First time was in 89 and now hardly a week goes by and every time swear up and down...
Then there was the time I basically had no clue at all what I was doing. That was maybe the first dozen times - and having the arrogance to take the money and hope they are in the next state before they see the proofs.
Basically - the way to become capable is likely making a mucky dugout of things often enough that all the cream starts to ooze.
I shot my first real paid wedding (non relative, but a friend) and was shooting with 2 cameras. I removed a full 2 gig card and placed in a 1 gig in one of the cameras. A few days later, I was shooting a sporting event and formatted the card. I thought I backed them all up...but I had missed that one. The images: The reception; cake cutting, toss, etc...
That was hard trying to explain that to the bride.
The biggest mistake that happened to me was when the entire wedding was shot, finished and over, and somehow, the CF card was empty. The kicker is that it was my wedding, and the photog somehow managed to lose every picture. That photog has since become a pretty good friend and lets me tag along to events he shoots, and even pays money as well. He says he just needs to make sure there will be some images for the customers, regardless of whether they are good or not.
As for the worst situation; I was shooting with the above mentioned photog, me as second shooter of course, and 20 minutes or so after I took a fantastic candid of Uncle Hiroshi at the reception, he had a heart attack and later passed away in the evening. It was really hard to PP those pics with him in them...although at least, at the end, he was having a good time.
My first big scare was today...
A baptismal shoot...about 1 hour long..
Cathoic style..thank God it wasn't a Greek Orthodox ceremony..
I forgot my 20D batteries at home and had only 1 Bar left on the current battery in the 20D. I was freaking out..
Thanks God these batts. last so long.
And it has been at one bar for a while..
Well it lasted and then some...
fiouuuu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I shoot a lot less photos for a Catholic baptism ceremony than a Greek one..the ceremonies are so different.
Passed by home before going to the reception...to pick up the darn batts. I had left on my desk.
That was a close one...
RedWhiteandRed wrote:
Don't sleep with the maid o' honour.
First time was in 89 and now hardly a week goes by and every time swear up and down...
Then there was the time I basically had no clue at all what I was doing. That was maybe the first dozen times - and having the arrogance to take the money and hope they are in the next state before they see the proofs.
Basically - the way to become capable is likely making a mucky dugout of things often enough that all the cream starts to ooze.
My biggest 'mistake', thank goodness, was shooting some portraits at an event with studio flash at ISO400. The thing to remember that even a tiny, tiny amount of stress can fuzz-up your thinking. I had no idea why they images were coming out so overcooked, so just dialled down the lights until they looked right. I never once thought 'check ISO' as I 'knew' I'd previously set it to 100, but somehow it was on 400. The pictures looked fine as I'd of course compensated, just with a very slight amount of pointless noise.
Just a few weeks ago I had an engagement session at the Malibu beach and I prepare my gear, two cameras, two flash units, my PW, 3 lenses, batteries etc.
I put all that inside an old bad (I didnt want to use a newone I had purchased a few days earlier) and when we got there I got my camera out with a 70-200 but,,,MY FLASH CARD WALLET !! where is it ohh sh*t At home!!! (50 miles away) and the nearest place to buy a FC prolly in Santa Monica is 25 miles away. OUCH!!!!.
I start lookiing in my old bag for a miracle and yes! I found a 2gig lexar card I had lost about a year ago and never fund,, WOW. it was really scary.
My biggest mistake so far was shooting a wedding for free.
I booked my first wedding for free. All the clients had to do was pay my exact cost for any prints or album they might want to order after viewing their proofs on the free CD I included. The one hope I had was to sell some prints to family members and friends. Knowing this, I put a clause in the contract stating that the couple was only allowed one print of each photo at cost, (knowing they would take advantage of my good nature and order prints for family and friends at cost).
Out of the 275 proofs I presented the couple, they ordered 300 prints. Yes, you guessed it. They had ordered four and even five of the same photos in 8x10's.
I called the clients and very politely explained to them what was in the contract and why it was there. I offered to order the extra 8x10's for half price, ($10.00) each. They declined.
I never sold a single print at a profit.
The moral of the story is - people don't appreciate being given a break or something for nothing. Deep down inside they would prefer to pay too much or be ripped off.
About 5 minutes before the B & G were to arrive to begin the photos I crouched down to get a low angle shot of the ceremony site, and my dress pants tore open like a balloon exploding. I used some black electrical tape to try and close them up so my bright, white underwear wasn't showing. Fortunately it was a short wedding. Now I buy extra strength "action" pants, wear black underwear, and keep a pair of back-up pants in the car.
takurpic wrote:
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 locked mine up while changing a set of batteries in front of the bride's house. We were leaving to go to the facility when I discovered my mistake. There was no calling a locksmith and I had to have the rest of my gear for the wedding. The bride's brother took a very large rock and broke out my back window for me. I was very embarrassed, but I was not going to let this hold me up. They were impressed enough at my persistance that I did the other sister's wedding the next year. When she emailed me, she said that she would get me a lock box for my keys.
Oh man, I just had a horrible experience that left me reeling for a few days. A couple hired me for their wedding very last minute, but I accepted the job and was excited about it. I was happily shooting away during the ceremony when my camera was blinking CF CARD FULL. I started to panic, but realized I must have shot more than I thought I had. I motioned to my assistant to bring me my other card. Relieved, I kept on shooting only to have my camera give me the same CF CARD FULL message. I panicked. They were about to step on the glass and have the first kiss and I couldn't just clear the whole card because I had shot already on it. I realized I hadn't formatted the card since my last shoot, which was a total amateur mistake. Luckily I cleared enough photos to capture the glass breaking and the kiss. I made the photo of the bride stomping the glass my background on my computer for the next week, just to remind me I DID get the shot, I just got it with a extra stress as a bonus. I learned my lesson!
La Luz, I did that once! It was a particularly stressful wedding, and towards the end of the reception I couln't figure out why I didn't have more room on the cards, and had to chimp away some images to have room to get the leaving in a limo shots, and when I got home I realized there were old images . So, now of course, I always double check that the cards are empty.
I left gear on a picnic table after an e session, realized it hours later, and it was still there. Neighborhood teenagers were playing basketball right by that table. Restored a little of my faith in human nature.
Once put a thermos of coffee inthe same bag that held my first DSLR. Idiot! The coffee spilled, camera got wet, and stopped working a few shots into the formals. Smooth as silk, I said, excuse me, while I grab my other camera (a film Elan) and kept on shooting, but inside I was a mess! Had to run to a store and buy more film between the formals and the ceremony. The digital started working again a couple hours later, but I still used the film camera for the ceremony, as I didn't trust it.The couple had contracted for digital files, so I had to have all that film scanned and put on CD, and I was cheaper those days, so it really ate into my profit. They've thrown a lot of work my way since then, so it turned out okay, but I would never want to live through that day again.
Without rehashing a lot of the mistake other's made, here's another one to add to the mix:
I was using the ExpoDisc to get some white balance shots before the ceremony. For those that don't know, you need to take off the auto-focus during that shot. Well, I forgot to take turn back on the auto-focus and the first few shots were lost before I realized what happened. The problem was that just by quick chimping, the shots looked clear. Of course, on the computer, they were just blurry enough to be unusable. Lucky for me it was only about a dozen or so establishing shots.
ohh sh*t At home!!! (50 miles away) and the nearest place to buy a FC prolly in Santa Monica is 25 miles away. OUCH!!!!.
