Welcome and Introduction

I'm not in this picture.  This is from a wedding a few weeks ago.  Lovin' that green highlight.  

The purpose of this blog is to chart my path to stardom as I become a world-class wedding photographer.

Why wedding photography?  Good question.  Maybe I should start with "why photography?"

I've been taking pictures since first grade when my parents gave me a Fisher Price 110.  It was flat and blue with a yellow button and black rubber bumpers.  I particularly enjoyed taking the roll of film out and showing people. Perhaps that's why none of my pictures came out.

In sixth grade, I upgraded to a Minolta P&S with an electronic zoom lens.  I remember taking pictures of the heart at the Franklin Institute.

Then, in high school, I took B&W Darkroom Photography.  Not every HS has a darkroom, but ours did.  I borrowed my uncle's Nikon-F.  I did a lot of self-portraits and still-lives of chess pieces and shot glasses.  Something about the reflection and refraction of the glass.

In college, I studied English and Fine Arts.  My concentration in FA was painting, and again, I focused on the reflections and refraction in glass.  I began to pursue what I termed the "abstract and surreal elements in everyday life."  Fill a glass halfway with water, and look at it close up from many angles.  You will see crescents of pure white on the surface of the water.  You will see waves of greenish-yellow and navy in the edges of the glass.  The glass, transparent, is perfectly opaque from many angles, but only in certain places.

I also did a lot of self-portraits.  The human form, particularly the face, is eye-catching, and as a self-portrait, I had a model for a subject who was always available when I wanted to paint.

I picked up a Canon Rebel 2000 in college, and a cheap kit lens with crack in the barrel.  I hauled that camera and lens all over Europe.  I attached a film canister to the strap with duct tape to hold an extra roll of film.

I taught a darkroom-photography course at a summer program for gifted and talented students.  That gave me access to a darkroom.  I was able to use two enlargers simultaneously to make some really cool double exposures.  I put one friend inside a windex bottle, and pitted another against a giant squirrel.

Then I got a Sony DSC-W1.  That was sort of the death of my photography.  It was small, light and had few capabilities but a great deal of storage.  I took a lot of "snapshots" (I use quotes because I find that word insulting when referring to any sort of photograph with artistic intention).  I toted the little Sony around Europe and then on a bicycle trip across the USA.  Eventually, I replaced it with one even smaller and lighter.

Then, my mom got into photography and she bought a Nikon D90.  On a visit, I was explaining to her about aperture and shutter speed.  My wife, Emily, (then my fiancee) said, "if you know how to use a camera like that, why don't you use my DSLR?"  To which I replied that I didn't know that she had a DSLR.  But she did.  It was an original Canon Digital Rebel, which her dad, an early adopter, had bought for her.

So I started walking around Providence and shooting everything I saw.  Buildings.  Flowers.  Ducks.  People.  Mostly uninteresting stuff.  The images were aesthetically pleasing at best, but for the most part, quite boring.  When it got to the point that I had outgrown the lens, I picked up another zoom lens, and then a few primes.  When it got to the point that I felt that I really understood how to use the camera, but I was running out of ideas for photographs, I took a photography course at RISD.

The course really confirmed my suspicion that human subjects are always the most fascinating.  The most eye-catching and dramatic.  It followed pretty quickly that wedding photography is the best way to photograph the most people.  It gave me the opportunity to photograph people who generally wanted to be photographed, and they would pretty much ignore me while I was doing so.  Plus, it is a challenging environment.  The light is difficult.  The action is fast.  The etiquette is... specific, if nothing else.  And it has the opportunity to be profitable.

So, at the beginning of this season, I got in touch with a professional wedding photographer, a really outstanding one, and I began to work as his assistant.  I hold lenses and carry lights for part of the event, but for the rest of it, I'm free to shoot.  So here I am.  Building a portfolio.  Working on my technique.  Waiting to become a star.