I've been holding out on Week 24 for some time now, because the photos I shot that week (ay, and the ones that I would care to share) were taken at my cousin Kathy's beautiful wedding in beautiful San Francisco. Kathy and her husband David, who'd asked me to take photos at their wedding, had been on a few-weeks-delayed and long honeymoon, and I wanted her to have the chance to post the pictures to Facebook or whatever else before I go plastering them across the Interwebs myself.
I'm really grateful to Kathy and David for giving me this opportunity. I hope they're happy with the photos I was able to deliver to them. I may not have a future in wedding photography ahead of me (not in the works, anyway), but I'm glad I got the chance to see what it was like and hopefully help capture some memories for my family along the way.
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| 35mm (DX) : ISO 800 : f/2.8 : 1/80s David and Kathy |
I'm only going to share the one photo (since they are Kathy and David's wedding photos, after all), but I did come away from this experience with some lessons learned.
I am not a wedding photographer. This fact should surprise exactly no one. Initially, I was extremely hesitant to agree to shoot the wedding for this reason; I really, really did not want the pressure of shooting a wedding with zero previous experience- and my cousin's wedding, to boot! But when they explained that they weren't having a "big, traditional wedding ceremony" and were instead getting married before a judge at City Hall and that they wanted to keep things very simple. This was still way out of my comfort zone and usual range of activities, but as long as they were asking, I thought I might be up for a challenge.
The best decision I made to prepare was to pick up an external flash as a two-week rental- I gave myself one week before the wedding to fiddle with it and get familiar. I had no idea what the lighting would look like inside City Hall, but I didn't trust my camera to be able to handle anything remotely low-light all on its own.
Sharon and I flew in on Friday morning and went straight to City Hall to meet the family, who had already arrived and were in line for marriage licenses. Before we arrived at City Hall, I tried to psych myself up and keep a mental checklist of things to try to do and shoot. It all kinda went to hell when we went in and things were happening outside my head and in real life. The first few photos were haphazard as I tried to grasp my surroundings (a gorgeous domed, marble rotunda for which I wish I'd taken the time to get a snapshot). I eventually recovered, and we then moved into the hallway to the marriage licenses office, which was much friendlier to my flash unit's capabilities, where this moment of levity and cheer above was caught.
Some other thoughts:
- A mental checklist or shot list may work for someone who's been doing this for a while- I wish I'd made a list (or asked Kathy for one) of things or moments she definitely wanted captured; what I produced was what I was able to think of at the time.
- I figured out a thing or two about composition and technique after it was all done. While reviewing photos, Sharon pointed out that I was leaving a ton of empty space above people's heads in my shots and suggested I try the focus-and-recompose method. I started to explain (what I thought was) the problem with the focus-and-recompose method, but after more research I realized she was (surprise!) right. To recap: focus-and-recompose can lead to missed focus if you're shooting wide open (to achieve heavily blurred backgrounds or a narrow depth of field); but nearly all of my shooting was done stopped down enough so that everything was basically going to be in-focus no matter what (a wide depth of field), so my argument was ... crap. Now, I understand. It's a big deal to me.
- I was probably more assertive with people while behind the shutter than I normally am. That was different (felt kinda good, actually).
- Not that I had no respect or even disrespected wedding photographers before this experience, but having been through this (as informal or low-key a wedding as I have ever attended, even!)... nothing but mad respect.
- I had a lot of fun with the external flash, actually (it was a Nikon SB-700 unit). I was a little sad to return it on its due date, but in my short time shooting with it, I quickly came to appreciate how it can completely change or manipulate the lighting of a scene. This capability really is a game changer versus being confined to "natural" or "available light". It could be that I'm using a camera body/sensor that is several generations behind the latest in photography technology, but to a certain extent, relying on available light for photography is really constraining in a not-a-good kind of way. Earlier this year, I made up a photography budget for myself that narrowed down my choices into a "tripod versus flash" decision. I'm happy I chose the tripod, and I have a handful of images of which I'm very proud to show for it. But I will be giving a flash setup some strong consideration in the future. (I'm also going to check out the Strobist site in earnest. Lots of good learning opportunity there.)
| 2013 Project 52 entries: |
| Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | |
| Week 8 | Week 9 | Weeks 10-13 | Week 14 | Week 15 | Week 16 | |
| Week 17 | Week 18 | Week 19 | Week 20 | Week 21 | Week 22 | |
| Week 23 | Week 24 | Weeks 25-27 | Week 28 | Week 29 | Week 30 | |
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