A (scary) flashback to the first wedding I ever shot // Happy Halloween!

Hiiiii Happy Halloween Boo.
(major, major bonus points if you know the TV show that line is from!)

Truly though - Happy Halloween!! I figured the ideal blog post for such a holiday would be a legit scary one....the first wedding I ever shot. Haaaaa I joke. But really, it's kinda scary haha.

Before we go anyyy further, let me throw out a completely necessary DISCLAIMER haha -
I feel like it needs to be pointed out that this bride, her groom, and their families were very, very happy with their images! I'm not poking fun AT ALL of them, their memories, their special day or anything even remotely like that. I'm merely poking fun at MYSELF, my lack of knowledge on shooting and of course....my immense level of awesome editing skills....hahaha.

Let's kick it back, y’all, real far.

Many moons ago a fellow officer-in-training to my current-at-that-time-beau asked if I would shoot her wedding. A girl who barely knew me, and hadn't seen much of my photography work. Like, what. Right? I agreed - from what I recall, reluctantly, but also excitedly! I wanted to get into shooting weddings "on the side".

I can assure you that I barely knew what I was doing. It wasn't a complete matter of cluelessness, I knew SOME things....like, don't interrupt the ceremony. Don't be rude and boss people around. Try to be creative - haha. But I knew diddly squat much else.

I look over these photos from this sweet couples' wedding, and I see what I was trying for in most shots, but most things I reached for, I fell a tad short of. My focus was super soft, often. My composition was....odd. My level of creativity overall, was, well, poor. It's obvious I gave this poor sweet couple little direction, no encouragement, and probably didn't do a very good job of making them feel comfortable in front of the camera.

And let's all take a moment and reallyyyy soak in that sweet editing....I mean, who here really truly remembers when selective coloring was a thing!? aaahhhhahaha. Yowza.

SO, why share this, you're probably wondering?

Truthfully, I think it's dang good to revisit your old work, take a trip down memory lane and see how far you've actually come. It's easy to get caught up in the day to day of running a photography business, and end up questioning yourself - have I improved? Has my work grown? The best way to get those answers, in my opinion, is revisiting your old work!!

This sweet couples' wedding was SUCH a learning experience for me back then, and I really can't thank these guys enough for trusting me to document their day for them - especially considering my lack of experience (as in: none!) and my lack of skill (as in: veryyyy little!).

I hiiighly encourage you, dear photographer, to go revisit your old work today, right now! Right this second! And you should absolutely DM me over on Instagram to show me :) :) :)

Now, before we call it good, let’s, for arguments sake - do some comparisons on images from then, vs now!! OH YEAH -