Memories are what weddings are all about. The bride, the groom, the families — all expect the day to be one they will never forget.
A lot of that burden falls on photographers. A photographer has just one chance to get the kiss after the vows or the first toast. All the posed shots in the world won’t fill the gap if the picture of the bride coming down the aisle is missing.
No wonder wedding photographers can be nervous. And no wonder veterans can always remember their very first wedding.
For Jim Martin, co-owner of Photos by Robert photo studio in Arlington Heights, his first wedding job was 15 years ago at Mr. Peter’s Banquet Hall in Mt. Prospect. It was, he said, an ordinary wedding, but “I was nervous and I shot tons of pictures because I was so afraid they wouldn’t turn out.”
Rick Fingerman of Buffalo Grove, who has been in the business for 12 years, said the very first wedding he shot professionally was “a real bomb. I was two months into working for a photographer, and he went out of town and didn’t tell me about the wedding. I had to go out and do it, and the pictures came out OK, but I think I got about 12 gray hairs that night from the nervousness.”
And that was before he encountered technical problems. “One of the cameras locked up on me that night and I had to use another camera I wasn’t used to, and then it locked up,” he said. “Fortunately, I was able to figure out why things weren’t working during the cocktail hour.”
Al Brodsky of Des Plaines has been a professional photographer for 24 years, and “I remember the time I was working for someone else and I forgot the (portrait) umbrella and I didn’t have a light meter. I rushed like a madman from the North Shore to my mom’s house to get the umbrella, and nobody missed me. Now when I go to a job, I go with two or three of everything.”
And then there was the anonymous photographer whose story was heard by Bill Brennan, director of marketing for the Bridal Expo in Carpentersville. “The photographer did not lock his car, and his photo bag with all the film in it was stolen,” Brennan said. “It was a real horror story.”
And you thought weddings were memorable mostly for the bride and groom.
Wedding photographers have to combine many skills in their craft. They have to be able to light and frame portraits, but they also need the instincts of a photojournalist to catch those unexpected moments. They have to satisfy customers who often have no idea what they want. And they have to be diplomatic, dealing with families who may not get along.
Dorothy Giambi, who runs her own wedding consulting business, Cana Weddings in Palatine, respects good wedding photographers.
“The photographer’s job is probably the hardest job on (the wedding) day,” Giambi said. “They are constantly getting people together and getting them to smile. They come out of the day tired and limp as a rag.”
Fingerman, 42, summed up the photographer’s responsibility. “My photos will live on,” he said. “I really want to communicate with (the bride and groom) about what they want. I guard against people getting their proofs and saying, `Why didn’t you get a picture of Uncle Joe?’ I need to know about Uncle Joe. I can’t read minds.”
Photographers make efforts to plan their work in advance. Fingerman sends a questionnaire home with customers. Martin said he prefers to shoot the couple’s engagement photos as well as the wedding because “you catch the blinkers and the squinters. I had one couple (that) if one didn’t blink, the other did.” That, he said, is why photographers give people a word to say. “When you say a word, you don’t blink,” he said.
Brodsky, 46, meets with the wedding planners (“Always the women,” he said) and stays flexible.
“Every wedding is different,” Brodsky said. “You can decide what you’re going to do and then get there and have to change. First and foremost, the photographer should be a journalist and a portrait artist. People want to have pictures on their wedding day that tell the whole story.”
Getting that “whole story” can put photographers in many unique situations. Martin, 36, a resident of Prospect Heights, remembers one wedding in Humboldt Park where “there was this table set up with a big rock — like a crystal — on it. Then these two little old ladies started playing the bongo drums and people would come up and whisper to the bride and groom.” He never did find out the meaning of the ceremonies.
On the other hand, some weddings are memorable because of the setting. Martin shot a wedding at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. “I went on the flight simulator with the bride and groom at 11:30 at night,” he said.
Fingerman tends to shoot traditional weddings. But one of the most exciting was a two-day affair he shot about 10 years ago. “The groom was Indian and the bride was Jewish,” he said. “On Friday, they had a ceremony at the groom’s house. The bride rode a camel down the street, and the parents followed on horseback. Then on Saturday they had a traditional Jewish wedding.”
The photographers also have the opportunity to observe the people involved in the ceremonies and to glimpse, however briefly, the relationships.
“What’s touching is when there is an amazingly strong bond between the bride and the groom,” Brodsky said. “What’s even neater is shooting the 50th wedding anniversary party and you can see the bond and the love are still there. Not long ago I did a wedding and the couple was in their 40s and their parents were still alive and had been married 50 years. I may never see that again.”
Photographers also get to see the playful side of couples. Recently, Fingerman said, “I shot this really fun couple, and when it got time to cut the cake, they kind of warned me to stand back. They reached into the cake and started playing catch with this big ball of cake they made. There was whipped cream all over the dance floor, but fortunately none got on the lenses.”
Not all of the traditional shots are favorites with photographers. Brodsky said he never suggests the picture of the two hands with the rings on them, although he will shoot it if asked. The picture is “corny,” he said, adding, “If they want to see their rings, they can look at their hands.”
And the photographer tries to portray the bridal couple in the best light. Sometimes, Fingerman said, the dancing at weddings will get a little rowdy. “I won’t take a photo of the bride lying on the ground. I like to think I have more taste than that.”
Time is the most important commodity. Setting a schedule allows the photographer to do his work with minimum disruption. For this reason, Martin said, he prefers to do the portraits of the bridal party before, not after, the wedding service, even though it breaks the tradition that the bride and groom not see each other in advance on the wedding day.
“By taking the photos early, everybody is fresh and looks their best,” Martin said.
An experienced photographer can have a calming effect. “I tell people to go with the flow because something may always go wrong,” Martin said. Fingerman added that he has seen couples so tense it looked like they might fight before the wedding, but “I tell them that two or three hours before the ceremony they can get as crazy as they want, but I won’t. Often they look to me to help them calm down.”
No matter how many weddings a photographer shoots in a given year — or career — weddings remain special. “It doesn’t matter what the wedding is,” Fingerman said, “my excitement level is the same. The oldest bride I’ve had was 68 years old, and that was real neat.”
Brodsky said he sometimes finds himself speculating about the couple’s future. “I look at them and wonder if they’re going to make it,” he said. “I know it’s about 50-50.”
And sometimes photographers get lucky and see other parts of the story.
“There is one gentleman — I did his daughter’s Bat Mitzvah,” Fingerman said. “Now he’s getting remarried in Arizona and he’s flying me there to shoot his wedding. That’s real special because I want to become part of these people’s families.”
