This awkward feeling…
You can feel it in your whole body.…

Everything started at school : class photo.
The photographer is in a hurry, clothes you never wear, ill-fitting, click…David closes his eyes. We start again…
click…done.

Liberation.

Kitsch reaches posterity and you hold your breath seeing the result…

Then it continues at a wedding, group pictures. Think it will be easier when you’re not alone ? Nope.
The light, the settings, patience. You are looking for your composure.
Uncle starts his unforgettable jokes like they were fresh…

Click!
Checking on the back of the camera screen. Ok no matter, I’m too …..or not enough…I’m not photogenic. Easy conclusion, bad feeling.

And if all was and wasn’t about you at the same exact tiny time ?

Few months before my own wedding, I was talking with a groom, Mathieu. We raised the topic of being the center of the attention and the anxiety which comes with it…. And he said something close to this :

« You only have one thing to care about: your future wife »  

This means that if I care about how she feels, I can forget my own fear. 

Simplicity of empathy…everything starts when you focus on someone else than you. Philosophical and practical.

Easy?

Hard task? Yes because it’s an emotion.
But it also works when you are diverted from you, and this is what people behind the camera should have in focus.
Right after this conversation with this groom, I’ve figured out that what I will learn while photographing will not be technical anymore.  

Everything starts when the awkward feelings disappears.

Since 2009, for capturing the “confident you”, I’ve learned how to make people confortable in front of the lens.
Divert them from themselves and put joy on their faces because weddings is all about it.