A wedding is a special day! As a photographer, I have had many wedding shoots over the years. Many of these days were very special indeed:

• I have had cameras break just at the wrong moment (if there is a right moment when you are the wedding photographer)

• I have run out of film at the wrong time and had to load the next film in a flash (yes, I know, I have done photography for a long time)

• Speaking of a flash, I have had those go out on wedding shoots too

• A wedding party partied too long and arrived at the photo shoot location after dark (even after my pleading that we should go hours before)

• I have had mothers fight ("you told me your dress was going to be this color ...") - ready, smile ...

• I have had mothers come more than an hour late (I will not even mention brides)

• I have seen the flowers arrive more than an hour late

• I have seen the father of the bride drop his camera and if this was not enough his lens rolled off of a table and smashed into pieces on the floor

• I have seen many just faint and a groom fall over backward like a log

• There is probably not much I have not seen at weddings

Because of my love of landscape photography I gave up doing wedding photography some years back. There is just a very slight difference in stress level between the two genres. Recently I was at a wedding of wonderful friends of mine and an awesome family I have known for many years. The wedding was at the famous Horseshoe Bend in Page, Arizona. When everything was over and everybody was loaded up and ready to roll out I saw the photographer finishing up her last few shots. Only she and the couple were still out there. The light was almost gone. Then it hit me and I just could not stop myself. I hopped out of the vehicle, pulled my cell phone out, rushed over to where they were shooting and took a few images.

          Yes, for the first time in my life I was that guy who wedding photographers love to hate. She probably rolled her eyes and thought something like, "what is this idiot doing shooting 'my shoot' and that with a cell phone no less; how insulting." I really enjoyed taking a few images. Since I was not the wedding photographer I had no stress. I was not shooting a wedding, I was shooting landscapes with a wedding party in the scene. I could really get into this way of shooting.

          Most of you reading this blog are probably landscape photographers like myself because that is what I write about. That means that you will probably not need any tips on wedding photography. I could certainly share a few tips on wedding photography as I was very successful as a wedding photographer, but I am not going to do that today. Please allow me to just share one point that perhaps you can apply the next time you attend a wedding as a guest. To get you interested let me share one of the images I took at this past wedding.

When we think of traditional wedding photography we tend to think more of the couple than of the scene. We shoot tighter because it is all about them. Since you are attending as a guest forget about the couple and look at the scene. Shoot the scene, go for the landscape but just place the couple in the shot. Follow standard landscape photography compositional rules. Show where it is at. Capture a feeling, the sense of the place. If your friends are getting married at some special place show that place, that is why they are there.

         Yes, the couple wants some closer images but I am sure they would also love a few images of scenes like this. At least this couple did. When they saw this image they really wanted it, and I gave it to them.

         The moral of the story is, don't forget about the landscape even if you are photographing people.