Skylar & Lydia Part Two

I've taken a handful of photographer assistants with me through the years. I've told a lot of them that my secret to good photography is prayer. Really... you may scoff. BUT I can't count how many times things were going awry with locations or disastrous weather etc. and I told a bride or groom that it was all going to be okay because I prayed before I started that day. I had one wedding go wrong a few years back. I was a rooky. I was over-ambitious. I was kind of over-confident and ... I didn't pray. Pray being that 5 minute pause in the car before everything starts... where I take a deep breath and ask God before I even snap the first picture that I'll SEE the right pictures and that he'll help gather my scattered thoughts.

At Skylar and Lydia's wedding I was very excited because we had an hour to go to the Granite Dells near Prescott to do formal photos but when I arrived to scout at 3 pm the day before (the time the photos would take place the following day) I was bewildered to find no shade (solid light), and harsh overhead sun casting shadows. As photographers we look for shade, backlighting or front lighting - overhead light is the hardest to work with. The following day was forecast to be again a hot, cloudless, sunshine filled day. I prayed. I asked God - "please... just a few clouds". When we arrived the following day it was blazingly hot and my fair eyed subjects were struggling with the glare. Then... literally witnessed by all the wedding party nearby the wispy strips of cloud started to "grow" and a large piece of thin cloud covered the area above us. It created a beautiful softbox until we were finished and literally at that moment the sun re-emerged. By the end of the shoot I had shared with them what I had prayed and so we all laughed when it moved the second we were finished. BUT REALLY I just want to thank God for so many times where things have gone this way for me. And seriously... look at what kind of pictures that wispy cloud created - they were a wedding gift JUST for Lydia and Skylar from God. :)




And here is that gorgeous reception I told you about in that last post!