KISS Wedding Photography

So I have a new computer, well new for me, its actually Ricky’s old one, but being Mr. Graphic Designer man, he has to have the latest and greatest with the biggest screen, and rightly so. So my “new” computer is great but all my photographs were on another machine and I missed them. So we set about transporting them over. It was only then I realised I have over 15,000 pictures. Now not a lot for a photographer, but these are nothing to do with our jobs. These are our friends and loved ones only. These are my ‘snaps’, these are our memories, these are our life, well our life since going digital, these don’t include the stacks (and stacks) of albums we have when we only shot in film. So I sat watching them all being transported, I saw our last 7 years unfold. It was then I realised that we actually NEVER go anywhere without our cameras. Every meal out with mates, every dinner party, every New Year, every house move… and there have been far too many of those, every tipsy night out, every birthday, every everything!!
I love those photos, I love seeing our friends being them. I am sure without those pictures I would have forgotten Kelly’s smiling face when she came round to show off her engagement ring, her top was the same colour bright green as her eyes and she looked beautiful and brimming with love and excitement. Going back further is the picture of her trying on my engagement ring, “just to see if it suits me” she was excited then, but not quite so. There are friends weddings, and then some second wedding’s!! There are our camper van days, when we felt free as birds, finding spots in Cornwall that we were sure no one else had never found (bet we have all had those feelings) Photos of girlfriends on nights out drinking water and the rest of us on wine, oh yes they must have been in the first few weeks of pregnancy and hadn’t told us yet, then a few months on the silly pics of us touching the bump and laughing.
There’s darling Nads, we have been though so many happy times and unexpected times, and its all there, my hair gets longer as the photos go on, and her hair gets shorter as the years go on. There’s our beloved Thailand were I just cant stop snapping, the white sands the clear water, the best one was our honeymoon when so many of our wonderful mates flew out and we all met up, its all there, the lazy sun filled days and the cheesy disco nights out. I love the Thai people, and I have so many shots of some Island Thais with the most amazing bone structure, proud, beautiful faces and sharp deep brown eyes.
Then there’s Embobbo, she appears everywhere in our pics, her smile the widest I have ever seen, whatever we are up to shes enjoying herself, then the more gentle smile as shes holding my new born baby, my first friend from ‘up-country’ to visit.
Our trip to India I shot a lot of cows, they just seemed to be everywhere and they have the most amazing eyelashes, most models would kill for them!
Easter Island, haunting photos of stone men, not a person in sight most of the time, the wild island horses, they were very wild, but still came close,bit scary sometimes as they totally out numbered us and we couldn’t work out if they minded us being there, but still we got some beautiful work.
I couldn’t survive with out my photo memories, I love them all, I know too many moments would have been forgotten without them, and I am glad I am always the one lugging the camera about, missing out on the toast of the evening as i am photographing it, I am never,ever in group shots, because I take the group shot, but I am always the one who says “do you remember when we ????” because I spend hours of my time going back over my pictures.
So I thank my trustworthy camera that goes everywhere with us and I thank our friends for providing the photo opportunities, you are our memories, you make us who we are because you are our experiences.