By Jeff Scheldt
Published July 14, 2002
BAYTOWN - Reliability and quality service from a wedding photographer are important on a wedding day, considering the memories and marriage are meant to last a lifetime.
"I would advise people considering wedding a photographer, certainly price is important, but the most important thing is having good pictures," wedding photographer Bill Ashley of Baytown, said.
Ashley has heard horror stories from people who lose their wedding day pictures because a family member or inexperienced photographer offers to shoot the event but then fouls up the process.
"You really can't reshoot a wedding, so there's a lot of incentive to get it right the first time," Ashley said.
Sometimes Ashley is forced to work even when his body would like to rest all weekend.
"You really have to put the everyday aches and pains behind you," Ashley said. "I've missed two weddings, one of them while I was getting a pacemaker put into my chest."
Ashley boasts a stellar attendance record considering he has shot nearly 600 weddings in the last 21 years.
"I've done photography my whole life," Ashley said.
However since switching his full-time career from photography to computer training, Ashley's part-time job keeps him involved with his two loves - his wife Donna and taking pictures.
"The job keeps me involved in photography - my passion since I majored in it in college," Bill said.
Bill's background is industrial photography. He describes factories and refineries as "very rich visual environments."
Bill came to Baytown in 1976 and was the plant photographer and commercial artist at the U.S. Steel plant until 1982 when he was laid off with thousands of other employees. He began to shoot weddings while he looked for another job and continued to shoot after becoming the chief photographer at the University of Houston main campus in 1982.
Bill is now the manager of IT training for UH where he trains faculty, staff and students. Donna supervises the speech pathologists for Goose Creek and has been with the district for 25 years. The Ashleys will be married 30 years this summer.
Donna works almost all the weddings with Bill, assisting him at various stages of production. She helps sequence the photos, meets with clients, books weddings, discusses placement of photos in the album and follows up on clients.
"She's absolutely invaluable," Bill said. "It would be extremely difficult to shoot weddings without her."
Bill's passion for pictures has taken him across the country. On one memorable occasion Bill was snapping shots of California's coast when he met Ansel Adams, the famous photographer of the West. Bill also enjoys snapping Western landscapes; he makes an annual trip to Big Bend National Park.
The Ashleys photograph weddings primarily in Baytown and all over Houston. Bill is looking forward to an upcoming theme wedding in Lukenbach.
After 21 years of taking wedding pictures, Bill and Donna have become wedding experts, knowing every good angle in every Baytown church, Bill said.
"We can't go to a reception in Baytown without seeing people who we've shot before," Bill said. "We have worked with almost every caterer, disc jockey and florist in town."
Bill plans to continue photographing weddings at least until his daughter graduates from college, an indefinite period of time, he admits.
Bill has noticed several trends in wedding photography over the years. In the past, most pictures were posed, with everyone photographed shoulder-to-shoulder. The style in wedding photography has shifted to a more candid approach, Bill said.
"Now brides want to do documentary pictures," Bill said.
Today's albums are filled with action photos that catch the interaction between wedding guests and attendants, he said. Black and white spreads are more popular, Bill said.
Proofs were traditionally arranged in the album in the order that they were shot, whereas now a bride may begin her album with a dazzling reception picture and order pictures to her taste, Bill said.
While almost every wedding is similar, through his lenses Bill sees something different in every ceremony he shoots.
"With photographing weddings, it never gets stagnant because there is always something interesting going on," he said. "There are infinite opportunities for creative pictures."
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