I love work
Okay, here are my stats since the last newsletter:
5 shoots
2 weddings, 2 family sessions, 1 engagement session
490 miles driven
17944 photos taken
As my daughter used to say as a toddler - I'm "essausted." I think I need to start driving home from weddings with giant ice bags wrapped to my knees and shoulders like NBA guys do after a game. I am thankful for Advil and Liquid IV.
The family sessions were for a friend and I won't be sharing the photos. I had fun but I think I'm done with family sessions for a while (if not forever). I put too much pressure on myself for them and and my brain works better with either chaotic weddings or very simple, controlled environments like headshots. Family sessions are somewhere in between and it's hard for me to find the right groove.
The first wedding was at a resort and it was pretty nice. The first two weddings I shot this year were for couples I had never met in person and hadn't done an engagement session with so I had to work hard to get them comfortable and build a rapport with. The weddings this weekend though were both with couples I had done engagement sessions with and it made things so much easier. I felt really connected with both couples and I think the work came out much better.
My only gripe with the wedding on Saturday is that it was a resort that really prioritized their golfers over the wedding. It was hard to maneuver around the golf stuff. All of the scenic locations on the grounds were on the courses so we didn't have access to them until the evening after the golfing ended. Oh well. Things were completely different on Sunday.
The wedding on Sunday was at a private residence and there were no golfers and no rules. Just good vibes all around. The couple was great. As a wedding photographer I am very accustomed to shooting with people are shy and uncomfortable in front of a camera so it's really refreshing to work with a couple that is comfortable with having their picture taken, and maybe even enjoys it.
Monday, after a long-ass nap I did an engagement for a couple as they were on their way to Boston to watch game 7 of the Celtics/Heat series and I'm not going to say anything more about that, lol. We shot at Prescott Park in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, a place I've been hanging out in since I was a baby. One time in my 20s my friend Jaclyn and I missed the last bus after work so we climbed into the water fountain and pulled out $15 worth of quarters to pay for a cab ride home. Sorry to that cab driver.
This weekend I'll continue grinding away with a (probably rainy) wedding in Massachusetts and two fairly adventurous engagement sessions. I might have to climb a mountain.
RIP to Rachel