Thoughts from a first wedding

ukaskew

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Chris
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A few samples from my first wedding...

http://www.chrisharrisonphotography.com/blog/2014/6/5/kim-john-may-30th-2014

After refusing loads of opportunities in the past my sister asked for help planning her wedding to keep costs down etc, so as well as designing and producing the save the dates, invites, seating plan, table names, place names and actually helping to set up (and take down!) everything on the day, I also took the photos.

Thoughts welcome on the photos, loads to improve on and several little things I wish I had thought of on the day, but overall I was pretty pleased (my wife said they were better than ours, which frustrated her a little considering what we paid!) considering I was also heavily involved in the day (i.e. no time for prep shots of either party) and had to be in quite a few photos myself! Absolutely loved the experience, I've never shot people at all before but I surprised myself by how much I enjoyed it.

In terms of kit my head said 24-70 / 70-200, but I love my Sigma 35mm 1.4 so took a brave pill and had that as my main lens, my 80-200 came out briefly during the ceremony and speeches. I could quite happily have shot completely with a 35mm 1.4/85mm 1.4 combo, so noted for next time (of which there is already off of the back of this)

I wanted to try the full thing for real, so delivered a Loxley box with 12 prints, memory sticks with full size files, and 6 discs (3 copies of the 250 'main' images, 3 with the DVD slideshow) as you can see in the last image, all of which was significantly cheaper to put together than I expected, all delivered in 7 days in time for them arriving home for their honeymoon. The main thing, I guess, is that the happy couple were extremely pleased with them as were both sets of parents.
 
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I reckon you did really well there, considering. In particular, that one of the kid sticking his tongue out is very well caught. If only the group behind him was evenly spread out (and you'd have been very lucky indeed if they were and you could frame them neatly), it'd be a competition winner.

By way of constructive criticism (for next time!), all I really have to say is try not to cut feet off in group shots. Oh, and try to get one up on a lot of pro wedding snappers by remembering that in a formal posed shot of the couple, the bride is always on the groom's left. The general rule on the day is that if she's on a bloke's right arm, he's her dad.

ETA - and if you're photographing a first shuffle dance when there's daylight coming in, make your life easier by shooting with the light rather than towards it.
 
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Thanks for the thoughts, really appreciated.

The feet thing was the main thing on my list to remember next time, as soon as I started working through them I had that 'ahhhh' moment!
 
Hi Chris. Really like your mono conversions and the one of the 2 blokes laughing is well captured.

A very competant and nice set all around and I bet the couple are over the moon!
 
I admire what you have achieved - as well as coping with all your other tasks you have also kept the stress under control to produce a very acceptable set. I have just done a similar event for my niece at her wedding - also to enable them to save a bit of money. I guess the pros will not be too happy and that is understandable but it is hard to refuse family .

I made similar mistakes, especially cutting the feet off in the group shots. Probably won't get the chance to rectify the errors because I hope that there will not be a next time .. until the grandchildren get married!
 
I guess the pros will not be too happy and that is understandable

I can't imagine why any pro should be the slightest bit bothered, tbh. If a couple can't afford/don't want to hire in a professional, that's fair enough, and ATEOTD surely any snaps are better than none :)
 
I have just done a similar event for my niece at her wedding - also to enable them to save a bit of money. I guess the pros will not be too happy and that is understandable but it is hard to refuse family .

I did consider this before posting here, but I guess everyone has to start somewhere, and I've not lost anyone business as I don't think it was ever in their thoughts to hire anyone.

For our wedding a few years back we managed to get pretty everyone's photos from the day, the album we've produced from that is actually as enjoyable to look back at now as the pros, so I think the plan was for them to just do that originally. Pretty common now, I think it's been 50/50 for the past 10 weddings I can think of whether they've actually had a pro, and 2 of them have never shown anyone their pro photos as they were distraught with them, I have to say that weighed heavily on my mind before-hand, even though this was a wedding gift for them!
 
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... I guess everyone has to start somewhere

Indeed. No snapper is born a pro. We all start from the same place.

And I was going to mention two or three cases I've known where apart from the group shots and arguably the posed couple shots, the couple got far better snaps from some of their guests than they did from the so-called pro they hired (one of whom was always touting his LMPA!).
 
I can't imagine why any pro should be the slightest bit bothered, tbh. If a couple can't afford/don't want to hire in a professional, that's fair enough, and ATEOTD surely any snaps are better than none :)
You are right to say that a pro did not lose work because the couple could not have afforded to commission a pro. Fair point.
 
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