In 2021, I got the opportunity to photograph a wedding. It is one of my best wedding photography experiences ever. My photography career spans barely over 3 years, and I have had the privilege of photographing over 50 weddings still, that one in 2021 was always at the fore when I spoke about my favorite wedding event.
For reasons unknown to me, I never put out the photos online. It's not on any of my social media pages. That's weird, right? Well, whatever reason made me stall posting the photos, I'm over that now.
Before I share the photos, I'll love to share the context within which I categorized that wedding as my favorite one. Nigerians may already get the gist, so this one's for my non-Nigerian friends.
Here's why that wedding was my favorite.
Nigerian weddings pack with it a rollercoaster of events, emotions, activities, etc. No matter how much planning you do prior to the day of the main event, it turns out that there's still more to do on the day of the event. As the photographer I could care less however, it always turns out to affect me at the end of the day.
The battle in a Nigerian wedding is against time. In 98% of the weddings I've photographed, that battle was lost. And the result of that loss is the lack of couple portraits or badly shot photos. And it's really sad that after you set to accomplish the tasking of creating amazing memories for a couple, you end up with poor photos of them or no photos at all. Sometimes I ask myself why I even got paid in the first place.
How do we battle against time? I'll tell you.
I don't know how the trend started, but for most weddings in Nigeria, the couples are expected to be in church by 10am. It means that everything that concerns the bridal preparation has to end by 9am, leaving the photographer with about 40-45 minutes(even if that isn't enough) to create photos, and we mostly don't beat the time. While I don't think it's natural for the couple to meet and take photos before their official joining, that's the only way we can get photos. Because, after the joining ceremony there's no opening for the couple to take photos before the reception. It's always rush, rush, rush from parents and guests and everyone. If you experienced it, you'll feel really sad.
Well, my favorite wedding event was the one where we didn't have to fight against time.
Each vendor was given ample time to do what they were there to do. The couple had great energy too. Chemistry was perfect. The joining ceremony was simple and short. And overall, we(photographers) were given ample time to create photos. I almost cried tears of joy that day. I was shooting and there was no aunty or guest breathing in my ear for me to hurry up. It was one of the best feelings ever.
We(photographers) had the opportunity to explore different lighting setups and different angles. In summary, we shot to our satisfaction and the results speak for themselves. I'm grateful for how the results turned out.
Postprocessing the photos from the event was a breeze. That's because, since there was ample time to shoot, I was able to create great photos on set without the mind of fixing anything during postprocessing. In fact, for most of the photos, the only thing I tweaked was the white balance.
Enjoyed my story and the photos so far? Well, here's the truth about this wedding; it wasn't an actual wedding. It was a collaborative wedding project 😁. Even the couple isn't a couple in real life.
In 2021, there was a meeting for top wedding vendors in Port Harcourt. And the meeting birthed the idea to produce a luxury wedding project. The project was to make a statement that there were amazing vendors in Port Harcourt that could render premium service. Prior to this project, it was thought that there weren't great vendors in Port Harcourt, and clients had to hire the services of vendors from other states. Things changed drastically after this project.
So there you have it. My favorite wedding event as a photographer wasn't an actual wedding. Today, the battle against time still persists. However, I've made it my duty to properly educate my clients. Educate them on how to plan their event that would leave enough room to create photos and long-lasting memories for them. This month, the 25th precisely, I'll photograph my first wedding of the year. I hope they work according to my instructions.
Check out the rest of the photos from this project;
Alright, I know you would consider my favorite wedding photos "fake", but lemme know in the comments section if you liked them.