T'was a blustery cold morning and I walked through rain puddles speckled down Calhoun Street to the back door of The Gadsden House, Charleston's newest event venue. Inside I found coffee and bagels and a small notebook with my name scribbled delicately across the top in fine calligraphy. I took my notebook and a glass of orange juice and sat down front and center in our classroom, waiting patiently for others who do not share my "ten minutes early is on time" notion.
We spent the entirety of the morning learning TONS of photography facts. We went over everything from styling the reluctant and camera-shy groomsmen, to camera settings, to wedding-professional attire. We learned about gear, labs, presets, ambient lighting, unruly guests, and drinking on the job.
The photographers were really lovely people, relatable and good-humored. I was pleased to find no upturned noses or withholding of industry secrets. These five women were so excited to share everything they know, stating one main motivator for creating the workshop was their understanding of needing a professional photographer to take chance on you and let you learn from them. "We all started as second shooters." they would remind us as we blushed and stammered over our rudimentary questions about photography.
The girls in the class were great. Some of them were so charming and fun that I wanted to steal away with them and spend the day giggling and goofing off. Some were more reserved and even fewer seemed to see the day as a competitive reality show, never curling their lips into a smile or whispering pertinent questions to keep the answer all to themselves. The lot of us are in a perpetual Facebook chat where we share photos and ask questions and for the most part, everyone is very supportive and proud of each other and our five photographer friends swoop in occasionally with informative articles and words of praise.
At noon we broke for lunch. We were given a few nearby options and everyone filed out of the building into the misty rain on East Bay Street. I heard the girl I had been sitting next to all morning say she left her wallet in her car and she ran off in the opposite direction of her classmates. I found myself in a pickle as my overly considerate mind immediately recognized that our class would get away from her and she would wind up eating lunch alone somewhere. So I fell to the back of the mob and decided to wait for her to reappear with her wallet. I waited three minutes and then realized that I don't know where this girl parked and who's to say that she will cut through the Gadsden House on her way to lunch? So I ditched my idea of being nice and set off to find my classmates. I never did find them and I ate lunch alone. She however, found the group and enjoyed a sociable repas.
After lunch we started shooting. We had three shoots. Reception, Bride and Groom, and Groomsman with accompanying details. We broke into three groups and spent time shooting each section. My group started with the Groomsman.
Our fella, Heath, was a friend of one of the photographers and seemed to have agreed to the shoot reluctantly. He at first seemed frightened under the gaze of so many detail oriented women. We looked him up and down and spun him around and angled his face and I reckon I would have hated it as much as he did. He was a rigid Citadel man with impeccable posture and a stone-faced expression. He barely flinched a smile and I could see his jaw muscles flexing as each girl approached him and gave him a once over. Heath really intimidated me. I don't take well to stern individuals and knowing I would be directing him in an area I just learned about made my feet sweat. Fortunately, I was the last in my group to shoot him so he was somewhat warmed up, as warm as I imagine Heath can be, and I decided my tactic would be to make him laugh. I'll be the one person who gets him to smile! I thought confidently, as I have an arsenal of jokes specifically tailored to the male brain.
I approached him cautiously, had him adjust his tie, and then look out the window. He stoically followed my orders and then held the pose long after I had finished taking my picture. "Look back at me." I said and his head slowly turned. "Would you like a joke?" I asked him, knowing from years of practice that the answer is, "Of course!" Instead Heath said nothing. He didn't nod, speak, or change his expression in any capacity. "Oh." I said, confused. "O-ok." and I found this very amusing.
What started as a choppy nasal exhale on my part turned into small giggles which prompted class-wide curiosity, personal embarrassment, and a very slight facial distortion on Groomsman Heath.
As soon as time was up I darted away from scary Heath, down the stairs and into a decadent, Vogue-esque set. Our bride and groom (and real life married couple) were Weston and Lea (pronounced Leia via Star Wars). Lea was very comfortable in front of the cameras and Weston seemed wholly unconcerned either way. If you wanted him to smile, he would smile. If you wanted him to stare at Lea, he would stare at Lea. In between shoots, while we reset or changed locations, Weston was watching a football game on his phone.
That last one of them is my favorite though it technically doesn't meet criteria. One of the instructors was talking so everyone turned their attention and Weston and Lea dropped their poses and started chatting and giggling. I looked over just as Weston said something that made Lea a little bashful and she playfully shied away from him.
My last and favorite shoot of the whole day was the Reception shoot. The colors! The textures! I spent most of my time in this room examining flowers and running my fingers along the furs and velvet.
I walked out of the workshop wondering if I had spent almost a whole paycheck to find out I wasn't cut out for wedding photography. And I'm still not sure that I am. Wedding photography is an interesting juxtaposition of entry-level and master-crafted work. That is to say, lots of folks get their start in wedding photography but you also have to be darn quick with your camera for that to be successful. So you have to have mastered your camera before you even get started. That's not to say that photography would be any less difficult later on in different categories like fine art photography or commercial photography but by the time you get there, you've already encountered almost every possible shooting scenario and would handle it accordingly. You don't get your start in nature photography and then move to weddings, you know?
Anyways, I've been doing lots of photo thinking and I have some ideas (and a shoot or two in the near future) but I haven't yet figured out what to do about this whole portion of my artsy disposition.
So there.
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