I shot my first wedding in the spring of 2004. It was a trial by fire: 100 guests, an indoor ceremony, and two brand-new cameras I’d paid for with a small business loan.
It rained almost the entire day. But shortly before sunset, the sky cleared for about half an hour and we were able to sneak out to the beach to take some beautifully dramatic photos against the stormy sky.
It took me three months to edit those photos, but the bride and groom were thrilled with them, and I was hooked. I’ve never looked back since. Along the way I’ve been lucky to shoot weddings in destinations as far-flung as Jamaica, Mexico, New York City, and Nantucket, but mostly I’ve stayed close to my little corner of earth on the Outer Banks. I know this place like the back of my hand, which comes in handy sometimes. I’ve done everything from elopements with two witnesses and an officiant to 600-guest extravaganzas where I had to communicate with my assistant via walkie-talkie. And I’ve enjoyed every single one of them.
There's just something about photographing a wedding. The pace is fast, and as a photographer you have to think fast. After a typical 6 or 7 hour wedding I will have walked or run nearly 10 miles, slinging two heavy cameras, a couple of flashes, and other bits of gear. The rituals are similar enough from one wedding to the next, and yet like snowflakes, each one is unique. And I approach them that way.
Working with a good assistant and a radiant bride, the whole process takes on the character of a ballet. We move lightly, quickly, with smiles on our faces, light on our minds, and music in our hearts. We sprint, we squat, we stand on railings, whatever it takes to get the shot. I've been known to get belly-down in the sand, just to get the right angle. One minute you are a fashion photographer; next you are a photojournalist. Then a food photographer. A portrait artist. A con artist. (I kid). A landscape and architectural photographer. You tell a story with details, panoramas, closeups, gestures, and split-second expressions. It takes all your attention, and as such takes on a certain Zen quality when things are really moving.
I'm always on the lookout for the moment -- and there are so many moments at a wedding, with friends and families gathering from all over, the painstaking preparations, the nervousness, the tears, the heartfelt toasts and the crazy school friends cutting up. Everybody is looking their best, even the kids. Somehow the young ones know, once they put those dresses and little-man suits on, that they are part of something important, something very special, and they are always on their best behavior. And they've never looked so cute. Getting great shots of the flower-girl and the ring-bearer is something I feel I can never take credit for. They are already picture-perfect. A monkey with an iPhone could get a good shot of the flower girl. But presumably you want a little better coverage of your wedding than a monkey taking pictures of children with a cell-phone, else you wouldn't be on my site right now.
Over the years I’ve branched out into photojournalism, travel photography, and commercial photography. I've shot for over 20 major national and international publications, such as National Geographic Travel, The New York Times, Time Magazine, etc. I've traveled to Hawaii, Brazil, Panama, Italy, France, Ireland, Haiti, the Cayman Islands, and all through the American South on assignment. And I’ve published a book, Legends of the Sandbar, a tribute to the salty tribe of surfers who call the Outer Banks home.
But year in and year out, I’ve continued to work as a wedding photographer, and have relished the opportunity to work with so many kind and beautiful people. Brides whose smiles have had me grinning from ear to ear. Grooms whose vows have brought tears to my eyes. Fathers of the bride who have shaken my hand solemnly, welcoming me into their family’s ceremony and charging me with the import of my task.
I feel honored, privileged, blessed, to be the hand and the eye behind so many cherished memories on desktops, coffee tables, walls, and refrigerator doors. I've got some of my favorites from weddings past still up on my own fridge. They speak to me just as strongly as the work I've done on assignment photographing surfers and musicians, countrysides and cityscapes. In the end, the emotional value of great wedding work outweighs just about any other kind of photography there is.
To view my professional editorial/commercial/art photography website, visit www.chrisbickford.com.
To check out my book Legends of the Sandbar, an ode to the surfing culture of the Outer Banks, visit www.legendsofthesandbar.com.
