The Accidental Wedding Photographer

I mean everybody knew I had a "nice" camera

Oct 13, 2025

So it’s 2013 and I was invited to one of my younger co-worker’s wedding. They had chosen a beautiful location near a lake in central Texas. They had also invited my daughters and their mom. We were prepared to just be guests. Then I got a last minute text from the groom:

Hey Todd bring your camera in case Chris needs some help

Chris was another co-worker and photography enthusiast who had been tasked with the (unpaid) job of being the “official” wedding photographer. Since Chris was my friend and I didn’t want to step on anybody’s toes, I initially left my camera in the car.

But then …

As he was lining them up for some pre-wedding shots, I noticed that he had the bride and groom posing with the parking lot full cars behind them, while this beautiful lake was behind him (and thus not in the pictures at all).

I can’t say for sure if this was also the plan for the rest of the pictures. But just in case I went and got my camera from the car.

Now I am by no means a professional photographer. Especially when it comes to shooting people, and especially when it comes to having them pose.

In fact, I’ve always joked that I could maybe see myself as a “second shooter”, the guy who sits out of the way with a long lens and captures candid shots when people don’t know they’re having their picture taken.

I would never want to be the main wedding photographer.

None-the-less, I think I ended up taking over 200 pictures that day (and ended up with about 15-20 that I liked after I edited them).

I hope Chris wasn’t too mad that I sort of took over. I also feel a little guilty that I’m pretty sure when my friend and his new bride printed out their album, it was filled mostly with the pictures that I had taken.

Despite those feelings, I’m glad I had my camera with me that day.

But I would still never want to do this for money.

Years earlier when my sister got married, my family was on a tight budget. So while they were able to rent a nice park for the ceremony and banquet hall for the reception, when it came a photography budget, the obvious answer was “Todd takes pictures”.

I was cool with that.

As I said above though, I am no pro … and that was even more the case back then.

I didn’t own a dSLR yet.

I took most of the pictures of my sister’s wedding with a Sony f717 digital camera, and I also grabbed a few shots with a Canon AE1 camera and black & white Tri-x film.

Pretty sure I also didn’t have the full version of photoshop yet, so these were all edited in Elements.

But guess what?

Mom, dad, the groom, my sister, and pretty much everyone else all loved the pictures!

Again, glad I had cameras and at least some skill to capture these memories for my sister (even more so, since my brother-in-law sadly passed way about 11 years ago).

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All that being said …

I won’t be at all upset if nobody ever asks me to be the wedding photographer again.

I think I’d prefer to be just a guest.

Oh wait, I almost forgot about 2017.

When my oldest daughter got married (for complicated reasons involving other step-parents) I was not part of the official party. So I just hopped on a plane and was planning to be a normal guest.

Of course I brought my camera.

They had a professional photographer. But I’m pretty sure at least a few of the shots I took got printed out and may even be hanging on a wall at their house.