Storm

“There are two sides to every coin, two peas in a pod, two to tango and as far as photography is concerned there are two kinds of storms – good storms and great storms.“

I am nothing but an extraordinarily courteous photographer (that’s a lie) and since the bride was used to living in much warmer weather I called her at 1PM, five hours from the scheduled shooting time, and gave her the opportunity to reschedule the shoot for a different, warmer, more predictable day. Lucky for us she was brave… unlucky for her it was freezing.  Did I mention that she is from Ghana, as in blistering hot and humid Africa?

The rain started smattering the windshield when we were just a couple miles away from our first shooting location, and then the icy wind started picking up.  The camera is water-resistant, brides will dry off, and any amount of time the assistants spent feeling sorry for the poor girl in a wedding dress is a waste because technically it’s her fault we were outside in the ice-water rain.  I think we can all agree that the bride should be feeling sorry for bringing the photographer outside into the nasty weather.  Only kidding of course, it was a pleasure to make these images with the beautiful bride!  Well, mostly kidding.

The weather held off pretty well, considering, just enough wind to poof the wedding dress, the shivering was manageable and the warm car breaks frequent enough to prevent any permanent frost-bite.  The light was incredible, the dark clouds provided the worlds largest soft box creating a perfectly even, soft light on everything.  A little oomph added with an off camera Canon 580EX II fill flash and we have some of the best photo conditions on the planet.

We shot in multiple places, pressing our luck as the sky continued to darken and then it eventually it happened.  You know how every once in awhile you experience one of those incredible moments whose timing seems far beyond coincidental? I suppose that in a lifetime full of moments it would be more statistically remarkable to not have a handful of those remarkable moments but never-the-less they still seem other-worldly. After snapping the last photo we wrapped up and started walking back, as soon as the bride walked within spitting distance of the car (nope, you won’t hear that sentence many times in your life) the storm broke, and I mean it really broke.  The cartoon-sized rain drops started pounding down in one of those theatrical displays of pouring normally witnessed only at the movie theater during a break-up scene.  We rushed to shelter and as we all piled inside the warm-ish car the future-sister-in-law put it best.

“Jake, the photo gods must really love you.”

I sure hope she’s right.