I have had a few requests to photograph a wedding, and I have refused them all. Most tempting was a wedding at a high-class resort on top of a mountain in India, all expenses paid, plus fee. But there is just too much stress involved. What if I miss a decisive moment, what if my gear breaks, what if I crack and collapse into a weeping puddle just as they are saying their vows. No thank you.
I made a semi-exception for my friend who got married in Bangkok recently, but he had an army of professionals on the job, so if I screwed up it wouldn’t really matter.
And then I was asked to shoot a christening. This scored double minus points. Stress from missing decisive moments, plus a close encounter of the third kind with a representative of the purportedly magic jew; could I cope?
As the parents are my friends I accepted, albeit with some trepidation. The event took place at dusk, the light was coming from behind the subjects and there was every chance of screwing it up. Fortunately, most of the shots look OK, although this first one will need some Photoshop on the white panel in the background.
*Why is my auntie now called a godmother, and why has she given me to this old guy? I thought slavery had been abolished. *
OK, so now I’m all wet. And just who is this Jesus Christ chap you are on about?
*Right, listen up parent people. No idea why you arranged this; but I shall pay you back in about eighteen years by bringing home some highly inappropriate women. *
The religious service bit lasted less than five minutes, and then there was champagne and food and a chance to chat to the priest who turned out to be fun and interesting and not at what I expected. Any man who had accepted middle-aged transvestite men into his services in Brisbane, to considerable local opposition, has to score some cool points.
Fun evening, and I went home with two bottles of champagne and 365 photos to process. Still wouldn’t shoot a wedding though.
Comments 🔗
2012-03-01| Spanky saysI just shot an event last night that was a fund raiser/concert. I missed crucial shots because low light and focusing aren’t two words that go together. I made up for it with a plethora of other shots! I’m not looking forward to the 1200 or so images I have to go through to weed out the crap ones.
2012-03-01| Spike saysHere are four words that go together: low light, focusing, GX1.
2012-03-01| Spanky saysHere are… I suck at math: Olympus OM-D E-M5. It has sex appeal! It also has the built-in EVF which is something I want or I would consider the GX1 as it is an excellent camera and available now.
I used the both the Canon and my Olympus last night. I just dumped the images in LightRoom so I have no idea which did better. The Canon was used because I could mount a flash and the 50mm 1.4 does an excellent job. It could also rapid fire faster than the Olympus. I will be curious to see how the images compare between the two before processing.
2012-03-02| Spike saysEM-5, if you can wait.