The Day before

dragon300zx

I shoot my first wedding. :huh Some Cherry Ripes would be really nice right about now. :twitch:twitch:twitch

Shay Stephens

I know this probably is impossible right now. But relax. Rely on your planning and preparation. Shoot the way you know how. Don't experiment unless you have spare time and already have gotten your shots, and even then be careful. You don't want to forget to change back your settings to regular shooting.

Don't forget to bring a water bottle, even a small one helps. Dehydration is the number one threat to creativity. It numbs the mind without you realizing it. Keep hydrated. If you have an assistant, make that one of their tasks to keep you hydrated. Periodic snacks help too. Seriously. When you are in the zone, you don't feel hunger or thirst until it's too late.

Enjoy the day, and post some pictures when you are ready :-)

dragon300zx wrote:

I shoot my first wedding. Some Cherry Ripes would be really nice right about now. :twitch:twitch:twitch

ginger_55

Shay Stephens wrote:

I know this probably is impossible right now. But relax. Rely on your planning and preparation. Shoot the way you know how. Don't experiment unless you have spare time and already have gotten your shots, and even then be careful. You don't want to forget to change back your settings to regular shooting.

Don't forget to bring a water bottle, even a small one helps. Dehydration is the number one threat to creativity. It numbs the mind without you realizing it. Keep hydrated. If you have an assistant, make that one of their tasks to keep you hydrated. Periodic snacks help too. Seriously. When you are in the zone, you don't feel hunger or thirst until it's too late.

Enjoy the day, and post some pictures when you are ready :-)

Thanks, Shay, I just sent this info to my dear husband who never believes I need water. Last time, baptism, he did bring me a salty peanut butter cracker pack to snack on. Wisely, I decided that it might just make my thirst worse. Foolishly, I had forgotten my water..........a staple with me, usually, but I have to remember to fill and refrigerate a bottle of the stuff.

Boy that is all good advice!

ginger

Oh, same re food and water could be said about getting on the PC in the AM and deciding to just do "one" thing.

Guess, since it is 12:30 here, it might be time for food...............and something besides coffee. I have been known to go til 7 PM.

It is not a diet thing, I make up for it in a fattening snack, those are the easiest to "eat" and taste the best. At 3 Am, I remembered that I had baked a potato, got it out and put sour cream on it. While I was uploading egrets.

Mongrel

Great advice-heed it!

Shay Stephens wrote:

I know this probably is impossible right now. But relax. Rely on your planning and preparation. Shoot the way you know how. Don't experiment unless you have spare time and already have gotten your shots, and even then be careful. You don't want to forget to change back your settings to regular shooting.

I got bit by this one the last time I shot a wedding. Not by experimenting, but by NOT trusting what I knew to be the correct settings for my camera, especially the ISO settings. In preparation I had gone to the church prior to the day of the wedding and took a whole bunch of test shots using flash, no flash, and different lenses. I had a good grip on the white balance etc. For some stupid reason I choked the day of the ceremony and started playing around with the ISO settings because something didn't 'feel right'. Although I got the shots I needed, many were shot at unnecessarily high ISO and made a lot of extra work in post processing. Like Shay said-stick with what you KNOW will work.

Shay Stephens wrote:

Don't forget to bring a water bottle, even a small one helps. Dehydration is the number one threat to creativity. It numbs the mind without you realizing it. Keep hydrated. If you have an assistant, make that one of their tasks to keep you hydrated. Periodic snacks help too. Seriously. When you are in the zone, you don't feel hunger or thirst until it's too late.

Enjoy the day, and post some pictures when you are ready :-)

Another good point above. I use a small sling bag when shooting. I keep my second lens in it (I do have a backup body close by, but usually don't wear or carry it on my person when I'm moving around), spare batteries, flash cards, AND A WATER BOTTLE in one of the lens sections. Nothing worse than having to hunt for water when you are dying of thirst.

Good luck with your shoot,

Mongrel

dragon300zx

I feel like I'm forgetting something. I have my batteries, equipment, shot lists, beernuts from FM is assisting me, business cards, books, cloths, water, snacks, cell phone, battery chargers. What am I missing, I even got a check that I wasn't expecting today.

GREAPER

Good luck

wxwax

dragon300zx wrote:

I feel like I'm forgetting something. I have my batteries, equipment, shot lists, beernuts from FM is assisting me, business cards, books, cloths, water, snacks, cell phone, battery chargers. What am I missing, I even got a check that I wasn't expecting today.

Your camera? Good luck!

dragon300zx

I went to the rehearsal today to talk to the pastor, and get a feel for things. As I was walking up (rehearsal started at 4:30 and work ends at 5:00) I desided to play. It's just a snapshot nothing special. Here is the Bride, Groom, and their son. They are practicing the walk after they are officially married.

luckyrwe

Now I know I am getting old. Bride, Groom, and their son? HELLO! wxwax

dragon300zx

Yeah am I wouldn't say Tam is the most old fashioned kinda gal. Plus I can't say for sure but I think the pastor is gay.

dragon300zx

Well I just got back. I will post some shots in the days to come. Well St Murphy did strick. Luckily I was prepared. I had a couple lens problems and had to drop the digital and go to the film body a couple times. Luckily I had a great assistant with Beernuts being there and he got the shots I couldn't. We also had some jewelry problems with the bride but I had tools with me so we fixed her necklace. All in all it went pretty good I shot over 600 shots in raw and beernuts was shooting jpegs and prolly shot just as many. The low lighting at the reception caused some problems for us but I think we did pretty good with it all considered. So far we will have some decent print sales, I have been booked to do a portfolio for an actress, couple shots of one of the couples there, and was asked if I would be interested in doing automotive shoots for general motors (apparantley they keep hiring freelancers who do digital work but use Point and Shoot cameras and are absolute hacks, and "the way I handled my camera was impressive") and told I will get a call later this week to set things up (so hopefully that will come through). Then once we got to the reception and went to finish up the group shots the brides dad had already started drinking and was not in a picture mood so we didn't get all the ones they wanted cause we couldn't get him to stand still cause it was an open bar. All in all considering it was my first wedding, and I was the lead photographer having never done a wedding before, I think things went pretty good today and I can't wait for the next.

Shay you were right. It was 80 degree's out there today I drank 4 water bottles and I am still dehydrated.

On another note. I didn't think about it, and neither did anyone else. It was an outdoor wedding in the sun. I forgot sunscreen. :bash I'm as read as that little guy there.

Shay Stephens

I love a good success story. Congratulations too on impressing the attendees enough to get more work offers. That is a good sign. Well, work hard on the processing, and post some good stuff when you get a chance :-)

dragon300zx wrote:

Well I just got back. I will post some shots in the days to come.

Shima

Looking forward to seeing how things turned out!

GREAPER

I am glad it went well, congrats.

I got a contract a couple of mounths ago to shoot portraits for a dance studio, at their recital. I was led to belive I would be shooting about 50 kids, all girls, ranging in age from 4 to 18. I had a rough idea I would bring in about 800 in prints sales from the "gig"

I did it thursday night. Wow, bedlam... I had an assistant take care of the cash and feed me kids to shoot. She kept the orders straight as to what kid was what, and what they ordered and prepaid for. It went pretty smoooth. We were really busy, I shot a hundred different kids/poses. and brought in well over double what I expected. It was a great day. Now all I have to do is, process all of the pics, upoad them all, have them all shipped, record everything in my books, and follow up with 100 parents to see if they are satisfied.

Hey... That sounds like a lot of work.