Johan and Sandra live in The Netherlands, 60 miles apart, and met 16 years ago. After their first date they knew they would be together for the rest of their lives, yet for whatever reason as committed as they were to each other, living together and getting married was not a priority; until recently. Also, both have a strong affinity towards Ireland and Scotland and wish to eventually retire in Scotland. They have also wanted to visit Iceland very much together, and so one day they had the great idea to not only spend a vacation there, but to also get married and honeymoon there – How sweet is that? And as things started to crystallize, Sandra came up with the brilliant idea to get married in Celtic style dress, since they have such a strong affinity for Celtic lifestyle. Johan’s sister volunteered to create all the bride and groom’s Celtic formal wear, doing an exceptional job making all of it from scratch, using only a couple of a photos from the Internet!

But as planning continued, they decided they had additional special wishes for the wedding, which made the near elopement to Iceland a not so great idea. So, they changed their plans to be married in Holland instead, near all their friends and family, but they also kept their Iceland booking as a destination and went forward with the trip anyway – putting their honeymoon before the wedding. Their wedding will actually be in November of this year, which will be a surprise for the majority of their guests, because they told them “we are just throwing a part for being together 16 years”. And since they already had the wedding clothes made, why not bring it all along for certain pictures of them among all the magnificent nature of Iceland?

That is when I ran into this very sweet and happy-looking couple, attempting to take their own pictures in their Celtic dress, against this wonderful waterfall, named “Seljalandsfoss”. When I walked up the trail and came across them, they had indeed found a wonderful and picturesque viewpoint to have the picture taken against, but this was also a very busy tourist attraction, with a near constant flow of people going both ways on the trail, and there was not a lot of room to work with because of this. Sandra patiently stood in the spot, while Johan set up his camera on a tripod and worked on his focus and his exposure settings, waiting for a break in the people-flow, and then putting the camera on a 10 second timer and running out there to join his bride-to-be. I stopped at first to give them time to shoot, but with the combined frustration of the waterfall mist compromising the lens glass, along with the many people trying to get by, I knew he might be struggling with each of his repeated attempts, and I really wanted to photograph from that spot too while the lighting was doing what I wanted it to do!

When people are in the way of what a photographer wants to photograph, I’ve seen it handled multiple ways. Many will tap their toes and impatiently wait, with some soft grumblings. Others will just blow off the scene and make their shot from somewhere else, grumbling as they pass by. Myself, I run into this all the time, and I found the best way to deal with it is to let go of whatever your primary focus is in that moment if you can, and instead make the best of it by getting involved and giving yourself to them…you are going to wait anyway, so why not do it in style? I knew they needed some help and the only way to get to what I wanted was to put aside my needs and instead genuinely offer to help get them get something better than they might have gotten by themselves. I introduced myself, adding to the tight quarters of the trail, and asked them if they wouldn’t mind me taking pictures of them. After getting a few shots while they still kept repeating their timed self shooting, I showed them what I had caught and they were delighted. We exchanged emails, I bid them farewell, and then continued on with my own shoot while the lighting was still good.

When I got home I received an email from Johan, so I sent him all the pictures as low-res web/email quality with unlimited personal usage rights. If I never heard back again from them that would be fine, but as has happened so many times in the past when I get involved taking good pictures of good people, they really liked the images a lot and requested to buy the full resolution prints, which I then do for a sweet discount, and if I like the image enough myself I get a model release form filled out as well for the sweet pricing I give them. I call that a win for everyone involved, and a great tested way of making a few coins along the way, while meeting really nice and wonderful people. I wish them all the very best!