one make sure you havnt accidently let your thumb flick the autofocus to manual on the 70-200 ( cover it with a piece of tape now)
two buy a kgear belt and keep everything on you at all times, ie no bags to worry about.
cheers
steve
oh thought of another always and I mean always wear comfy shoes.
Edited by steve mac on Apr 11, 2007 at 01:03 PM GMT
this is a great thread..with may learning points and reminders for me! I've been a lurker for many months learning soooo much...and am about to undertake my first wedding as the primary shooter (have done some as 2nd shooter) and am currently part way through customising my 'checklist' ready for Saturday so that I don't forget anything.
1. Forgot my ISO setting---I conveniently blame this on the manufacturer for not including it in the viewfinder . Has happened on more then one occasion. I catch it now. It's a great excuse for me to pick up the Mark III
2. Extra CF cards in the bag instead of on me and the bag was on the opposite side of the hall. I told everybody to hold and they were all nice about it as I ran back.
3. Brought only one battery, thought it was fully charged, but DOA. Luckily, I arrived early and had my charger with me. It was a local fashion show and I made it through the night.
The main lesson is to go through a checklist everytime, the night before and 3-4 hours before you have to leave for a shoot. You can never be too careful. Just like how pilots go through one every single time they take-off and land, photogs should definetly do the same. I have a checklist for before I leave for the shoot, and a checklist before I leave the shoot.
Wow..you guys have brought back memories. Melanie, been there and done that too. It's funny how you can use a camera so much that you reconize the sound. Thank goodness mine was pre-ceremony and I had only hit the shutter for about 6 pictures, and it was easy to re-stage.
My biggest mistake was leaving my bag at the park. Of course, it was gone when I went back to look for it. It had one roll of film and a lens. I hated loosing that lens, but at least it was not one of my most exspensive. I got lucky on my roll of film. It was a roll of black and white, and I had also shot about the same pictures in color. I freaked for a couple of days before I knew for sure if I had the color roll. I thought Dennis had used that camera and took a roll out and put in his pocket, but I wasn't sure if it was of the same pictures that I had lost in the black and white roll. The wedding was on Friday, and Saturday morning I was at the lab waiting for the rolls to be processed. You can't imagine the relief when I saw those pictures on the negatives. Leason learned. I never take my bag off during the wedding. I mean I wear that thing around my shoulder and neck for 8 to 10 hours sometimes. At least there is no way for me to leave it anywhere now...
There is one more thing I would mention. I don't think we can stress enough to our brides the importance of having the flowers there in plenty of time for pictures. There has been several times where they didn't get there until 30 minutes before the ceremony. It kills our pre-shots and our time. Yvette
When I was exclusively using film and I was using the Nikon F3's, I shot a very large family group pic in the foyer at the reception hall. I banged off about five or six flash pics and then the group started breaking up and returning into the hall. I looked down at my F3 and the flash sync had moved to 1/125. (The flash sync is 1/60 on the F3). I couldn't believe that I had just done that, even though the wheel was notorious for moving when it brushed up against my clothes. I was so shocked that I could not speak to call out that I needed; "just one more" or "let's do that one again" as I watched the happy group ahead of me leaving the foyer. Sure enough, the pics were no good. I later made it up to them by going to their next family gathering and re-doing the pic for free.
That was just as bad as leaving one F3 and Vivitar 283 flash on the bracket at a different reception and realizing it when I got home. I drove to the father of the bride's house the next day to retrieve it as I heard that he had taken it home for me when I was back at the reception hall looking for it.
We all do stupid things but it boils down to; "how fast can I recover from my mistake"?
One second shooter that I was working with in Chicago, left her bag outside as we were shooting. When we got back to the car, I asked her if she had all of her toys? She realized that she did not. We went back to the grassy knoll where we were shooting but the bag was gone. I felt bad for her but I did not know it was my job to keep an eye on her bag. I think for location shooting, you can keep a small kit in your shoulder bag or on your belt and not have to worry about putting it on the ground as you follow the bride and groom around.
Edited by williamkazak on Apr 11, 2007 at 08:15 AM GMT
I will be doing my first wedding, JUST AS A FAVOR... she doesn't expect anything special and I am not gurenteeing anything special. They can't afford a photographer.
I have a D80, but will be buying one more battery for. I hope two is enough (plus will bring my charger and charge if needed)... And then maybe two more sets of batteries for the sb600 flash. Seems like the battery thing you guys are drilling in Thanks for the tips... from your mistakes *smile*
Two things I remember. One time way back in my film days I rushed the wedding party over to a park next to the church to take some photos before we went to the reception. Then I was using a Mamiya 645 and a Canon a2. We were rushed to get to the reception but I had to get all the shots of the bride and groom switching back and forth with the cameras. Anyway I tryed to finish the shots of the Bride and Groom getting into the Limo and thought it would look cool to take photos of them with their heads out of the limo moonroof on the way to the reception which the shots looked great. When I got to the reception which was 15 miles from the park I realized I left my Mamiya on the ground by the limo at the park. Needless to say I never saw that camera again but thank God I had a lot of shots with the Canon.
