Apollo Fields Wedding Photography
August 13, 2019
As we conclude another busy stretch that included: a wedding near the artsy town Hudson in upstate NY, a studio collaboration in Philly with a badass industry professional and friend, Dylan Crossley, and a boudoir shoot on Long Island—we’re ready to pack up our gear and start our next leg in Boulder, Colorado. Our rigorous schedule can be demanding, stressful, and scattered all over the place, but we find that it’s better to push ourselves rather than rest on our laurels because 1. our future selves will thank us; and 2. We have each other.
Heather has been on site for wedding days more often than myself this season, so when I got to shoot with her at the wedding in Ghent, NY, this past weekend, it reminded me of all the great parts of being a wedding photographer. From celebrating a couple’s love, to hearing people speak directly from the heart, and bearing witness to reunion after reunion and hug after hug—there’s so much going on in a wedding to be grateful for.
One thing I cannot emphasize enough for a couple who’s seeking a wedding photographer is to meet with your candidates before the wedding. You don’t realize how intimate the relationship is with your wedding photographer until the day of; when your mother or maid of honor is helping you slip into your dress, or your best man or father is helping you adjust your bow tie in the mirror—and just over your shoulder is a person with a camera. Yes, we’re professionals and can still do our job without really getting to know one another, but when we know what makes you comfortable or the backstory for the details that mean something to you, we can do our jobs that much better. At Apollo Fields, we prefer to be close to our couples, crying with them from behind our cameras rather than maintaining a safe distance from the connections and emotions that make a wedding day so special.
Traveling can be a lot. Personalities can be huge. Energy might not be there. There are so many variables that surround weddings that have stress written all over them, but just like any other obstacles or adversities, sometimes the best thing we can do is control the way we react to them. Better still, we can look at the current circumstances and pull from them the most positive things, choosing the silver lining of our experiences rather than the copper-colored rust of regrets or frustrations. Some say that life is a playground, others say it is a test—I believe it’s somewhere in the middle—with plenty of space for somersaults, self-improvement, and a craft beer in between.
As we zip up our luggage and secure our gear, I am energized by these words alone. They contain my reflections on the choices that I make everyday. I don’t run from difficulty and I am not afraid of the future. I pursue my goals with Heather, my partner who drives me mad at times but always helps to keep the course of this crooked ship. Here’s to the adventures that shape us along the way and the destination best left unknown.
Destination Wedding Photography by Apollo Fields
Busy Season as a Destination Wedding Photographer | Behind The Lens With Apollo Fields | NYC and CO Wedding Photography
Busy season:
This is the feast to my mid-winter famine, when the sun is shining and I seem to wear nothing but little black dresses and yoga pants. It is the constant buzz of start-times and deadlines, the tick-tick-tick of my shutter as me and my camera search for that exact tear-jerker moment, and it is the click-clicking while I edit on cars, trains, and planes because there ain’t no rest for the wicked.
Busy season is when I feel most alive and maybe it’s just the coffee talking but there’s nothing I love more than being in the swirling energy of my couples, their vibrant wedding parties, and their nutty families. I am there for the chaos and the calm and I’m taking the same collective deep breath as everyone else right when the ceremony begins.
Oftentimes, I am right in the nucleus of it all. I am a stranger in sacred circles and I hope I never take that for granted. Few jobs allow such an outsider into their sanctuaries but the acceptance I feel as I stand under altars, mandaps, and chuppahs is a reminder that it is possible to put our differences aside without compromising who we are. Some of my favorite moments are when I am surrounded by practices that I do not understand, yet somehow the camera grants me permission to be included anyway.
I am there breathing in the same incense as you with the same tackiness of sandalwood in the back of my throat. I feel the heat of your fires and I have the same resonate hum in my core when2 the ceremonial gong is struck. I am right there to hear the crunch of the breaking glass when the wedding is made official. I may not always understand the language—but I always see the connection between humans as I am shooting.
My job is to find those generational bonds that keep us together and give you the photos that tell that greater narrative. Somehow you have made it this far and that story is worth telling. Busy season challenges me as an artist and a business owner, but how damn lucky am I to get to do this over and over again? The memory cards are filling up and we’re busy trekking around the country into cities and mountains and oceans and none of it is lost on me.
Thanks to everyone who helps to keep this crazy dream of mine alive,
Heather
