nd when I am asked to photograph a relative's wedding (as my gift to the bride and groom), instead of going as a guest. This way no one else would have to worry about pictures, bring or buy a camera, film, flashes, etc. and the family would be able to place the burden of good pictures on someone else. Recently, my disinclination to be the official wedding photographer is met with begging, accusations that I don't care and "Couldn't you do it for me?" I even remind them that I had sold my professional cameras years ago anFor thirty years as an award winning photographer for 3000 weddings and Bar Mitzvahs I strained to please demanding bosses and nervous mothers of the bride. The bosses supplied me with long lists of pictures to take at the wedding, pictures of scenes that did not exist or were impossible to capture. Reminded emphatically to record on film all of the tables, I often tried my hardest to find even one table with all of the guests present without luck. I knew that an irate bride and groom awaited me, ready to express their disappointment and threatening not to pay me for a bad job. Eventually, experience taught me to photograph the tables as soon as the guests were seated, completing as many as possible before the dancing and table hopping started. Of course, I couldn’t disturb them when the first course was served.

Once I asked permission to move a small table in the living room so that I could photograph her daughter in her full length bridal gown. The mother said to go ahead and move it. After the portrait was taken, I replaced the table carefully. Two weeks later she complained to my boss that one of the items on the side table had been moved out of position and demanded an apology or a bunch of free pictures in compensation. There are all kinds of people.

On one occasion, the haranguing demands from the boss was so upsetting that I completely forgot to load my camera case in the car. Luckily, I was an hour early and had time to go back. Hard drinking guests can be violent, threatening to destroy my camera if I didn't stop taking their picture. After trying several times to capture even one picture of the bride with her immediate family but put off, my last minute request for a family picture was met by the father's statement that he liked to be photographed at his own pace and to do it later. There was no later. I have been admonished for not using the back entrance to the house, refused a break after being on my feet for ten hours and had my lenses stolen from the front row of a church pew.

All this is to give you some idea of my state of mind when I am asked to photograph a relative's wedding (as my gift to the bride and groom), instead of going as a guest. This way no one else would have to worry about pictures, bring or buy a camera, film, flashes, etc. and the family would be able to place the burden of good pictures on someone else. Recently, my disinclination to be the official wedding photographer is met with begging, accusations that I don't care and "Couldn't you do it for me?" I even remind them that I had sold my professional cameras years ago and

disappointment and threatening not to pay me for a bad job. Eventually, experience taught me to photograph the tables as soon as the guests were seated, completing as many as possible before the dancing and table hopping started. Of course, I couldn’t disturb them when the first course was served.

Once I asked permission to move a small table in the living room so that I could photograph her daughter in her full length bridal gown. The mother said to go ahead and move it. After the portrait was taken, I replaced the table carefully. Two weeks later she complained to my boss that one of the items on the side table had been moved out of position and demanded an apology or a bunch of free pictures in compensation. There are all kinds of people.

On one occasion, the haranguing demands from the boss was so upsetting that I completely forgot to load my camera case in the car. Luckily, I was an hour early and had time to go back. Hard drinking guests can be violent, threatening to destroy my camera if I didn't stop taking their picture. After trying several times to capture even one picture of the bride with her immediate family but put off, my last minute request for a family picture was met by the father's statement that he liked to be photographed at his own pace and to do it later. There was no later. I have been admonished for not using the back entrance to the house, refused a break after being on my feet for ten hours and had my lenses stolen from the front row of a church pew.

All this is to give you some idea of my state of mind when I am asked to photograph a relative's wedding (as my gift to the bride and groom), instead of going as a guest. This way no one else would have to worry about pictures, bring or buy a camera, film, flashes, etc. and the family would be able to place the burden of good pictures on someone else. Recently, my disinclination to be the official wedding photographer is met with begging, accusations that I don't care and "Couldn't you do it for me?" I even remind them that I had sold my professional cameras years ago an

the table carefully. Two weeks later she complained to my boss that one of the items on the side table had been moved out of position and demanded an apology or a bunch of free pictures in compensation. There are all kinds of people.

On one occasion, the haranguing demands from the boss was so upsetting that I completely forgot to load my camera case in the car. Luckily, I was an hour early and had time to go back. Hard drinking guests can be violent, threatening to destroy my camera if I didn't stop taking their picture. After trying several times to capture even one picture of the bride with her immediate family but put off, my last minute request for a family picture was met by the father's statement that he liked to be photographed at his own pace and to do it later. There was no later. I have been admonished for not using the back entrance to the house, refused a break after being on my feet for ten hours and had my lenses stolen from the front row of a church pew.

All this is to give you some idea of my state of mind when I am asked to photograph a relative's wedding (as my gift to the bride and groom), instead of going as a guest. This way no one else would have to worry about pictures, bring or buy a camera, film, flashes, etc. and the family would be able to place the burden of good pictures on someone else. Recently, my disinclination to be the official wedding photographer is met with begging, accusations that I don't care and "Couldn't you do it for me?" I even remind them that I had sold my professional cameras years ago an

picture. After trying several times to capture even one picture of the bride with her immediate family but put off, my last minute request for a family picture was met by the father's statement that he liked to be photographed at his own pace and to do it later. There was no later. I have been admonished for not using the back entrance to the house, refused a break after being on my feet for ten hours and had my lenses stolen from the front row of a church pew.

All this is to give you some idea of my state of mind when I am asked to photograph a relative's wedding (as my gift to the bride and groom), instead of going as a guest. This way no one else would have to worry about pictures, bring or buy a camera, film, flashes, etc. and the family would be able to place the burden of good pictures on someone else. Recently, my disinclination to be the official wedding photographer is met with begging, accusations that I don't care and "Couldn't you do it for me?" I even remind them that I had sold my professional cameras years ago an

nd when I am asked to photograph a relative's wedding (as my gift to the bride and groom), instead of going as a guest. This way no one else would have to worry about pictures, bring or buy a camera, film, flashes, etc. and the family would be able to place the burden of good pictures on someone else. Recently, my disinclination to be the official wedding photographer is met with begging, accusations that I don't care and "Couldn't you do it for me?" I even remind them that I had sold my professional cameras years ago and was left with only a thirty-five year old 35mm amateur camera. I finally give in and agree to take some snapshots and donate them to the bride and groom. This was a mistake. The first three people I approached for a picture demurred, refusing to be photographed. One was my daughter. Two minutes after the ceremony the groom took off his coat and the bride , instead of sticking around for the family pictures, went into the house to rest, emerging two hours later.

When the snapshots came back, there followed a week of angry ranting of "Why didn't you get a picture of great aunt Millie?. And ”What do you mean the film got stuck when you tried to get a picture of feeding the cake to the groom? And you call yourself a professional." All this in spite of the fact that they had over a hundred perfect pictures to look at. Now my name is mud for the rest of the year and my wife reminds me at every photographic occasion not to forget that I screwed up her brother’s wedding pictures. Even though most weddings came off without a hitch, when the next wedding in the family comes around, I think I'll just tell them that I am now officially burned out.