One other Wedding I was shooting to many shots before the big kiss and because I was shooting RAW the camera froze up processing images right at the big kiss moment. Thank God for second shooters.
In one of my first dozen weddings I had just finished with the bride and bridesmaids, and sent them on their way, and while unloading my Hasselblad I realized that I had loaded the last roll backwards (paper backing facing the lens)!!! I was more than familiar with the gear, and had no problems with the previous dozen rolls, but I was in a hurry, and somehow totally screwed it up. I had to ask them all to return to reshoot the shots from that last roll. The bride was very understanding, but I was horribly embarrassed.
Late last year I skipped my normal back-up routine once, and the next day I thought that I had accidentally reformatted 4 gb of wedding photos. Turned out I hadn't, but it was a terrifying 30 minutes.
Hopefully the lesson I've learned is to pay attention to even mundane tasks, because there is where the stupid mistakes lurk.
These stories are GREAT!! Thanks to everyone for posting your experiences. Hopefully this thread stays alive for a while longer. I can only imagine that there must be thousands of stories left out there. Thanks again! I am learning tons! I hope everyone else is too. Happy shooting to all!
At an outdoor wedding last year, I locked most of my gear in my truck along with my keys (I didn't have an extra set on me like usual). It wouldn't have been too big of a deal, but it was in the mountains far away from a locksmith and on a Sunday morning.
Fortunately, I had two bodies on me, one with a tele and the other with a wide.
$150 and two hours later I had my keys and an extra set hidden in one of those magnetic keyholders.
I was photographing a wedding with a new flash. Flash came highly recommended on ShootSmarter.com, but I didn't have time to test it properly before the wedding. It fired about 3 shots, missed a shot, fired, missed and missed and fired all day. Dismal failure!
ALWAYS test your equipment properly before every wedding!
I sent that flash back to the factory three times! and it never did work properly. Even when it fired it was either way over or way under exposed! Metz 54. Finally just got rid of it!
But any photographer's worst nightmare came true way back in film days: 1982 I think. Without any way of telling, some internal malfunction had the flash synch off from the shutter on the Blad. NOT ONE PICTURE TURNED OUT! I could hear the shutter working; flash was firing -- just not together and too quick for the eyes and ears to tell.
You can imagine my horror when the lab called and told me ALL my film was blank!
It was a Looooonng time before I ever photographed another wedding, and then I always used two cameras!
mkweaver wrote:
You can imagine my horror when the lab called and told me ALL my film was blank!
It was a Looooonng time before I ever photographed another wedding, and then I always used two cameras!
Back-up is the key since things always go wrong.
I shoot weddings and events that are also fast and one chance shots that cannot be missed. I have had somewhat new flash units burn out ( two times under warranty ), flash cords stop working for no reason, flash units get stuck on the flash bracket which was part of part of the flash cord mess, CF cards that just start recording really really slow and need to be removed and replaced, a lens that the AF goes out and new set of batteries (12) that are all defective and did not hold a charge.That battery issue was during a magazine location shoot, and all I needed was one photo...one very hard to get photo worth as much as many weddings.
A Second Charger is also a Must Have! for Camera and AA batteries.
All shots saved by a second camera ready to shoot on my neck at any paid wedding or event. Sure some were not perfect as the first one would have been but good enough for no one to know about the problems. 3rd backup is usually in the car just in case.
Wow, these stories of stolen equipment make me so glad to be in Vermont (even though the bride's are poorer). I've left cameras behind several times and they've always been safe-gaurded and returned. I was skiing at Lyndon Outing Club (my local ski hill) and my 50 mm fell out of a ski pocket (designed for easy access, not holding on to things) TWICE. Both times someone came up and tapped me on the shoulder to see if I'd lost it! But the biggest return I've ever experienced here is that my husband had $1600.00 cash in an envelope with no name on it and he set it down on a counter and went out to the car. When he realized he no longer had the envelope with cash in it he went back into the store and was looking around. The lady behind the counter said "what are you looking for?" and he told her and she produced the envelope with all the cash that someone had turned in to her. Unreal.
I know a local photog that had this happen too. Turns out that the body of his MF camera was cracked and ruined all the film he shot that day. Fortunately, he's a PPA memeber and they paid to re-enact the wedding which included flying everyone back from all over the country, tux rentals, etc. I joined PPA shortly after he told me this story, just because of the errors and omissions policy.
Good thread to start.........
I had posted this on another site last year, but will share it here,,,,,,
As the bride & her father were getting ready to come down the isle i got in position to take the shots
i flipped the flash up to the vertical position and it broke off of the bracket and was hanging down like a yo-yo.
fortunately for me there was enough light in the church to get some decent shots as i had asked them earlier to walk slow as they were coming down .
. Has happened on more then one occasion. I catch it now. It's a great excuse for me to pick up the Mark III 