I showed up that day as an assistant, completely nervous about how the day was going to play out.
In no time though, my nerves were gone. Celebration was in the air! It was a wedding of 100 people, and almost every single person was getting up and dancing! People were laughing together, sharing hugs, and dancing the same dances moves in sync. It was magical.
I KNEW RIGHT THEN, THIS IS WHAT I HAD TO DO WITH MY LIFE.
Can I purposely have posed photos that look heckin' awkward?
The answer to all of these questions is "Yes."
You can do whatever the fuck you want on your wedding day!
I remember driving home from work, feeling so low, I didn't believe happiness even existed. I remember thinking to myself, "I owe it to myself and those that I love and love me, to try one more time". So that's what I did. I checked myself into a hospital and spent months in intensive therapy.
Slowly but surely, I started to find hope. It was then that I found photography all over again, but instead of photographing nature and landscapes, I started photographing people and I never looked back. I remember going out in the woods taking pictures of nature years later, but it didn't speak to me the way photographing people did.
It was because of a photo I took of her and her dad dancing. He's an older gentleman and couldn't be on his feet for very long, so the dance was a very special moment for them. She explained to me how much it meant to her and everything it made her feel. That moment will stay with me for the rest of my life.