My friend Aubri started a photography business this year and she's been busy already. She does great work and is a great resource for asking my never-ending photography questions. When she offered for me to help her, I couldn't pass it up, even though I've never shot anything more than Adam or pics for my photography class. Either she has faith in me or she's crazy!
I was so nervous about the shoot that I spent a lot of evenings leading up to it looking at professionals pictures on the internet and reading tips for wedding photography. Let's just say what when push came to shove, most of that fell out of my head and I was mostly on autopilot, praying I was doing a good job. My only nerve-saver was that I wasn't primary shooter and that Aubri knew what she was doing.
Aubri and I were very excited that morning and made a stop for coffee and muffins for the road. We chatted so much on the way that we actually found ourselves taking the freeway in the opposite direction and then running into construction traffic; oops, I was the navigator, so I was failing already. After a moment of panic, we figured out the way to get there through Aubri's ghetto car navigation system and our original directions. We got there just in time. Phew!
We noticed on the way in that there were so many cute places for picture opportunities, but once the ball was rolling at the bride's parents' house, we never got the chance to do them. I now fully understand why some women do bridal sessions weeks before the wedding; there often times just isn't enough time the day of the wedding to get a lot of the creative stuff.
After that, we went to the church for the ceremony. Aubri had assigned me to get the shots of the guys. I had been so nervous about this that I tried to look up "groomsmen shots" on the internet. Well, not much out there; apparently, it's not a popular thing to upload for critique...lol. When we got to the church, we realized that the place was going to be way too dark for good pictures, especially for me. Aubri had rented me a nice lens, but it still wasn't going to work well without good light. We were also limited to going no further than the carpet, so no shots of the couple from the front. So, we had our work cut out for us.
The ceremony was Catholic, so we knew we were in for a long time. So, after about 45 minutes, I decided to take Aubri's previous advice and take a break from shooting; after all, I wasn't getting any new angles or shots. So, I sat back and tried to imagine what I wanted to do next. I was assigned to take shots of the couple coming back up the aisle. Simple, right? Yeah, it should've been. I wanted to do a really low shot of them coming up the aisle with the church rising above them... or at least attempt that shot. I was pretty confident about it until I suddenly hear that priest stop his prayers to tell the couple that they can kiss. What?? What happened?? It had suddenly come up on us so fast that I was still daydreaming in the back. Shit. Well, at least Aubri was up there and got the shot. Um.....
Now for my exit shot. I get the camera down, only to watch the happy couple going down the *other* aisle. The one I'm not at. There were 4 aisle and for some reason, I thought they were coming down the last one. No, they were coming down the third one. So I swear under my breath and sprint over, while I'm seeing Aubri sprinting toward me when she had realized I wasn't in position. Thankfully, we seemed to get the shot, but damn, it was close. That's what I get for taking a mini-break.
As we're getting the exit shot, I hear Aubri telling the bride that she had missed the "kiss shot". Again, what?? Turns out that Aubri was caught off guard, like me, and hadn't been in position for the kiss either. The really ironic thing was that we were talking about how sometimes the photographer misses the kiss and had wondered how on earth that happens. We know now. The couple was gracious about it and it was recreated on the alter, and probably came out better since we were then able to get close, but it unnerved us and left Aubri a bit shaken. I was so worried that she was mad that I missed it too. I reassured her that one mistake doesn't ruin the wedding. We vowed to do a great job at the reception.
We took pictures at a local country club and later at a fun dirt road in their area. Aubri got some awesome shots of the couple and I tried to get some good shots of the bridal couples. I had wanted to do a fun shot after the traditional ones, but the party sort of just wandered off. I got shy and didn't call everyone back. It disappointed me because these kids were about 15 years younger than me and I felt intimidated by them. Silly. I guess they aren't the paying client, so they didn't want to be put into poses.
The reception had the same low light issues that the church had, so my camera wasn't cutting it. Thankfully, Aubri had brought an additional camera that had a better low light lens on it, so I was able to get some decent shots. Aubri had some issues with a new flash she had gotten and at one point had about 30 soriety sisters posed on a staircase and staring at her and she struggled to get the flash to go off. Talk about pressure!
By the end of the night, I was exhausted and done with taking pictures. I went to bed pretty much when I got home. My legs were *so* sore from squatting and standing up so much!
My lessons learned from this experience:
- Always be prepared. You might think you know when certain key things are going to happen, but you might be *very* wrong.
- Know what your equipment will and won't do and make sure you have what you need.
- You aren't going to have the time you think to get all of the shots you have in your head. Time goes *very* fast on wedding day. Have some standard poses you like and hammer those out to save on time.
SO.MUCH.FUN!
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