You get to witness cool things as a photographer. Yes, the celebrity shoots in hotel room are cool (if not nerve-wracking). Yes, being on the sideline of your five thousandth NFL game is exciting. And yes, shooting over 500 weddings since 1998 gives you a neat-o glimpse into other people's lives. But like everything else in life, it's always the simplest of simple things that make you smile the most. I notice a lot of photographers write on Facebook that they "had the honor" of shooting so-and-so's wedding and the cynical side of me, the one with those 500 weddings under my belt, says "how do you really know it's an honor?" Well, consider me a recovered cynic. Spending a few hours with Gwen and Marian at the Inn at Little Washington earlier this month was truly a great joy. It reminded me of the time I stumbled upon an impromptu wedding in the gazebo of Bishop's Garden at the National Cathedral. Maybe it's that at that micro level everything just feels a bit more alive.
