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Articles and Reviews
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Wedding
Photography Diary 2004 Finished off my last wedding of the season yesterday. Unlike the others I’ve worked on this year, this one was a solo gig of me being “da man.” For the others, I worked as the second/backup photographer. My friend that I shoot for said I was crazy to do a full day wedding solo, but I’ve always done my own gigs solo and it’s only been recently that I’ve taken to even having an assistant with me. It was a 12 hour day and after everything was said and done, I shot off 20 rolls of 35mm and 3 rolls of 120 medium format. The breakdown is as follows:
Equipment used were:
All equipment stored in either the massive Lowepro Pro Roller 3 (medium format) or the Lowepro Omni Trekker case (35mm). Additional equipment of 200 w/s strobes, light stands, cords, and numerous odds and ends were also brought, but not used. At the beginning of the week I was fretting about not having my usual assistant available to help me out during the day. My cousin had a day job and wouldn’t be available until the evening. Phoning up some other young cousins also saw them busy – what, give up working for me like a mule and making slave wages isn’t your idea of a fun way to spend a Saturday, where are your priorities man? My wife volunteered her services to assist me and bonus was that I didn’t have to pay her. Less you think I cheaped out on my wife, I do pay her Visa bills you know. So,
with my assistants taken care of, my wife during the day and my
cousin at night, I got my equipment sorted out to cover what I might
face for the shoot. Being a mid-November wedding presents challenges
for wedding photography in my part of
The groom and I were tracking the weather forecasts at the beginning of the week and we were not encouraged by the call for rain Friday and Saturday, but as we got closer to the day, the forecast tightened up and become more focused as calling for rain on Friday night into Saturday morning, but all day Saturday would be free of rain with even a possibility of sun. Since the wedding was in the early afternoon, we were starting to look good. If we did get rained out, I suggested that we forego the group photos that are so important to a Chinese wedding, until the banquet in the evening. Thus I had to haul my full kit everywhere we went because the strobes were with the medium format kit. I prepared for the worse, but thankfully, the weather cooperated enough to allow us to get the group photos after the ceremony. Didn’t see any sun, but overcast is just fine with me given the time of year we were at. As I type this up now, the day after, it’s raining steadily outside J On
Saturday morning, as I prepared to head out for the long and full
day, we had to rush to get the kids ready for their activities.
My middle daughter had swimming lessons and later that day my oldest
son would have his Chinese language school to attend. Arrangements
were made with aunts and uncles to look after them while my parents
looked after my youngest daughter, still too young to partake of
any activities. Then off to
My schedule had the ceremony beginning at 12 pm, as we pulled into the lot and parked by 11:20 am. I take a few shots of the chapel from outside, but curiously, the chapel is still locked, the parking lot is nearly empty and we see no guests, no bridal party, not a soul even though the ceremony would be starting very soon. 11:40 am, I know something is not right when the area is still empty and no chapel attendants have arrived to unlock the doors. I call up the groom and find out that the ceremony is scheduled for 1 pm. Hmm, thanks for the update. 12 pm, things pickup. Chapel employees have arrived to unlock the doors and setup inside. Guests start arriving and now the day begins in earnest for me. Meanwhile my wife is clucking at me for not firming up the timing, but I retort, what part of “What time is the ceremony?” is incomprehensible to a reasonable person. 12 pm to 12:30 pm, I’m taking some photos of the guests arriving and few more setup shots of the chapel inside. I didn’t even notice the bridal party arriving and slipping into the backroom of the chapel. Only seeing one of the guests with a camcorder going in clues me that someone is back there. I go in and take some candids and more setup shots of what I see. Surprisingly, both the groom and bride are there and I jokingly ask why the groom is there when tradition calls for him to not see the bride until the ceremony. He genuinely didn’t know about that and then starts asking about other things about the ceremony. I suggest that the bride’s veil should be down, so that when he finally takes her hand at the altar that he be the one to take the veil back and behind the bride. Just then the wedding commissioner arrives and the groom goes over the ceremony with him. I recognize the commissioner from the last wedding