Where to begin with this one…
So basically Martin found my website online one day and emailed me back in November saying that he and his fiancée, Kristen, wanted to do something different and get married over by the Pyramids on Valentine’s day. They’re from California in the states. I said sure no problem. I called my friend Ibrahim from First Video to come with a small camera and Martin and I agreed that a tour guide would be useful for managing all the security and vendors at the Pyramids. So we hired Ramon from Noga Tours to come with a van and driver for the day. We decided to make an early start and so all of us met at their hotel at 6:30 in the morning. I expected the ceremony and shoot at the pyramids would take a few hours. We’d enter the park when it opened at 8 and be out and home no later than noon. I was way off.
When we first arrived at the pyramids the police were really nice and let us into the parking early. Then when we tried to get tickets to enter the park the head of the tourism police didn’t want to let Martin and Kristen in with their wedding outfits. He said we needed permission from the Ministry of Antiquities (of course we did). Believe it or not we got in touch with the relevant official from the ministry and he said sure, go ahead. Then the officer decided he needed written permission from the ministry… at 8 in the morning. After a couple of hours at the gate it became clear we weren’t getting into the Pyramids park with those wedding outfits. So Ramon came up with an alternative. We would ride horses along the fence of the outskirts of the Pyramids park and conduct the ceremony in the desert with the Pyramids in the background. I haven’t ridden a horse since that one time in summer camp over ten years ago. This time I got to ride a horse with two cameras hanging off me while I was taking pictures. I went from a non-horse rider to a photographer/jockey chasing a carriage holding Martin and Kristen. All while not falling off!
Ben, the priest who was to conduct the ceremony for Martin and Kristen got on his horse, which decided it didn’t want to move. It turned out that Ibrahim was the most masterful rider among us. It was one of the strangest shoots I had ever done, but I have to admit it was a lot of fun. It helped that Martin and Kristen were very patient as we tried to weave through the bureaucracy and desert to make this happen. Ramon got us a guy to take us out into the middle of the desert on horseback. Ben was a great sport and Ibrahim worked hard to the end of the day with me getting great shots of the two of them. It was an amazing display of teamwork and I think a great success, all things considered.
Here’s how the day unfolded in photos.
This is Ibrahim, our video guy.
This is Ben, the priest.
I can’t remember/could never actual pronounce this guy’s name, but he led us out into the desert.
I don’t think any other photo more perfectly encapsulate Ben’s personality than this one.
This is Ben being GQ. I was just trying to get my settings right when we took these shots.
This is our tour guide Ramon confusing my reflector for some sort of shade device.
Yeah. That’s a camel… Really.
After the ceremony Martin and Kristen changed and we were allowed to visit the Pyramids WITHOUT Ministerial approval.
For someone accustomed to weddings starting 1-2 hours late and running well into the next morning this was a dramatic shift in expectations. In the more important ways, however, this wedding was like every wedding I’ve had the privilege to photograph; it was a day full of emotions. Gemma’s mother was glowing with pride and Ahmed’s father could not stop photographing his handsome groom of a son. My good friend Mohamed Abdelhamid came to do Gemma’s makeup and introduce her to the Egyptian ‘tradition’ of eyelash extensions in spite of her swearing to me last fall she wouldn’t get them. All in all it was a lovely evening and Ahmed and Gemma were a pleasure to work with. Thanks for having me join you on your special night.
