Photo Breakdown - Toes

Issue #60

[Read Time < 4 Minutes]

This single photo helped shape how I look at a wedding day.

It was also one of the photos that launched a 25-year career in wedding photography.

And it wasn’t even my wedding.

I was new in town and freelancing for a local pro as his “Wedding Photojournalist.”

That was still a pretty new term in the Midwest, but I had experienced a new way of shooting weddings during my time in Southern California. He knew it and he was benefiting from it.

I had shot a number of weddings with him, but one weekend, he decided to hire me out as a more “affordable option” to a couple who couldn’t (or didn’t want to) pay for his signature services.

The agreement was solid - I’d shoot, he’d take care of the printing, wedding album delivery and all the backend work.

To say I was green as a wedding photographer would be an understatement. Of course, I’d shot AT ten or so weddings, but this was #2 as a solo photographer.

The prep shots with the bride and groom went well. I learned what “bridal chicken cutlets” are and was introduced to a brand new product called Spanx.

We can chat about that another day, however.

The ceremony was going to be outdoors in a lovely backyard garden.

I was still shooting film, so my cadence of clicks was much slower than it is now. While I’m still not a fan of the “spray and pray” approach to shooting, and do not use motordrive ever at a wedding, I admit to shooting first and asking questions later (I blame my inner Han Solo for that).

The wedding party entered, then the flower girl and finally the bride. Everything was a picture-perfect Kodak moment, as they used to say.

I was shooting Kodak Porta 800 in case you were wondering. I love 400, but it was getting a bit later in the day, so I added a stop.

When you’re shooting a wedding ceremony, especially with film, there are a few moments where you’re simply waiting for the scene to change.

This was one of those moments.

As I describe this story to prospective brides, I talk about the importance of LOOKING for those little moments that belong just to them.

That’s a signature part of my approach to a wedding day, so I like to show examples.

This was my couple’s wedding day, so anything small and special that happened would make their day unique compared to every other wedding.

Then SOMEONE small and special gave us all something to admire.

I named this photo “Toes.”

It was still early in the ceremony, and while the pastor was eloquently preaching about the importance of love and “mawwage,” the flower girl got restless.

She got out of seat and was about to wander off when she noticed the flower petals she had sprinkled a few minutes earlier were sticking to her feet and getting wedged between her toes.

She bent down (Click-Click) and then went back to her seat with her mom.

It lasted less than a minute, but this one photo has been a signature photo of mine for now 26 years and has been seen by thousands of brides at wedding shows and wedding meetings.

For me, it represents the importance of paying attention and never assuming that just because your main subjects aren’t doing anything, there’s not something interesting to shoot somewhere else.

For my prospective brides, it’s my attention to the “little parts of the wedding day.”

I routinely say that a single wedding day is made up of a hundred little things that all come together to make this day unique to the bride.

This was one of those moments, and one of the fun things I like to dwell on is that THIS little flower girl is more than likely married at this moment and could quite possibly have a little girl of her own.

I wax poetic about weddings and legacy a lot, I admit, but c’mon, you can’t deny that this is a pretty perfect moment to get a little sentimental about.

We all start somewhere. Celebrate the wins, learn from the losses and never stop growing.

“Never despise small beginnings, and don’t belittle your own accomplishments.”

Chris Guillebeau

Paying attention to small moments is one of the little parts of the “inner game of wedding photography.”

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