A nightmare of a wedding

lisap

(OK...I just previewed this before submitting and it's way longer than I thought it would be...sorry!!)

No, I don't mean the wedding was a nightmare.....I mean I had a nightmare of a wedding!!!!

So just to preface a little bit.....I don't shoot weddings and have no intention of shooting weddings. I admire those who do. I'm still working through my business plan, honing my skills, etc. etc.. and weddings is not one of the services on my list.

Last night I had a dream that I was at a wedding. I was sitting in the crowd at what seemed to be a rehearsal for the guests????? (I don't try to explain my dreams, I just tell them :wink ). So the Pastor was going over some of the things we as guest should do/not do. One thing was where guests could be during the ceremony to take photos, but they had to stay out of the way of the official wedding photographer. So everyone wanted to know who the official photographer was so they would know to stay clear. The bride (who for the life of me I don't think I even know....maybe was a relative on my husband's side????) stands up and points in my direction and says that I am the photographer.

:huh Huh?? So all I can think of to say (in a very nice, yet confused way) is "Ummmm I don't remember signing a contract with you....did I?" And the response is something like something happened to their photographer so they thought I could just do it for them. So I proceed to explain that I'm not a wedding photographer and couldn't possibly do a good job.

I'm sitting there with just my Nikon D80. I have no idea where my camera bag was. The only flash I own is an SB600 which was probably in my bag. All of these people are looking at me. Everyone seemed that it would be quite a normal thing for me to just step in :scratch .

So in my head I can hear all of you here who talk about pricing, having a contract, what gear you need for a wedding etc. etc. etc. And I'm thinking "Man....this is so wrong!" But I'm a softy and can't stand to see anyone cry so I agree.

Next I go with the bride to where she is getting changed into her dress. The dress is not white, it's an off-white/beige so I make a mental note of that so I don't freak out when my pictures of the dress don't show a white, white dress. I'm thinking...OMG...I don't know how to meter properly....I don't have my notes! The bride in white, the groom in black! No flash, no tripod????

So I recall in my head all of the various pictures I've seen in the wedding forums of the different poses and suggestions. Thank God the ceremony is going to be outside so I remember try and get people to be in the shade, etc. to avoid weird shadows. Of course I wish I knew where my flash was....would have been better than nothing but that will always be a mystery to me.

And where was my husband?! Wasn't this some relative of HIS???? Did I just walk off the street into someone's wedding? I could have used some help! LOL

So I'm snapping away and then part way through the day as I'm looking at the photos on the camera display and thinking about how I really have to post these right away in the wedding forum to get some guidance and feedback, I realize that pictures seem to be getting overwritten or deleted (or something like that) off of the card. There were still quite a few on there, but Yikes!

And then I woke up.

So if you actually read through the whole thing, the reason I posted it was that even though I don't post much (yet), I am reading everything you all write and even subconsciously I'm remembering things that I didn't necessarily know I was paying attention to. Even though I don't have the intention of shooting weddings I do spend a lot of time in that forum taking in all of the advice on lighting, posing, etc. And here in MYOB, all of the information about contracts, pricing, customer relations, equipment needed, etc. etc. etc. etc. it seems to be sinking in.

So thanks so much for that!! :lust

-- Lisa P.

Art Scott

Nightmare Or Premonition

Wow what a dream.....nightmare....well who knows.....did you wake soaked in the sweat of your life .......or was this a premonition of things to come, a wake up call if you will.....letting you know that down the road someone will call on you just for this type of emergency......or maybe it was just an overload of everyting you have been studying on here and your mind finally needed to show you what you had been learning that you did not hink you had retained...........

davidweaver

You didn't mention any backup nightmare.

roflrofl

Nice story!

David

urbanaries

Oh man, I have certainly had my share of those!!!

Just the other night, I had this VERY vivid nightmare that I was shooting a wedding (been worrying/thinking about the one coming up this weekend) and when I pulled my CF card out of my camera, it had tiny "cassette" tape attached to it and had come unraveled. You know, like when your VCR/tape deck used to "eat" your tapes!

So, I am buying extra CF cards to take with me this weekend...I don't know how else to interpret that dream...rofl

My friend who is in to that sort of thing would say, "Well, what's the camera part of you, and what's the CF card of you, and what are they trying to say to each other?"

Moogle Pepper

Urbanaries,

Maybe the unwinding part, when you take out the CF, means that you will be a fork in the road, so to speak. Everything you once knew, you are unsure of. And all things fall apart...

But who am I to talk? I think psychoanalysis is bunk!



Lisa, maybe your dream is suggesting to do weddings!!

lisap

Art: I woke up thinking...WTF?!?! haha I do think I often work better under pressure and in my day job there are often very odd 'emergencies' that come up on a regular basis. Maybe the two aspects of my life are going to somehow morph into one (day job has nothing to do with photography). But.....probably the more realistic analysis is that I spend WAY too much time here reading, researching, etc. etc. as I'm so paranoid that I cover every aspect I can think of before 'taking the plunge' so to speak. At the very least I think I can tell people (i.e.: the husband) that all of the hours I spend on here are well worth it because it definitely gets me thinking!!

Moogle Pepper wrote:

Lisa, maybe your dream is suggesting to do weddings!!

Ummmmm I don't think so!!!!!!!! haha It probably shows how scared I am of photographing weddings! I always say 'never say never', but I think it would be a VERY long time before I'd be brave enough to tackle one.

urbanaries wrote:

....it had tiny "cassette" tape attached to it and had come unraveled

That is just a scarey thought!!

I kind of wonder how things would have all turned out in the end and what kind of advice I would have gotten from you all here and in the weddings forum and whether or not I would have gotten paid or would have had to hold my files hostage, etc. etc. haha (and most importantly...whose wedding was it and why was I there in the first place?!)


-- Lisa P.

ShepsMom

Ok, i would take a look at my Chrystal ball, but it's only open 8-5 so, i i'm going to take a wild guess and predict a wedding coming up your way very soon, so you better start preparing and reading even more then you do now. Go to bridal store and start metering for white dresses that are not really white roflrofl

Moogle Pepper

lisap wrote:

Ummmmm I don't think so!!!!!!!! haha It probably shows how scared I am of photographing weddings! I always say 'never say never', but I think it would be a VERY long time before I'd be brave enough to tackle one.

I said the same thing. And I am now doing wedding photography. I said that...oh last September.

lisap

I think I'm going to stay clear of attending weddings for at least two years just to be safe! Even if I did decide to venture into wedding territory it would be way down the road. I need way more experience and I don't think I'd be brave enough to tackle one by myself regardless. I really have a lot respect for those who do. Although, even before I found DGRIN, I had an idea that wedding photography is a rather huge venture to undertake, it was really eye opening to read everything I have one here about not just photography techniques, etc. for weddings, but everything else that surrounds the business of weddings. I know that at the minimum, I'm a much more informed wedding guest than I was before!!

I did attend one this past summer and left my camera at home. (was a cousin of my husband who I don't really know) One thing I was REALLY aware of, and I know that's because of everything I've been reading about here, was all of the guests with their P&S cameras snapping up a storm. Flashes going off like crazy!!

-- Lisa P.

heatherfeather

Ha ha! This cracked me up. It sounds very familiar.... like me, night before a wedding.