. . . but not at the working end of a camera. Sure I have shot quite a few weddings over the years and a couple have timely and financially saved my bacon. But generally I have taken myself out of the wedding circuit as of a year ago. I ahve one wedding I promised to a co worker coming up this fall but after that I don't think I'll ever do another one. I know if I've turned down one in the last year it's been twenty. Kinda like looking for chicks in a bar without a wedding band. Swing and a miss. I couldn't drag wedding business for anything. Now that I'm out, well . . .
I used to loath weddings, and only did them at the request of friends as a wedding gift. At my last drop in, however, things have changed. The kids today are less interested in the formal shots (though you still gotta get em, mostly for the moms) and more interested in really cool really fun stuff. And B&W!!! Ive done a couple, and I have to admit i enjoyed the work, Weird.
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--J Brunner, The Prints of Darkness
I used to loath weddings, and only did them at the request of friends as a wedding gift.
I have only ever done two - both of them this month and both of them for friends at no charge.
They were both fairly simple, only requiring some formal shots outside after the ceremony.
As an added bonus, the father of the groom at the last one was so impressed that I was using film and a hand held RB67 that he is going to give me a couple of enlargers that he no longer uses!
There is not enough money in this world to convince me to start shooting weddings. I've assisted a few, and I shot one for my cousin, as her wedding present. I literally saved her wedding, because the "pro" they hired shot the entire thing in 35mm, including the large group formals, and all the faces were tiny little dots, so you couldn't tell who was who. The "pro" also only had a 28, 35, and 50mm lenses, so the close-ups at the ceremony weren't very close-up either. I was happy enough to do the photos that I did as a wedding present and leave it at that, but I got a phone call telling me how my photos "saved the wedding", and they were going to place an order for reprints. Well, their 10th anniversary is coming up soon, and I haven't gotten the order yet. I'm sure they took the proofs to Ritz and made copies.
Then there was the story from a co-worker about the time she almost got punched out by the (VERY drunk) father of the bride for making the bride cry. Why was the bride crying? Because daddy had fired the wedding photographer.
I attended a wedding today, and the whole time I was thinking, "what a thankless job" (though of course they are "thanked" quite substantially when it comes time to pay up). I shot some candids at the rehearsal with my 2x3" Technika, but was happy not to have any camera on my person during the wedding or the reception. In the digital age the photographer and assistant are shooting thousands of shots plus there was a videographer, and the whole thing feels so overphotographed that any other cameras on the scene are overkill.
I have only done one wedding. It was a wedding of American Civil War re-enactors. The wedding was done in period dress. They invited me because of my 5 x 7 view camera and period dress. ( I did reenactments for several years while working on a project.) It was a fun thing to do, but pretty stressful because of the nature of photographing large groups of people with a view camera.
I gave up the re-enactment photography subject because of technological advancements. I was pretty hot stuff for a couple of years showing up with my big camera and canvas sack. I knew the end of my career was at hand when I spotted a black wagon and a tent at a re-enactment. I wander over and find a fellow photographer in the field. Portrait stand camera, brass barrel lens, a chair and head clamp. I could take that, but when he showed me how he was developing ambrotypes in oak buckets I pretty much knew I was finished. The march (backwards) of technology did me in.
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"Omnia Lumen Decem Partes Divisa Est"
Stop by the newly designed website have fun with the photographic critique generator. 04/23/2008
On the subject of weddings, and after been married for forty three years, I realise it's not an accident that the bride wears white,and the groom wears black .
I love weddings 
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