I’m still not sure how I made the transition from shooting and writing about gangs, prisons, junkies and boxing, to weddings, but, somehow, I did and it’s every bit as challenging.

To be honest, I’ve steered clear of shooting weddings for most of my career, because the majority of wedding photographers who’ve made names for themselves are, for the most part, copycat trend-followers who pose, mold and bend their craft to the couple, rather than let the couple’s energy and personality shape their work.

In between stories, fights and projects over the last 20 years, when I’ve fallen into the role as a wedding photographer, it’s been strictly photojournalism-style. But two years ago, while covering a Manny Pacquiao fight in Las Vegas, I got the idea for WriteShot.

See, a big boxing event is a lot like a wedding.

When I’m hired to cover boxing, I may do so for the entire week, writing stories about the fighters’ backgrounds, covering everything from workouts to weigh-ins, before anyone has actually stepped into the ring for the main event.
If boxing is covered this way, why not weddings?

Most photographers are hired for just the wedding day. It seemed odd to me that the most important day in a couple’s life warranted only a day’s worth of photos.

Like any great fight, be it Hagler vs. Hearns, Dempsey vs. Tunney, or Pacquiao vs. Cotto, a wedding day represents the culmination of a couple’s journey, not only through the wedding-planning process, but a bride and groom’s first meeting, their courtship, proposal, and, of course, all of the details that go into their big day.

A couple’s wedding journey is a milestone. It’s their main event.