Thanking my lucky stars or Natalie

This past weekend, while I was shooting a wedding, I had an accident during the Hora and my leg was crushed. An ER trip and Xrays later, I found out my leg wasn’t broken but because of my bleeding disorder, I would have a longer recovery and I would have to elevate/ice my leg for about a week. So no shooting. No walking around.

But the big thing was, I started thinking, geeez I wouldn’t have been able to drive myself to the hospital. Natalie was there. My wife. She took care of me. She even took amazing dancing shots for me as a guest, who was a doctor, examined me and told me to get to the hospital. So there I was, in the ER, at 1am and I was thinking about all the million things Natalie does when she comes to a wedding to help.

Some examples from a recent wedding:

• Natalie held my hand and made me feel safe as we flew to LA
• She drove all around LA because I hate driving when I don’t know where I’m going
• She drove to the getting ready location and even tolerated me insisting on getting out of the car when she was backing up because we were on a giant giant hill and I was like ‘uhhhh…peace! I don’t like heights!’
• She helped carry the wedding dress outside for some shots
• She helped the bride get the dress on without ruining her hair or makeup
• She gathered people and shouted out names for group shots as I snapped away
• She looked for an archival pen everywhere for the ketubah signing
• She drove me to the venue
• She helped me switch lenses all day long
• She coordinated with the planner and helped get me info about what was going on with some shuttle delays
• She carried all my equipement for couple shots
• When, during the Hora, the couple had juuuuust gone up in the chairs, a guest elbowed my flash, which smacked into my face and made me fall…Natalie was right there with my backup equipment, taking my broken flash off my hands so I could snap some shots of them in the chairs.
• She waited in line for dinner so I could keep shooting and then eat
• She supplied me with lots and lots of cokes, ha! I need it to keep going. It’s like oxygen.
• When the couple couldn’t find their planner, Natalie went off and searched for her several times to make sure everything went smoothly.
• When the shuttle didn’t go up the hill as planned, Natalie and the planner shuttled guests down the hill and back. Just them. On this dark dark hill. With a few guests walking the hill to make it even more dangerous/scary to drive it!!

And she doesn’t get paid a dime to do this. She stopped being a DOC when she started doing her PhD program. She doesn’t come to every wedding but still: Why in the WORLD would anyone in their right mind volunteer to do this? I sometimes have to ask her this myself, why?? And she says, “Because I know a smooth wedding means a happy couple. And a happy couple means great photos. And I want to create the best conditions for your work because I believe in you.”