"WOW, that's a big lens"...I've been getting it a lot lately when I carry my Nikon 300(mm) (f)2.8 and I usually respond with something friendly like "are you making a pass at me...sorry, I'm already taken", and I flash my wedding band and smile. Spending the past 8 years photographing mostly for newspapers was great training for a photojournalist transitioning into wedding photography, or wedding photojournalism, or documentary wedding photography...whatever you want to call it.With newspaper photography comes sports assignments, and that means you need long glass to get tight pictures. In a way shooting weddings for me is very similar to shooting a Redskins game, save for the cold hot dogs in the press room. Wedding ceremonies are special, sacred and emotional...and can't be interrupted by a photographer.
A big reason clients hire me and other photographers that have a lot of editorial experience to photograph their weddings is because we have been trained to sometimes hang back, frame a picture and let the moment happen. My clients are often surprised when they see images from their wedding and say to me "I don't even remember you being there". It's a great thing to hear.
Every time I pull the 300mm out of my car before a wedding I think of what a local Time magazine contract photographer, Chris Usher, used to tell me..."tight is right."
