I have been a NYC wedding photographer since 2008, though I was not new to NYC weddings when I moved to this great city.
I started my career as a Tallahassee, Florida wedding photographer. I shot my first wedding in West Palm Beach in 2001. From there, I shot all over the 30-A area, from Pensacola to Destin, Tallahasee to Jacksonville, and everywhere in between.
In 2008 a huge life change brought me to New York. I was now a NYC wedding photographer!
If this were a television sitcom, this is when the record would scratch and the frame would freeze. You'd hear me via voiceover say something like "I'm sure you're wondering how I got here", and then we'd be right into a great flashback.
I was a NYC wedding photographer before I even moved to NYC.
I shot my very first wedding in NYC in the early 2000's, right after beginning my career as a wedding photographer. I was referred to some friends of friends of clients who lived and worked in Manhattan.
"Would you travel to NYC to shoot our wedding?" they asked. Of course I would! A few months later I was on a plane, shooting my very first wedding as a NYC wedding photographer.
I was immediately overwhelmed.
Being a NYC wedding photographer was not the same as being a Florida wedding photographer. There were so many things that I didn't have to deal with when shooting the idyllic beach weddings I had so become accustomed to!Those things included:
Wrong.
Just a scant year or so later, I was referred to another friend-of-a-friend-of-a-client and on a plane from TLH to ATL to JFK. I was back in NYC again, shooting another wedding.
This time I felt something strange stirring inside of me. I wasn't scared of the traffic. I didn't mind the crowds (as much). I wasn't daunted by the smells, the noise, or the bustle of the city.
This was when my desire to move to NYC and become a NYC wedding photographer really took root.
At the time of shooting those two weddings, I had no idea that life would bring me back to NYC as a permanent resident in 2008. But life is weird like that, isn't it?
I am so happy that the weird twists and turns of my life led me right back to the bustle and insanity that is New York.
After a few awkward years of getting to know each other, I can confidently report that NYC and I are now BFF's, where before we were barely passable frenemies.
As a NYC wedding photographer, I see and experience things that I never saw or experienced in Florida. Some of those things include:
NYC is the craziest, weirdest, dirtiest, loudest, and most hectic place I have ever lived. Being a NYC wedding photographer means you have to be ready for anything, at all times. This insane city is my home, and it's where I choose to run my business.
And I love it.
SO MUCH.