Indian Wedding Ceremony at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City

I was able to help out Nick Sokoloff as a second shooter for an Indian wedding ceremony at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City, Utah. This was my first opportunity to photograph an Indian wedding ceremony – it was definitely a new experience. I am glad that Nick sent me a PDF document that describes the ceremony – it was performed in Hindu and witht eh PDF document I was able to follow along where we were in the ceremony so I would know what to expect.

Some of the wedding details - this is used to put the red dot on people's foreheads

My job as a second shooter is to be where the other photograph is not – if he is on the right side of the wedding I should probably be in the center or on the left. If he is shooting with a wide angle lens I should probably be photographing with a telephoto zoom lens. My job is to give the main photographer photographs he couldn’t create at the same time he is creating his own photographs.

Wedding guests entering the wedding

This was my first wedding at the Grand America Hotel – I have photographed several fundraisers, parties, and events there before but this was the first wedding. And of course I check with the main photographer if it is ok if I blog these photos – I wouldn’t dream of doing so without their blessing. And a second photographer should never blog or post the photographs before the first photographer does so. I have a back log of weddings that I have second shot but not blog yet. One of these days I should blog them.

The groom is blessed before head walk on a path of flower petals

Because of the vivid colors for this wedding I decided not to convert any to black and white. I might do so later, however, the colors are just amazing. In fact all of these photographs are pretty much straight out of camera – I haven’t run any actions or tried to do anything different to these images.

The groom's wedding party approaches the tent

Thanks again to Nick for letting me photograph this wedding ceremony with him. I have a lot of fun photographing for him. He definitely photographs some very beautiful high end weddings.

The head priest performs part of the Indian wedding ceremony

The Bride is blessed before she walks down the rose petal pathway

The bride is shielded from the groom by a veil

As a second shooter it is my job to photograph from a different location than the primary shooter

Women sing the mangal-ashtaka

The groom is blocked from viewing the bride by a veil

The bride and the groom are revealed to each other after the veil is lowered

The high priest performs the various parts of the wedding ceremony

The flower petals that lead to the wedding ceremony

Changing the point of focus to the wedding ceremony

The brides parents perform part of the wedding ceremony

The wedding couple perform several oaths during the ceremony