I Do

Three locations in Manhattan. With a truckload of rental equipment. And no assistant. Oh, and it's pouring rain.

LV went with me to go get the rental car. (Why pay to keep it over night if I don't have to?) The bus ride was quick. We found the lot much more easily this time. The car still reeked of smoke, but I didn't see the need to call and complain about this. Tuesday, Zip would let me know that smoking is not allowed in their vehicles.

Two pairs of shoes? Maybe just extra socks? Should I bring extra pants? Extra umbrellas? These were my last minute thoughts. I took my coffee, even though I knew I wouldn't drink it (when was I going to have time to go to the bathroom in the next 18 hours?), hopped in the car, and hoped I had the good sense to find lower Manhattan in a timely fashion.

Unlike the previous night's test drive, I actually made it out of Brooklyn. Then I actually knew where I was. (There was a time where names like Bowery and Christopher Street scared me.) Then I actually found parking. It was all so wonderful. Then I got to the salon and had to be engaging. It was too early in the day for that.

The plan was for me to go to the salon, get some pictures, leave early to go set up at the church. But weddings don't go according to plan. Things started very slowly at the salon. Had I left after an hour or two, I would have missed the meatier part of the story. And the bride would have been stranded. In fact, I deleted all the pictures from the first hour I was there. (I had to conserve disk space.) Above, she painted her sister's toe nails with a bottle purchased at the corner drugstore so that her sister didn't run off to get a pedicure.

Here the bride covers her pearl earrings to protect them from the hair spray. (These are the kinds of shots I was hoping the couple would request.)

When I went to retrieve the car, the rain wasn't so bad. By the time we pulled into a parking spot, though, it was a torrential downpour. Those extra shoes, socks, and pants would have been great... The bride tried to keep an umbrella over my head as I pulled more and more bags from the trunk. I think it took three trips to get all of our bags from the car. (I wasn't the only one who could use an assistant.) While we were waiting on the stairs to the chapel's balcony, I took a quick picture of my bags (Slingshot on my lap; Lambertson with the backups, an external hard drive, and assorted goodies; the bag for tripods, stands and umbrellas on top of the beast of a case for the portable kit; my hand-truck; my umbrella) to see how loudly the shutter would echo. Pretty darn loudly...

When the bride and I arrived at the meeting house (it was a Quaker ceremony), the women's group that had been double-booked for the chapel was still in session. Rather than continue to hide on the stairs, we joined the rest of the party that was corralled in the main office. The groom's mother was trying to arrange the flowers and trim away the wilt. She didn't care to be photographed, so I thought this was a good quick solution to telling the story.

I don't want to show too many faces here, so this is really the last picture that lends itself to this blog. The association for wedding photojournalists had an article that emphasized being a sniper instead of spraying the scene in the hopes to get a hit. I tried to keep that approach as these were two families that didn't seem accustomed to having someone shooting without saying, "Look at me." Above is one of the few pictures I took of all the time spent figuring out where to place the flowers. I think it pretty much sums it up... Blurred, but you get the idea.

How did the rest of the day go from there? I believe I got the shots the couple wanted. The couple was supposed to download my flash cards that night, but there was no firewire port on the laptop and the built-in card reader was not for flash cards. So, I don't know for sure yet how they feel about what I did get. I do know that I didn't use a flash or make the floorboards creak a lot or even take too many pictures during the ceremony. (The ceremony is a long silent reflection interrupted only for statements made by witnesses.)

I also know I was given very little time to set up group shots, but I did it. Between the double-booking at the meeting house, the absence of the bride's family, and my lack of motivation to pop up a studio in the middle of the makeshift altar they were still arranging, I felt like I had maybe 15 minutes to shoot from set up to strike. Plenty of time for some bozo with a point-and-shoot to kill the first battery on my lighting kit, a few unnecessary comments about the condition of my rental equipment, and the groom to imply this is all he could get for $5.

Yeah, looking in Bridge, I took my first group test shot at 5:42 p.m. I took my last group shot at 6:04 p.m. I took a picture at 6:11 p.m. of guests sitting in the pews we had just used, which means my equipment was down, packed up, hidden away, and I had my camera out again before 6:11 p.m.

I think the ceremony was supposed to start at 5 p.m.

I digress. Group shots in 30 minutes or less. Yay.

People ringing bells and signing the certificate? Check and check.

By the time the place emptied out and I had my equipment loaded up and ready to roll back to the car, the rain had stopped. My pain had not. There was a $95 ticket waiting for me.

Apparently only doctors are allowed to park there. Ever. I took lots of pictures of the lack of signs. See what a beautiful job I did parallel parking on my first attempt? Yes, there was a car in front of mine when I pulled into the spot as well as a truck behind. The truck's windshield was sporting a ticket, too, that night.

Some magical sense of duty and belief that this is all worth it compelled me to find my way uptown for the reception. I have no idea how I'm going to convince the hotel's manager to let me turn her mezzanine into a photo studio, no idea where I will charge my batteries, no idea when my shoes will dry...

I arrived too late to catch pictures of the receiving line (a helper monkey (not an assistant--see earlier posts) to pack up my equipment and get it in the car before everyone left the chapel would have been awesome), but I did arrive in time to catch the DJ's introduction of the family (which hadn't really been a priority for the couple). And I got the table toasts (which was a priority). And they found a place for me to charge my batteries (though it was rather unnecessary seeing as we didn't set up a photo station). And I got eat (which wasn't really my priority--I wanted food picturs...). Then the dance floor was heavily and enthusiastically used by guests, which saved me from feeling bad about only wanting to take documentary photos.

I think I got home at 2 a.m. The happiest part of the whole day was how well I drove in the City. The last time I drove a car at all was Labor Day weekend. I don't drive in cities and I'm certainly not the kind of person who shoots at three locations in one day. Although, I guess I am now.