Can you imagine how hard this was?
It was 2019, and I was about to face my very first job as a photographer: an actual wedding. Not a casual session with friends, not a spontaneous shoot… but a real assignment, with all the pressure and emotional weight that comes with it.
Back then, I had my Canon XTi, a camera that had already been with me on many walks across Cuba. For this wedding, I used two lenses: the 50mm f/1.8, which I was just beginning to understand, and the 75-300mm, which demanded a lot from me, especially in low light and without stabilization.
The setting was far from ideal: artificial lighting, cramped spaces, constant movement… and to top it all off, the infamous APS-C crop factor, which ruined more than a few compositions. But I had no choice but to push through.
Fear doesn’t feed you (I told myself) and I had to keep moving forward.
Now, when I look back at these photos… honestly, they make me laugh.
I laugh at myself, at the massive gap between the images I was producing back then and the ones I’m capable of creating today. The edits, the framing, the way I handled light… it’s all clearly the work of a beginner trying to run before learning to walk.
But you know what? That beginner had something you can’t teach: hunger. Willpower. Courage.
These black and white images still mean a lot to me, not because they’re perfect (they’re far from it), but because they represent a moment of real growth. I wasn’t just documenting a couple’s love story… I was capturing the birth of a calling.
And you?
Do you remember your very first serious photography job?
What gear were you using back then?
Did you also think you wouldn’t be able to make it… but somehow, you did?
Thanks for joining me on this trip down memory lane.
Sometimes laughing at yourself is the best way to remember where you came from…
and to appreciate how far you’ve come.
