Secondlaw
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Ever hear of the expression, "What can go wrong will go wrong"?
Arrived at the brides house on time (12pm) took out my D700 mounted with 24-70 and SB900. The dress was already laid out on the bed peach colored room. Turned the camera on and something happened. The flash was going nuts then overheated after just a few lousy test pictures, started firing spontaneously, strobe lights, etc.... Remounted the lens / remounted the flash. Then the sweat started dripping and when I say dripping, I'm not being sarcastic. I'll also mention that I'm not one of those teddy bear guys that start sweating from getting up to run to the fridge to get another beer. I'm in shape and only sweat when I'm playing sports. The lighting was terrible but hey... let's make lemonaid here. I didn't want to spend too much time futzing around with my D700. I put the 24-70 back on the D300 with my SB800. I'm sure it wasn't just a fash issue because I put the SB800 on the D700 and that flash started going berzerk too. I put the SB900 on the D300 and it was acting up. Something happened to the camera and the flash sometime this past week and I was devistated.
So now I'll cut to the chase. I had absolutely ZERO business being at this poor girls home taking her photos of her day, NOT WITHOUT A REAL PRO. I did so much homework but the Bride was hiding in a closet for most of the time, then she put her dress on and the Mom was nowhere to be found, then she had to take the dress off to run to the bathroom. She was about to pass out. I did manage a few very poor shots.
I honestly don't know how this "PRO" is going to sell these. I'll be honest with everyone who was nice enough to reply... I'm embarrased to show them to you. I do have a few that I'd be more than happy to post (no people / the "pro" told me not to post them on the internet because he didn't have permission, I'll abide by those rules).
Because I've never shot a wedding, I'm embarrased to say that I was yelled at by the priest for being behind the altar. His exact words in a very angry low toned voice, "Get out of here and don't come back". What the hell did I know? The Pro saw me up there and didn't tell me to get off. After the ceremony I approached the priest and his sidekick (pastor / social coordinator / I don't know what he was but he was working with the priest to keep things going) and made a very sincere apology to him at which time he didn't smile, but instead, read me the riot act. Ok, fair enough, I intruded on his allmighty turf BUT, the "PRO" was there at this time and never said a word to me about being on the Altar. Then this short portly pastor guy with Napolean complex then says to me with a queer smile, "And I know this isn't your first saturday wedding, and that's why I don't believe a word you just said." Knowing you can't argue with a know-it all, I just smiled and walked away.
I couldn't get the right lighting for the flash in the church and I was honestly afraid of being yelled at by the priest again. I gave the D700 another shot with the 24-70, bumped up the ISO to 3200, WB at 2700, and took shots like that. The problem was that I couldn't and didn't want to get to close to the bride and groom in fear of Jesus himself scolding me in front of everyone.
Here's my issue... This guy tells me about this wedding many many months ago. I figured... Ok, I'll be a second shooter or hell... I'll even carry his stuff around... I have no problem with either. He asks me to be a second shooter. Ok, no problem, I'll have a PRO here to help me out in a bind and he'll be able to direct me as to where to go and when to be there. I would have loved to know which church it was going to be at so I could go there myself and speak with the priest and also toy around with what type of settings I would need to use.
So... The Home shots were a bust and the church shots were a bust. Now it's just about dark out and the pro decides to go to a park and take pictures. By the time everyone shows up, it's pitch dark. He lines the people up in a gazeebo which is on a platform and instructs me to take a picture of everyone from 35 feet away lookin up at them. Well.... I think we know how this went. The video guy standing next to me says, "what the hell does this guy think he's doing". I knew we weren't going to get any good shots here.
In the hall, he was trying to get the table shots. People are rolling their eyes at him and seemed to be very frustrated. I had 2 people approach me to tell me that I must have a lot of patience to deal with him.
The thing is... This guy is not a bad guy but he has no business being in the business. He showed up to the church with a D200 and a kit lens. I know a few of the kit lenses are very nice but this was the only lens he used all nite. Ok, I don't have an issue with this either but, I told him numerous times that my camera and flash was on the fritz and he kept smiling away saying, "don't worry about it". I was worried, very worried... Not for him, but for the bride and groom whom I'm sure are expecting some amazing photography and aren't going to get anything close to it.
I'm supposed to give him all of the shots. I'm going through them to delete anything that's really terrible. I took roughly 2000 pictures from 12pm - 11:30pm. If they get a handfull of good pictures out of this, that's a lot. I just lost it once my D700 and SB900 started acting up.
I'm am so F'ng upset about this whole thing. I can't apologize enough to the bride/groom here. I'm a pretty active guy, play a lot of sports and am often very emotionless. This made me want to cry. I'll tell you what I felt like... I felt like I'd been playing a flight simulator game for a long time. I finally get a chance to sit in the cockpit of a real airplane and the pilot takes off. The passengers are all 10 year old kids and their great grandparents. Then in mid flight the pilot leaves and secretly parachutes out but gets sucked into the engine, completely destroying it. All communications to the control tower are off and here I am, crashing into the ocean and bringing everyone down with me. It doesn't matter how hard you tried if everyone's dead in the end.
So that's my story. Now I'm going to find a bridge. An unfortunate lesson learned. Just wondering, should I give refuse the $250 bux that he offered me? I would have done it for free in the first place but before I got to say that, he said, "I'll give you $250 bux for your time". I'm not hard up for cash. I have a decent living so... I would like to be compensated for gas and batteries though. Is that too much to ask for considering what happened here?
I might ad that I wouldn't be surprised if this guy is one of those 400 dollar craigs list photogs.
There is no preview button here so I'll click "send reply"... I might make some minor adjustments after I read it again.
EDIT: I will say this... It was different being at a wedding as an outsider. I have to say, I've never been to a wedding with so many people dancing all night long. It was amazing to see the energy these people had. Nobody was in their seats, everyone was dancing and having a great time.
Edited on Nov 15, 2009 at 05:47 PM · View previous versions
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