Photographer Sounds off After Wedding Photos Were Ruined by iPhone Owner

Iphone Ruins Wedding Photo Credit: Hannah Mbalenhle Stanley
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Putting cameras on smartphones has essentially turned every smartphone owner into an amateur photographer. Sometimes, that can irk actual professional photographers.

One such professional is wedding photographer Hannah Stanley of Fort Worth, Texas. On her Facebook, Stanley shared a photo from a recent wedding she was working that was ruined by a smartphone-equipped guest apparently out to take their own picture of the bride and groom.

In addition to the actual image, which is pretty clearly obscured by an iPhone in Portrait Mode and the iPhone owner’s arms, Stanley expressed her frustrations with the wedding guest.

“To the girl with the iPhone,” Stanley wrote on her Facebook post. “Not only did you ruin my shot, but you took this moment away from the groom, father of the bride, and the bride.”

Stanley also brought up an interesting point about why the guest attempted to take that photo anyway.

“What exactly do you plan on doing with that photo? Honestly. Are you going to print it out? Save it? Look at it everyday? No. You’re not,” Stanley added. “But my bride would have printed this photo, looked at it often, and reminisced over this moment as her dad walked her down the aisle on her wedding day.”

The post, which has since gone fairly viral with more than 158,000 shares, goes on to advise wedding guests to simply enjoy the moment without needing to capture everything on their smartphones.

“Guests, please stop viewing weddings you attend through a screen but instead turn OFF your phone and enjoy the ceremony,” Stanley concluded. “So please, let me do my job, and you just sit back, relax and enjoy this once in a lifetime moment.”

That is, objectively, pretty good advice — and not just for weddings. Think about people who choose to attend a concert and only view the performance through the displays on their iPhones (or even iPads).

Still, there isn’t anything inherently wrong with taking pictures or videos (even at a wedding). Just double-check that you aren’t obstructing anyone else’s view and make sure to balance needing to capture the present moment with actually enjoying it.

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