Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Wedding Update

I did it!  My first paid gig.  It was a great experience!  I'll break it down in short form

  • 500 pictures taken
  • I ended up with about 150 keepers, all said and done
  • After editing and sorting through all those photos, I'm getting pretty proficient in Adobe Lightroom.  At least I think I am!
  • I learned to work around really unexpected variables (like the preacher that told us we couldn't use flash during the ceremony...plan b, I guess...whatever that was!)
  • I should have met the couple prior to the wedding, it would have broken the ice and made sticking a camera in their face for 3 hours less awkward
  • Speaking of sticking a camera in someone's face, I learned that this style of photography is 50% technical and 50% personal/interactive skills
  • Having the technical skills to a point that they are second nature (not the point that I'm at yet) would help a lot in the interactive department.  It's hard to be conversational with people when you're trying to focus on your camera settings
  • The weather was great
  • The mosquitoes were not!
  • On each outdoor photo, I edited at least 10 mosquitoes from each picture!
  • There was slight cloud cover so it was a nice, diffused light
  • It started to rain just as we finished
  • Scott and I are handing over the photos tomorrow so I'm waiting on the bride and groom's approval to post some online
  • I look forward to sharing some of them with you all!
  • Speaking of Scott, he rules.  He rented us a couple of lenses from Lethbridge Lens Rentals.  I'll do another post on the lens I used for most of the day.  I loved it and want to buy it.  Too bad it's wayyyy out of my purchasing-power-league right now!
  • That being said, getting paid for doing something you love is pretty cool

3 comments:

  1. Sounds like a generally cool experience. I look forward to seeing some of the results.

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  2. I've been waiting to see pictures so I was excited to see you posted.. I guess I'll just have to wait longer.

    Glad you enjoyed it and hopefully you get to do more.. as you said, it is most definitely awesome to get paid for doing something you love.

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  3. Followed through from your post on DPS. Congrats on the gig...

    And you're totally right about the social/personal skills. I do a lot of photography for the high school I teach at (I'm in charge of the yearbook), and I've gotten sooo much better at it over the past few years just from the experience of working with kids I don't/hardly know and getting them to cooperate with the camera.

    A month ago I supervised one of my students in taking pictures of our pre-Prom red carpet event. Imagine 2-300 students getting out of limos and walking down a red carpet and getting them to stop for you! Event photography is not for the meek or mild mannered...

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