Weddings

Second Shooter // 21 // Baltimore Museum of Industry Wedding

Somehow, in the almost 40 weddings I did with Dani last year, we never made it to the Baltimore Museum of Industry. What an adorable wedding venue! This wedding was perfectly suited for it, with the quirky vintage record and dinosaur centerpieces, a short wedding dress and super sparkly reception dress, red heart sunglasses, and bright colors. You’ll definitely want to check out the slideshow linked at the bottom of the page to see more of the photos!

There is one thing I love about working as a second photographer. I adore the opportunity to experiment, to work through creative puzzles and challenge myself to create something different out of a place that I have been many times before. Although the wedding was at the Baltimore Museum of Industry, we did portraits right across the street at the American Visionary Arts Museum and Federal Hill Park, places we’ve been dozens of times. Instead of looking for the photos that I’ve previously made in those places, I figured it would be a perfect opportunity to try something different.

Although these photos may look like they were simply taken with a wide angle lens, they were actually all made using the Brenizer method. Each photo is actually made up of multiple photos, taken with a telephoto lens of various parts of the scene, that were blended and stitched together in post-processing to make one larger picture of the entire scene. By taking multiple photos with a telephoto lens and stitching them together, you get a wide field of view while keeping the compression (blurring or bokeh) of the background that the telephoto lens provides.

While it’s exciting to add to the tools in my creative toolbox, I’m really looking forward to perfecting this technique – finding more interesting situations in which to use it, molding it into my style, and stretching the boundaries of how it works. It’s exhilarating to find something new, to play with it, and make it your own.

As I embark on a second year of being a full-time photographer, it gets harder to do things differently. It is easy to do the same things over and over again, but it is not fulfilling. When I first started out, everything was an experiment, until I found things that worked and kept doing those things over and over because they were safe and guaranteed. There’s nothing wrong with that – you have to know how to consistently create sellable art, and that is how you grow from an amateur to a professional and it takes time. What I’m learning now is that how you experiment changes with experience. Experimenting with your art becomes less about figuring out what works and more about figuring out how to make it work. It becomes more intentional.

No matter where you are on your artistic adventure, never be afraid to experiment – there’s a chance it won’t work out, or it may not be perfect the first time, but don’t let that stop you from pushing yourself to find new ways of creating something beautiful.

Let the act of creating bring you joy.