A dangerous wedding

Ok, that’s a bit dramatic, but maybe??

I met the groom and bride at a small bucolic venue outside of Winona an hour early, because the forecast was bad. Real bad. In fact, I’m quite certain they weren’t convinced the wedding was going to happen that day. The venue was a beautiful little barn with an additional open pavilion and a hillside overlook. Our first bride/groom photos as well as the ceremony were supposed to be on the hillside overlooking the barn.

An ominous forecast and even more ominous clouds hurried us up the hill for some portraits as lightning flashed on the horizon. As a father of three soccer players I knew we were well past time to clear the field. We made a few images and headed back down as the rain started.

In the coming hour the storm came with lightning striking nearby hillsides several times. Flash BOOM! That was RIGHT THERE! Flash BOOM! Agh! You get the picture. Somebody’s phone sounded with a tornado warning urging us to take shelter in a basement, but we didn’t have one. I realized that if I had been standing on that hillside holding my tripod over my head, in the poring rain, I’d probably be dead. Zapped or blown away. Of course I’d never do that, but still.

Eventually the storm passed, the sun actually peeked out, and a beautiful wedding was held in the small barn that had undoubtedly endured many such storms without problem. Here are some of the photos from that beautiful day. Drama makes for good photos : )