Lara and Mike’s wedding December 5th in New York City encountered the first real winter weather of the season which posed a few challenges for the day. Lara’s concession to the wet, slushy weather was to trade her high heels for yellow galoshes for our outdoor portrait session at Lincoln Center. We decided to go ahead with the outdoor shoot despite the ‘interesting’ conditions. What we didn’t count on was a rather eager and unromantic rentacop who decided that my camera looked ‘professional’ therefore I shouldn’t be taking photos without a permit. Never mind that the real police congratulated the couple and just reminded us that as long as we weren’t using a tripod we were ok to do what we liked. I decided that since we had a reception downtown in Greenwich Village in less than 40 minutes that we didn’t have time to try talk to the supervisor and I’d just ignore the security guy and go for the shots we wanted. Lara, Mike, and the bridal party with umbrellas in tow were all game and my assistant managed to keep my flash dry and lighting steady in windy weather in front of the fountain at Lincoln Center. All the while I was trying very hard to ignore the security guy yelling at me to stop taking photos and demanding my business card. We got some great shots very fast and we high-tailed it to the car before he got over his confusion and I got into more serious trouble. By the time we all got into the cars and headed downtown everyone was pretty jazzed by the fun of getting away with doing the photos. It made for a great story at the reception which the best man (Mike’s brother) dutifully told and retold and embellished along the way.  I think I won major points with the bridal party for getting the shots as planned. Too bad we didn’t get any photos of the security guard and the whole scene!

The number one lesson I’ve learned in my years as a photojournalist is keep going until you are absolutely forced to stop doing what you need to do to in order to get the photos.