This coming weekend I will be photographing a wedding for a couple here in Buffalo, NY who will be traveling into WNY – along with many of their wedding guests – from other areas of the country to exchange vows and celebrate. While I have all the faith and optimism that everyone in attendance will diligent about their own health and hygiene (many of the guests actually work in the medical industry), I’ve also been giving a lot of thought to small changes I will be making for any upcoming weddings that occur while the outbreak is still happening (which hopefully won’t be too far into the season). These small changes will allow me to honor all commitments made to my clients, while also safeguarding my own health and ultimately the health of my family members. Unfortunately, as a single-person small business owner, with bookings already on the calendar for weddings, family sessions, and First Hours sessions in the coming months, I cannot afford to get sick or need possible isolation/quarantine so I’m taking this seriously and strongly urge all my fellow photographers to do the same.
Here are a few ways I plan to stay healthy as a photographer during the Coronovirus outbreak, especially as it pertains to photographing wedding days (in addition to obvious things like coughing into my elbow if needed, boosting my immune system, and so forth):
Limit physical closeness, including hugs.
This is going to be the toughest change of all for me. I am a hugger through and through, and most wedding days I hug my clients upon arrival and usually at least 2 times before I leave. I love my clients so much and throughout our process of getting to know one another, it’s hard to not want to give hugs and show my thanks and appreciation for their special invitation to document their wedding. However, if the CDC is recommending everyone keep a safe distance, I am going to try my hardest to do this within reason as well. Starting with limiting the hugs. Just know, I still love you! ;-)
Keep more of a distance from the center on the dance floor.
This will also be hard. Often times during the reception I will bounce around the permitter of the dance floor, but also spend a lot of time right in the middle of things so I can really capture the excitement and energy happening around me. I will still likely need to do this here and there, but am going to attempt to provide the same coverage without being right in the thick of things. To do this, I will rely almost exclusively on my longer lenses, which actually works out great because my 85mm is my favorite lens for receptions anyway!
Keep gear to a minimum, and carry mostly everything on me.
As photographers, we often bring a lot of gear with us and leave our bags tucked off in the corner of the getting room or near the DJ booth during the reception. These bags carry our extra lenses, flashes, memory cards, etc. However, the idea of leaving my bag somewhere where it could potentially be coughed on by a stranger or other vendor at the wedding is a little worrisome to me right now. So I’m planning to carry my gear on my person and travel only with my smaller camera bag for the necessities I will need later (like my 70-200 or flash that usually only come out during certain parts of the day). This will hopefully reduce the amount of post-wedding sanitizing I’ll be doing (as I’ll be mentioning shortly) and keep the rest of my gear clean and safe at home.
Wash hands when possible and hand sanitize in-between.
This is an obvious one. If you’re like me… you very rarely have a chance to take a break to use the restroom on a wedding day, which also makes it very hard to wash your hands often, am I right? I always carry antibacterial hand sanitizer with me anyway, but will try to make more of an effort to hand sanitize after entering/exiting every room that requires me to push/pull a door open. And overall, I’m going to try to be more mindful of what I’m touching as the day goes on… whether it’s the floor after bending down low for a particular angle, or pulling on the back of a chair to move it for a photograph of the centerpiece items. Things I probably wouldn’t have given much thought to touching before, will now be on my radar.
Bring a spare outfit and change out of my clothes before heading home.
This one is big for me. On any given wedding day I am surrounded by upwards of 150 people, sometimes many more, and the potential to have germs collected on my clothing is huge. By changing out of the outfit I’ll be wearing all day before heading to my car, I hope this will eliminate the potential of transferring those germs to my car, and later, my home. As soon as I’m home, I’ll take my shoes off outside and leave them there for cleaning the next day, and toss my clothes from the day directly into the wash.
Wipe down all gear, straps, and bags with sanitizing wipes.
It’s probably an obvious one, but this is something I’d normally never do after a wedding. It’s probably the furthest thing from my mind most wedding days, especially when other things (like dropping images from memory cards and backing everything up) are a much bigger priority. But now, it seems this would be a very wise step to add into my wedding day routine. I’m going to plan to bring appropriate sanitizing wipes with me to wipe down my camera straps, all my gear, and even camera bag. With any luck, I’d love to do this before even heading to my car!
And most of all, work the day with all the love and care I usually would!
Our couples’ wedding days have been thoughtfully planned out for months, possibly even years, and this is something that must remain a priority if their days are still happening as planned. Sure, there is craziness in the world right now. And yes, we have to be as safe as we possibly can from preventing the spread of this. However, as a photographer with a commitment to my clients, I plan to honor these commitments as long as I can and continue to provide the best possible service and images to all of my clients. And hopefully we can all remain healthy enough to do the same!
I hope this helps any other photographers plan for their upcoming weddings that are still on. If you’re planning any other precautions, I’d love to hear! Thank you for reading!
