the questions that the photograph asks
 
Contributor since 1998
 
   


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