TECHNIQUE - GEARHEADS PAY ATTENTION!
There will be lots more on this subject but briefly a few points. Just a short sample of what we will discuss and how fast you can get in trouble.
- If you haven’t a clue as to what happens to bridal dresses with high Rayon or shiny Silk content or don’t know how to meter a Black Tuxedo, learn quickly.
- Know your gear, what’s that error message? Simply put you don’t have the time to drag out the book at a Wedding. No time outs in this game.
- Is your gear suitable for the job at hand? That 50mm lens won’t work from the back of a 200 foot Catholic Church with dim lighting.
- Neither will a 300 if it’s a F5.6, has no image stabilization, you forgot the tripod.
- No FLASH allowed as is the case with most Catholic Churches.
- Backups? Failures are not uncommon and there are things you can do to prevent double trouble. St. Murphy is the patron Saint of all Photographers. He wrote many Laws. Like, if it can break, sooner or later IT WILL BREAK.
- Too much confidence. Many, too many novices think they can make it on very limited equipment. A picture can be taken with almost any camera, lens and film. Wrong. Snapshots can be taken with any simple camera. Too often I hear or see in newsgroups “I’m shooting my first wedding in a week and what do I need”. I have a Blah-blah-blah! with a blah-blah blah and a four AA battery flash. I love the guys in the newsgroups who encourage the newbie to self destruct and go for it, he’s already in doubt and some people love to see a guy crash.
- Backups? Borrow or rent a spare camera if needed for redundancy. You’d hate to have to finish the Wedding with a disposable. All flashes are not equal. Few manufacturers units hit over a guide of 120 realistically. Many pros shoot with guides of 160-200-400 watt seconds. Rent a decent flash unit. Ever wonder why PRO’s spend as much on their lighting gear as they do on their cameras?
It’s the quality of light the equipment produces.
LESS BRAINS MORE BRAVADO:
The battle cry of the skate boarder, the extreme trick bike and those water-bikes, the wave runners is “I can”. My wife worked for a policy writer person in an insurance company that specializes in extreme events, carnivals, rides, parachute events, and other unorthodox occasions. Disasters can be all too common. All too many times we saw the results in pictures.
You see the newcomer hasn’t had a disaster yet to learn off of. For some reason they will be persistent and think they can pull it off. Cameras are notorious for shutters, failing, batteries coming apart; strobes failing or have runaway problems. Even the pro stuff. It’s happened to me several times and I am a nut about preparation.
BUT- the killer is usually a lack of experience and how to react when things go bad. Stepping into an elaborate wedding is like a snow bunny tackling K2, the tricky slope at Hunter Mountain. Hey snow is snow and youth has no fear. Here are more clues to the minefield.
PRE-INSTRUCTION:
For the new photographer learning about weddings read as much as you can, and it couldn’t be easier than going to the web. Here are some sources for your browser. “Wedding planning”, “wedding photographers”, “ wedding groups”, Another source of Wedding consulting stems from the bloggers of mirth who habit the Newsgroups like alt.wedding on the news boards, A must read is a collection of stories is at http://www.etiquettehell.com
TRADITIONS AND CUSTOMS and a LITLE SHEER LUNACY!:
Many traditions, customs, and other acts appearing to be totally irrelevant (bordering stupidity) to you are very important and critical for the impression the Bride wants to make on her day. This is a huge and emotional time with extensive preparation and tasking for anyone to bear. Bears are no problem; it’s the reptiles you have to look out for. More later.
So to get a feel for this apparent idiocy you will find humor at alt.wedding and similar ever changing locations. After reading it your Bride will seem normal. Those making daily appearance as experts at some of these sites are one step from the Looney Bin Hotel. Complete with tears and a few borderline major breakdowns. At times these groups are funnier than anything you will ever read. This one site is so hip you will need the secret decoder ring so you will know who they are talking about.
THE SMMOOOSSHHHH!
Brides spend a few dollars on their day getting everything perfect and in some cases lots of time in preparation. I have a friend who has videoed 100's of weddings and wrote a piece on the Seven Signs of Marital Disasters. One of his pet signs is the celebration of the sharing of cake.
I can tell you, the groom picked the wrong time to act like a kid. he thought it was cool, she didn't. Nothing more needs to be said. This was not staged and the shots speak for themselves. She advised him not to do this and he did. He got more than he bargained for. For longer than he thought.
BACK TO THE FORUM:
The Professional Brides at this site, I call them “professionals” because though they were married four plus years ago they are reliving their wedding ceremony years after it’s over, day after day, week after week, ad nauseam. They keep telling their “story” to the future Brides who crank in thinking if it’s in print on the web it’s real. It definitely is the highlight of their lives.
I wrote one back and asked if she lived in a cabin in the woods all her life? She said this was her first trip into town and married and living in the big city. Better they should be paying attention to their husbands instead of banging the keyboard because they live in a fantasy world. Here as a public service are the most commonly used codes in the Newsgroup Bridal Pages. We broke the codes into groups;
G = Groom
BM = Best Man
FH = Future Husband
FIL = Father-in-Law
B = Bride
MIL = Mother-in-Law
BMD = Bridesmaid
FG = Flower Girl
MOB = Mother Of the Bride
FMIL = Future Mother-in-Law
FSIL = Future Sister/Son-in-Law
TLOTH = The Lady Of The Hour
HC = The Happy Couple
UHC = Unhappy Couple
SO = Significant Other
SOL = Significant Other’s Lover
BRIDEZILLA = Devil in a White Dress