Joy In A Contact Sheet

Photographers are often posting about how much they love their brides, love their jobs, love being there for these amazing moments. I used to question their sincerity until I started photographing weddings. Sure it is hard work, but for people who love people, it really is a bliss fest.

The unexpected joy I’ve gathered from it lately, in a season of editing thousands of images, is being able to learn small but important things about a family. After going through one session of edits, I learned that everyone on one side of the family has a dimple on the right side of their face, that Grandma makes everyone she encounters laugh a throw-your-head-back-and-hold-your-side-kind-of-laugh, that some family members will look at each other rather than the lens, and that the groom loves to watch the bride when she turns around. I see a good bit on the day of the event, but learning these little idiosyncrasies, finding patterns and details of joy in a contact sheet full of images is like being there all over again. Those details are the stuff that paper boats are made of- the point of my business. These tiny, easily forgotten details are here now in images you can hold. Maybe it’s because I was a writer before I was ever anything else, but I am so appreciative to be able to witness these stories in the precise moment that an experience is becoming part of so many different people’s stories.  I find myself looking at images of guests and talking to my computer, “She was awesome!”  or “I loved that guy!”

All of this just to say thank you so much for trusting me with these moments and that you can believe the hype. I love my brides. I love these moments, even after they are over. Thank you, thank you, thank you.