Since I made big deal about attending friend’s wedding as a guest on my social media page for weeks, I thought I’d share few images with you from this beautiful wedding.  I intentionally leave my professional gears at home when I attend the event as a guest.  Being a photographer is my profession and I love what I do but I just end up shooting all the time if I have a camera in my hands.  Not having full professional photographic gear stops me from being “that” photographer.  Now no judging here…I enjoyed watching old friends getting married and captured few moments that caught my eyes.

I am also trying to tell aspiring photographers that you don’t need to dig into your child’s college fund to buy 8K pro-level camera.  Do they produce better image files? Yes of course! actually it’s great to have such a powerful machine.  However if you don’t really learn how to use it, know that it can work against you.  Once a respected photographer confessed during his seminar that he has been using “P”-mode on his camera (program mode: your camera chooses exposure for you but you still can control few other manual functions. It’s very similar to Auto mode)  Well, there is nothing wrong with that because his photo-journalistic images are beautiful. He captures emotions. I forget to focus on capturing essence of people because the wedding is such a fast moving event and I have so much to cover.  But this time it was much easier to do so at friend’s wedding. I know what you are thinking, was Tammie being a “photo bomber” at this wedding?  The answer is no.  As a photographer I watch where the other photographers are. I should say I watch everything that goes on at the wedding.  I usually introduce myself to the main photographer if I am shooting at friend’s wedding.  A special thank you goes to the day of photographer, Susan Sabo for allowing me to capture these moments. This is just a right way to do it. I was as far away as I can be and some images are shot in between the uncles and aunts shoulders. It was rather cute to watch them pointing cameras at bride and groom through out the ceremony.

Congratulations Melody + Mike, looking forward to watch your family grow with love!  We really enjoyed being part of your special day.  Melody and Mike chose The Condor’s Nest Ranch in Temecula as their venue. It suit their laid back personality and they added much of their style to the details of this wedding.  Melody’s talented friend Jaconie Events and her team did an amazing job creating this fun and elegant event.