You could easily be talking about me.

At one time in my life I fancied myself to be a semi-professional photographer. I had a full color darkroom back in the days when that was virtually unheard of in a home setup - there were no digital cameras back then! I was the official track photographer at the local race track. I even did a couple of photo shoots for a (no, the) local modeling agency. People familiar with my work at the race track had me photograph their weddings. I figured I was pretty hot stuff.

Then... I attended a wedding as a guest, not a photographer, and I watched a real pro at work. This guy was magic. He was always just where he needed to be to get the shot he wanted, he seemed to be everywhere at once and yet never intrusive or in the way. He saw (and made!) photo opportunities that I never would have thought of. He had an assistant whose job was to always know which camera the photographer needed at that moment (it's a lot quicker to grab a different camera than to swap out lenses) and to keep fresh batteries in all the cameras and strobes. Over a three hour period that covered the wedding and the reception, he took more than 2,000 pictures. He was working hard, the sweat just rolling off of him, and he never relaxed for a moment.

Oh, he did some set pieces with proper lighting between the wedding and the reception, but for the most part it was "journalist style" and he certainly captured the spirit of the wedding.

I never had the audacity to photograph another wedding after that, and still am embarrassed about the absolutely pitiful job (reckoned with 20-20 hindsight) that I did on the ones I shot. That night was a real education for me.

tanstaafl.