If you think about it, you never really ‘have’ time. The tick tocking does not stop no matter how much time the wedding itinerary said you were supposed to have with the bride and groom. Tick does not wait for tock because things went a little longer than planned for hair and makeup.
Sometimes this job is like standing on thin, cracking ice. There are two options. 1. play it safe and stand there until time turns ice into water and you’re dead. 2. run like hell. It will be awkward, as running on ice often is, but you never know what will happen.
We had loads of time shooting for Andrea + Kurtis so this is not about any kind of time restraint we felt from them. We just happened to catch a glimpse of the stairway and balcony in the house and after shooting a few hours in bright and setting sun, something dark was in order. We grabbed a tripod and a flash as the caterers gave notice that dinner was in 7 minutes. Now, I’m pretty neurotic about getting clients back on time and not over staying our welcome when it comes to photos…so we went for it. The 7 minute comp on the fly.
The tripod didn’t fit on the balcony so I had to hand hold the camera and shoot through the rungs of the balcony. I caught Steph’s ‘oh you’re totally gonna fuck this up’ glance across the room, made a few guesstimates w settings and hoped it would work. My hopes exceeded my expectations as Steph lit Andrea over a few shots. I tried to hold steady and we did the same thing w Kurtis on the rail. Tick. Tock.
We’ll run on thin ice every chance we get. I think its important to know that about us. Sometimes we’ll fall flat on our face, photographic blood streaming from our nose and all you can do is look on with Bambi-like sympathy as we flail around, trying to stay alive.
Sometimes you just have to put all your faith in no faith at all.
Tick. Tock.
