2009 was my first year shooting weddings.  I had been wanting to get into it for a while but wasn’t exactly sure how to take that first step.  Photographing a weddings is like nothing else.  You have to know your equipment like the back of your hand.  You have to be able to anticipate everything before it happens and be ready to capture it both accurately and artistically.  That’s why so many people who get into shooting weddings with no experience leave lots of unsatisfied clients in their wake.  There are some photographers out there who jump right in and do great right off the bat, but they are definitely few and far between.

It’s my opinion that the best way to get into shooting weddings is to work as a second photographer for as many weddings as it takes until you feel comfortable taking the reigns.  Sometimes getting that good second shooter gig is even harder than transitioning into working as the primary photographer.  I sort of lucked into my work as a second shooter.  As I was first really starting to pursue getting into weddings early last year, a photographer friend of mine had just met Angie from Todd Studios.  Angie had just purchased the studio and was looking for people to hire as seconds.  My friend put me in touch with her, and I’ve shot several weddings and become great friends with Angie since then.  She’s really taken me under her wing (despite being two months younger than me), and I can’t even begin to express how grateful I am to her for that.

Next Saturday is my first wedding of 2010, and it can’t come soon enough.  January and February are extremely slow months for most wedding and portrait photographers.  I’ve been taking this time to go over all my weddings from last year to see what I did that I liked and, more importantly, what I didn’t like.  Between that and looking at dozens of other photographers work both online and in magazines, I have been getting stir crazy not being around weddings.

Since I just recently launched my blog, I never did blog posts for any of the weddings I shot last year.  Over the next week leading up to my first one of 2010, I’ll be posting my favorite images from some of the weddings I did last year.

Here’s to a great 2009 and an even better 2010.