Gaby + Dan • Wedding

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One of the most risky things I've had to do with the start of The Orchid and me as a self-proclaimed newbie photographer, has been to get out there and shoot at real weddings. I've always been in love with weddings, even outside the photography realm. There's nothing like that one single day of two people's lives that changes them forever and marks the start of something completely unknown and beautiful and exciting to them. I've always enjoyed witnessing all the love, happy tears, and the countless smiles that happen during wedlock. Those smiles are particular, and they never happen the same again. As unique and special as I know that day is to a couple and their families and friends, to me being the one to capture those priceless moments during a wedding felt like something completely out of reach-- ever. I lacked the experience, the knowledge, and perhaps even the skill to even think of undertaking the coverage of an event so personal and meaningful. Not to mention weddings are most of the time huge social events, and I'm not a fan of crowds and loads of people watching me work. But I've always been devoted to capturing details and candid moments through my photographs. Be it through nature shots, photojournaling my personal life moments, or just impromptu portrait photoshoots, detail and spontaneity have always been my favorite things to photograph, and what involves more detail and candid moments than weddings? 

I've been following tons of other photographers' work for several years now, and I've slowly found myself become more and more interested towards portraiture and especially weddings. The keenness hasn't come to me that easy, though. I clearly remember the words of my friend Juan Gamundi (photographer), asking me a year ago, "So, Joan Hidalgo, I am wondering that... what are your concentrations of photography? Portrait, Architecture/Landscape, Conceptual art, etc..", and me not having a clue. I simply responded "I'm not sure. I like portraits."  Finding one's true vocation is something that starts coming to light through time. It's always like that with everything else. You never really know what you wanna do right away, it simply starts growing on you. Its been like this for me on the matter, and ultimately I armed myself with a little boldness and said to myself, "this is it, and I'm gonna do it." So hello to wedding and portrait photography!

I started looking for opportunities last August to work at actual weddings, and it filled me with joy when someone finally accepted to trust me with the job. I will never forget my first wedding gig. It was the greatest learning ground for me as a wedding photographer and for The Orchid's team members involved who were shooting video. It made our plans more real then they were before, and it was an eye-opening experience as to what we were getting into with working at weddings. That's why I will never forget our first wedding job, and I will be forever grateful to Gaby Sanchez for letting it be hers.

When I first met Gaby in person to talk about my interest in her wedding I was a little nervous and did not know what to expect. As I mentioned in and earlier blog post on The Orchid, at the beginning of my plans I still wasn't even sure what I was doing. All I knew is that I saw an opportunity to do what I wanted to do, and I went after it. As shy as I felt at first, I was immensely relieved when Gaby didn't flinch at all to agree to have me and the team at her wedding. She said she's always been a fan of my work and that she followed my blog, and the moment she spoke the words "I trust you", I gave myself the go, too. With great power comes great responsibility, but the excitement always overcame the fear and pressure!

The initial settlement was for The Orchid to produce Gaby and Dan's wedding movie only, since they already had a hired team of photographers that were going to take charge of documenting every special moment in pictures of the whole day. However, I couldn't resist the slightest opportunity to photograph as much as I possibly could before I was an intruder in the other photographers' territory. I asked Gaby if she could give me the chance to take pictures of her dress and wedding preparations earlier on the day of the wedding, and let me keep snapping photos every now and then in between video shots. As I wasn't the only photographer around, I felt -of course- intimidated and I also wasn't able to make as many pictures as I would have loved to. But I understood that this time it wasn't going to be my job to capture absolutely everything. I was still able to document many other details that were special about the wedding both on video and photo, and I'm more than happy with the results.

Thank you Gaby and Dan Ackerman for your help and appreciation. All of these photos have a little piece of my heart.

Make sure to Like The Orchid on Facebook if you haven't yet so you can be aware when Gaby & Dan's wedding short is up on Vimeo!

xx, J.