A Sleepless Night…

Hey Internet. It’s 2:17am, Sunday morning. You ever have those nights when you can’t stop your mind from racing? Yeah. I don’t get them very often, but today held a lot of craziness, and I can’t seem to slow down, so I thought I’d come down and talk to you guys.

Where to begin? As wedding photographers, there are a lot of things in our job description that can, at a moment’s notice, strike fear and bring on a frenetic sense of ultra freak-out. Maybe that’s part of the reason wedding photographers get paid what they do – in part to offset the stress wrought by all the little things that can (and do, at times) go wrong at any moment, and being able to somehow problem solve your way out of them. Things like, say, driving through the mountains to a wedding, your car suddenly overheating, and being broken down on the side of the road, thinking to yourself how everyone is probably going nuts wondering where the photographers are.

Yeah, that happened today.

Laura was driving, we were winding up the mountain roads on the way to Estes Park, and I happened to glance over and notice the oil temp gauge creeping up. I then noticed the coolant gauge also going up. We kept driving, taking it a little slower hoping that it was just running hotter going up the mountains. Soon enough, however, smoke starts to gently roll out from under the hood (which is the moment when the ultra-freak-out began). The temp gauges then pegged, and the little dash lights started furiously blinking telling us to stop driving. We pulled over. We have no cell service. It’s 2:00. We are supposed to arrive at 2:30, and we’re a 15 minute drive away. Walking that far means we miss the wedding and all, and maybe make it in the middle of the reception. What do you do here?

Well, we did, in my opinion, what any wedding photographer worth their salt does: we said the hell with it, we need to make it to the wedding, switched seats and I pulled back onto the road and kept driving. And…we quite literally watched our car die a tormenting death about 5 minutes later, the engine clattering with the tinny sound of metal-to-metal, baking itself as it tried with all its might to make it to the wedding. The engine finally gave up and seized, and I quickly played through our options as we slowly rolled to the side of the road. We were now 10 minutes away. The car was no longer an option. I jumped out ready to stick my thumb out for a ride (remember, no cell service), and, somehow, someone had already pulled up behind us to see if we needed help(!).

I ran back to their car, and as calmly as I could, said something like THANKYOUSOMUCHFORSTOPPINGAREYOUONYOURWAYTOESTESPARKWE’REWEDDINGPHOTOGRAPHERSANDWEAREGOINGTOBELATE FORAWEDDINGISTHEREANYWAYYOUMIGHTBEABLETOGIVEUSARIDE?!?

A little surprised (and likely somewhat bewildered by the frenetic look in my eyes), he replied “yeah, sure, hop in!” Without another word I ran to our dead car, we grabbed the camera bags, and hopped in.

All said and done, we were only 15 minutes late, which was completely fine, and the day turned out beautifully. We had a blast at Alex & Michelle’s wedding (more to come on that later, of course), and our friend Bryon drove to Estes and gave us a ride back when it was all over.

I want to send a special thanks to Boomer, his fiance and their sweet daughter of Dallas, Texas – they’re the kind-hearted, amazing people that pulled over to help, and also to Bryon, super-stud extraordinaire for driving all the way to Estes and giving us a ride home. Thank God for such amazing people and friends…

OK, that’s about it for now. Thank the Lord everything turned out alright. And thanks for listening internet.

Since no post is complete without some kind of photo, here’s a capture I took last Thursday night, around 2 am, from the top of Mount Evans at 14,000 feet. I’ll post more on this adventure later, but for now, enjoy!

(And thanks to Jared at ProPhotoRental for hooking us up the other night with the 14mm 2.8 lens to capture this shot!!)

  • August 15, 2010 - 11:12 am

    Ely - OMG. Fear struck into my heart. THAT IS A TERRIFYING story. But I’m so glad that it all worked out okay. Beautiful photo. Wish we had a place to take lovely star photos in OKC. Nice work guys!ReplyCancel

  • August 15, 2010 - 12:28 pm

    Ashley - Simply amazing. The story AND the photo. Glad you guys made it.ReplyCancel

  • August 15, 2010 - 4:04 pm

    lindsey - whoa! I would’ve freaked out too. what a blessing that god sent someone so quickly to help you guys! sorry your car is dead. sucky.ReplyCancel

  • August 15, 2010 - 11:15 pm

    Michelle - You guys are awesome!! So glad you made it, sorry for the close call and your car. I wasn’t even worried for a second. Alex and I can’t wait to see the pictures.ReplyCancel

  • August 16, 2010 - 3:31 pm

    Mom - NICE. It makes my imagination go crazy.
    Your guardian angels were on call… love you!ReplyCancel

  • September 8, 2010 - 11:13 pm

    Michelle + Alex | Estes Park, Colorado Wedding | Fuse Photographic Colorado Wedding & Portrait Photographers | the blog. - […] that fiasco with the car breaking down and no cell phone service?  That was Alex and Michelle’s wedding […]ReplyCancel

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