Tracy gives us all a big grin, her cheeks flushed and her eyes sparkling. “So…we’re chasing this thing, right?”
When Tracy saysshe plans to chase in her dress—“Best reception idea ever!”—Wes and I offer to stick with her and Matt for the rest of the afternoon and grab a few more shots of them with the storm. It’s easy enough to take my own shots in between, but more than that, an idea is starting to form.
I thought florals in the foreground would work to juxtapose beauty versus the destructive nature of a storm, but despite producing some pretty images, something remains missing from every frame I’ve taken so far. Tracy silhouetted in her wedding dress against the dark sky is a light bulb moment. I’m not getting the emotion I want from the flowers, but the deep, vibrant pink silk of my dress ruffling in the wind might just do it.
But not today. Today I’m here for Tracy and Matt.
Almost as if Mother Nature wants to give the couple a wedding gift, the storm decides to show off. From a distance, the structure is almost textbook, striations in the clouds clearly visible. As it gains power, everyone watches the velocity radarscans with building excitement as a strong couplet emerges and a funnel cloud starts to form high above us.
But the real gift is when the stormdoesfinally drop a tornado—miles and miles from any town—the angle of the sun is low enough to generate a stunning rainbow behind it. I snap a handful of frames of Tracy and Matt, only to have them wave me off and point at the scene in front of us.
“Get your shots too, Sloane!” Tracy yells over the wind. She pauses long enough to sling an arm around my shoulder in a quick hug. “I love you, and I’m so buying all your drinks tonight whenever we find a bar, but go do your thing!”
It’s sheer impulse that has me grabbing my tripod. I position it low to the ground and quickly set up intervals. It’s worth the extra seconds of setup time. The steadiness of the tripod allows for a slightly longer exposure to pop the colors of the rainbow, and if I’m very lucky, ensure any lightning bolts are crisp.
Wes decides to stay freehand, though he takes up a position a few feet away from me after double checking he’s not in my shot and points his camera at the sky. “You going for that unicorn?”
“I’m feeling far too superstitious to answer that question.” The stormisstill kicking out a decent amount of lightning, though with how much daylight remains, it’s going to be tough to get it to show up on camera. “Ask me once we’re back in the car.”
The tornado doesn’t last long. I get just over five minutes before it ropes out, which means there are close to a thousand frames for me to choose from—and hopefully one of themhas a lightning bolt. There was one in particular that came down in an almost perfect position I’m praying my shutter was open for.
Giddy at the possibility that I may have grabbed a contest-worthy shot, I start scrolling through the frames once we’re in the car. I still want to try the dress idea forming in my mind, but if I just got the shot I think I may have, there’s no question that I’m going with the unicorn. It’s too rare not to.
I pointedly ignore the fact that there are at least twenty other photographers out here who could have gotten the same shot. Not all of them were invited to participate in the contest—but Wes was. And he was standing right next to me.
“You want to keep with it or head for town?” he asks as we pull back on to the road. “I’m good either way.”
“You sure? I’d love to be able to get Tracy and Matt a few photos tonight if you don’t mind heading back now.” The decision was already made that we’d all stay in Amarillo. It’s only two hours from where we currently are, and the storms tomorrow are forecast to initiate along the border with New Mexico.
“You’re telling me you want to go back to town, check into our room, and ignore me to edit photos?” Wes flashes a teasing grin. “That’s true romance right there.”
“Holy shit, Igot it!” I tip my laptop toward Wes where he’s propped up next to me against the headboard working on his own photos. “I can’t believe it.”
“I can.” He takes my laptop after pushing his own out ofthe way to study the image. The tornado is in the foreground, the angle of the sun turning it mostly white with a brown swirl of dust at the base. The rainbow arcs behind it with a tack-sharp lightning bolt in the distance just to the left of the tornado. “This is incredible. The slightly longer exposure caught the light just right, and that low angle comp was such a smart choice. Are you going to submit it?”
“I think so.” I hesitate, and then ask, “Did you get it too?”
“Nope. Maybe if I’d been smart like you and grabbed the tripod I would have.” Wes leans closer to brush a kiss against my cheek. “Proud of you.”
Warmth floods my veins. “Stop it,” I grumble. “You keep looking at me like that and we’re not making it out of this room tonight.”
Wes dances his fingers up my thigh, stopping short before he gets to anything fun. “And that would be a bad thing?”
“No.” I sigh, grabbing his hand and pressing a kiss to his open palm. “Yes. Wedidtell Tracy and Matt we’d join them at the bar tonight.”
“Right. That.” Wes opens his laptop and spins it to show me the image he’s been working on. I asked him to focus on Matt during the ceremony so I could stick with Tracy. While wedding photography might not be Wes’s preference, his talent with a camera isn’t limited to landscapes. He’s captured Matt’s dreamy expression perfectly.
“You want to help me shoot weddings more often? That’s great.”
“Not the weddings you usually do, but…” A thoughtful crease forms between his brows. “This could be your thing. The nontraditional weddings, I mean.”
I can’t help a laugh, shaking my head. “There are not enough people who want to get married in the middle of a thunderstorm to pay my mortgage.”
“No, but therearea lot of couples who don’t want to deal with a big elaborate ceremony. I have some friends in Moab that shoot weddings out in the backcountry. Super small. You’d be great at something like that.”
It sounds too good to be true. The magic of weddings but without all the pomp and circumstance that’s starting to burn me out. “You really think that’s a viable way to make a living?”
“I think there are far fewer photographers willing to get up at two in the morning to hike to the top of a mountain for sunrise with a forty-pound bag of gear than there are couples who want that kind of wedding. Especially in our generation. Most of us can’t afford to drop thirty grand on a party.” His lips twist into a rueful smile. “Hell, Icanafford it, but the idea of being stuffed into a suit and under a microscope for an entire night sounds awful.”
