Happy Valentines day!

When I think of love, I think of weddings.

Through out written history, and quite a few fairytales, when a couple falls madly in love they show that commitment to each other with a wedding.  They spend months, and sometimes years planning.  They make sure every detail is exactly how they want it.  They invite their family, friends, coworkers to join them for their special day.  Hour upon hour is spent getting it just right.  All leading up to the ceremony and their vows.  After the ceremony has finally come to an end they gather everyone together and throw a party to celebrate their love.  It is a perfect way to start out their lives together.

Now don't tell my wife this, but my first love was photography.  When I was about 6-7 I would spend my weekly allowance on film and developing.  Taking pictures of anything and everything that would hold still for me.  Now granted most of it didn't turn out, there where a lot of heads cropped out, blurry pictures, you name it.  Fast forward quite a few years and I have added a few more loves.  My wonderful wife of seven years, and my four year old daughter Emily.  I have also found another love.  While I have always loved photography, I am fairly new to wedding photography.  I found it combines a lot of the different disciplines of photography into a single whirlwind day.  You find yourself shooting fashion, architectural, landscapes, family portraits, food photography, night photography, and standard portraits.  I like shooting all of those, but I love capturing the emotion between a couple.

I go into a wedding or an engagement shoot with the sole purpose of capturing the couples emotions.  To be able to record their love in images.  If I feel I have done that, then It has been a success.  After spending an entire day on my feet running here and there in the hectic mess that is wedding photography I find that I can not wait to go home and start going through my images.  I have been known to come home, or back to the hotel room after 16-17 straight hour of shooting, and dive right into the editing.  I can not wait to see the shots that I captured.  After My first wedding, I couldn't wait for the second.  After the first 2 years, I am very excited for the next two.  This isn't a job, this is a passion.  And my advice to anyone out there is if you have something that drives you, is your motivation.  Find a way to make it you way of life.   If you truly love what you do anything is possible. 

Enjoy the love this Valentines Day!

Written by: Robert Smith

Halfway Creek Photography

Maple Lake MN 55358

We would love to hear from you, leave us a comment!