Karma … Fate … Destiny … Providence … Happenstance or just good ol' Murphy's Law?

Weird and wonderful how the Universe often conspires to deliver what we ask for, whether we really want it or not!

Having made the commitment to improve my Portrait skills late in 2017, an "opportunity" to shoot a Wedding landed in my lap first week of 2018 - for a wedding on the second week of February. In the classic words of Monty Python, my first thought was to "Run Away, Run Away!". "I don't shoot weddings" , "Where would I start?", "What if my camera failed?" and on and on. I'd been asked a few times over the years if I would do a wedding, but always apologetically said NO.

The fear of failing the Bride and Grooms' expectations would always be echoing around my brain. I'd shot an "elopement" for a good mate of mine once, sneaking into the Botanic Gardens, a bit of direction here and there, a few nice shots … more like a Family Portrait shoot I guess. Images turned out OK … and the lovely couple are still together! :)

This time it was different - I'd said to the Photography Gods I wanted to learn how to shoot Portraits and they had answered "Here ya go Greeny, Here's a Wedding for you to do!" Certainly not what I had mapped out in my spread sheeted plan! Anyway, I had 5 weeks to prepare, which is better than 3 or 2 or 1 week! Lots of reading, watching Youtube videos, practice with a good friend and on our family equines - I kind of thought that was OK as the lovely couple are both "Horse People" :) After a few meetings with the them, I became more relaxed about the shoot. I could see they were after a relaxed style of shooting and their special day was going to be fairly 'fluid'. I'd made a few suggestions on how the shoot would/could unfold which they took onboard. A good friend of mine would loan me his camera and lens for the day, which made me feel a lot better as well.

The big day finally arrived … a glorious summers day … off to a good start. In fact, the whole shoot went extremely well. It was a lovely wedding and I will admit to shedding a tear or 2 when Hope and Will read letters of commitment to each other as part of the ceremony - I do love a good wedding!

That morning I'd given my wife a crash course in shooting portraits ( she had never used a "real" camera before ), using the 70-200mm lens on the "back-up" camera. She did an amazing job - some awesome pics to complement the "close in" images I was taking. Between the 2 of us, I reckon we did a pretty good job! Hope and Will are very happy with the set of photos they now have that told the story of their special day and it was special!

And I guess my Portrait journey has taken a bit of a leap …. forward, with still so much to learn.