Be Patient with Photography
Amanda & I got married twelve years ago. Our wedding was small, basically an elopement, and planned spontaneously in two weeks. The day of our wedding, something terribly tragic happened. Our photographer did not show up, and we found out that the night before she had fallen and hit her head. Two days later, we’d be at her hospital bed where everyone had gathered to say goodbye. She passed later that week from internal bleeding in her brain. Horrible tragedy, and we still think of her and her children often.
We didn't take our wedding too serious, from our overall budget to the rings. Our entire wedding was $200, and our rings were from Amazon and Walmart. Amanda still wears her $300 diamond and wedding band ring combo, and until this year, I still wore my $50 tungsten ring. It actually cracked a few months ago, and I replaced it with… another $50 tungsten ring.
When our photographer didn’t show up that day, a friend quickly reached out to another photographer. While we had a handful of pictures from that day, I’d say that the photos (like the wedding itself) were never anything we took too serious.
Baby Dave & Amanda, June 13th, 2010
Twelve Years Later
Our bestie Jenn is an incredible portrait and elopement photographer, and recently we did a *fake* elopement/wedding with her in Yosemite. It was an adventure. When we arrived, it was raining and foggy. Then it all turned into snow. Then back to rain, and even more fog. We weren’t really sure what to expect, and our very detailed plan and photoshoot was falling apart quickly. The ironic thing is that the weather forecast was actually clear and snowy. Didn’t quite play out that way.
Yosemite when we arrived.
Yosemite two hours after we arrived.
The question became - do we bail, or do we wait. Waiting would involve a few hours of sitting in the car, either circling the valley or just sitting in a parking lot. We ended up circling the valley, and then driving around Wawona Road a bit as well. After a bit, we returned to Tunnel View, where we had planned our shoot. The rain had briefly stopped, so we decided we’d go for it in the short time we had.
Tunnel View after the rain started to lighten up.
And once we stepped out onto the rock overlooking the view, the fog began to break apart and the western sky started opening up on and off. These are the photos Jenn captured.
The Shoot
She ended up delivering around 60 photos, and we couldn’t be happier. From what the conditions were to what they became is pretty unreal. I asked Jenn to share a few thoughts about being patient with photography. Here’s what she had to say about patience.
Interview with Jenn
Jenn Buxton, owner of Gold Rose Studio
“When you’re patient, unexpected things will happen. You can plan all you want, but there is so much beauty to be found in the unexpected. You can go in with a vision in your mind, but then things change and you end up with something even better than you thought it would be. You have to trust the process.
Of course, it doesn’t always work out like this particular shoot. But I’d tell someone to keep waiting it out until there is absolutely no way to redeem the situation, whether that’s the weather or the lighting. If you are quick to call it and leave, then you may miss some of the best conditions. We almost called it sitting in the car before this shoot, but we decided to wait ten extra minutes, and look how it turned out.”
I also asked Jenn if she (as an elopement photographer) prefers predictability or the unexpected.
“As a planner, I’d love it if things went as I planned them. I love predictability. But that’s just not realistic, and I can’t be defeated by unexpected things. I’ve actually come to love the unexpected. Predictability is safe, and I’m about the adventure. Even when we go shoot other things, like landscapes or commercial shoots, I really enjoy the journey and adventure to get there. Being an adventure and elopement photographer is always an adventure, and I’ve come to love not knowing everything that is going to happen and every image I’m going to get.”
Final Thoughts
After we were done shooting, the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen in Yosemite happened: a rainbow appeared over the entire valley. It was a reminder that we would only experience this because we had patience. We could have left and headed home many times throughout the day, but we didn’t. We were patient. And now we have these incredible mock-elopement photos that we will cherish forever, and have captured the couple we have always been: adventurers.