I photographed, which coincidentally, was also at Minoru. He looks somewhat stern and one would think that he would probably be one of those tough traditionalists that would limit what a photographer could do, but he is actually very good and even helps to coordinate the shots at certain parts of the ceremony. I shook his hand and thanked him at the end of the ceremony for a smooth running session. The commissioner suggests that we could begin the ceremony right away instead of waiting until 1 pm, which turned out to be a good thing for all of us given our time pressure for the Chinese tea ceremony scheduled for mid-afternoon. Civil ceremonies at Minoru follow a pretty standard pattern that fits within a 20 minute time period from beginning to end. Actually all civil ceremonies with marriage commissioners follow the 20 minute wedding ceremony with minor variations based on the individual commissioner. Minoru Chapel, while being a very quaint, historic heritage building, can present some challenges for wedding photographers. It’s small, so it’s intimate, but its smallness means having to get your shots in very quick succession because it has such a short aisle for the bride to walk down. Because civil ceremonies are so short, a single photographer has to hustle around to get the angles and ensure good coverage of events. This is where a good, accommodating commissioner makes life easy for the photographer in allowing free access all around. It’s not a license to be a jackass paparazzi, but I certainly appreciated having such flexibility. There are no balconies and the timing when working alone allows for no tripod mounted cameras for long exposures. Definitely not a Catholic ceremony that usually run for an hour, except the last one I photographed which zipped by in probably 30 minutes or so. 1:05 pm, I’ve backed my way out the door of the chapel with guests coming out as well, but no bride and groom. It seems the commissioner has held them back so that they are the last ones to exit, another photo friendly gesture, but actually just a way for the newly wedded couple to make a grand exit in front of all the guests. Since I’m the first out the door, my wife has been sitting patiently in our van waiting for the time to haul out the Pro Roller for me to take some group shots. She sees me and gets the gear for me at the location I’ve stipulated prior to the ceremony. I had a set location for the group photos, but changed my mind after seeing how wet the grass is from the morning rain. Thankfully, an enlarged walkway in the middle of a lawn beside the chapel serves as a great place for the groups to assemble without getting their shoes wet. It also allows me to keep the chapel as my background using my wide-angle 50mm lens on the Bronica; however, I did switch camera locations to mix up the background near the end of the group sessions. We work through the family and friends groupings and by the time we finish we have a scant 15-20 minutes to do a few shots of the bridal party. It was a good thing we did the ceremony earlier than scheduled, otherwise, we’d have done the groups and no more. For
the past week, I’d been sweating over how I was going to pose the
couple for their intimate photos, but as it turned out, other than
a few cursory photos of them together and solo, we just had no time
to stay at
2:30
pm, as it turned out, we could have stayed at the park for another
half hour because the groom’s parents would not allow the couple
into the house. Before you get the wrong idea, I was photographing
for a family that is very traditional for Chinese customs and beliefs.
While the civil ceremony was to legalize the union under the laws
of
Thus, the newly wedded couple could not enter the house until custom allowed, which meant 3 pm. This was the first and perhaps the only time I’ll ever hear a woman state categorically that she would rather not sit and wait inside a luxury Jaguar car. I kind of figured that someday my unassuming Mazda minivan might come in handy for a wedding shoot beyond just hauling my photo gear and so it was that my offer to let the bride cool her heels inside my van before her grand entrance into the parents’ home was most appreciated thanks to the higher seating compared to the Jag J My wife kept the bride and groom company while I waited inside and took candids of the guests. While the couple waited, the parents were setting up for the incense burning and offerings to Chinese deities and ancestors of the family. It’s a similar ritual to what my mother use to do for Chinese new year when I was growing up in Kamloops and about my only exposure to anything resembling traditional Chinese culture from the old world. But as I got older, those rituals became less important and soon forgotten thanks to greater assimilation into western society. Seeing how traditionally minded Chinese go about their rituals was an eye opener for me. 3 pm, the couple is finally allowed in the house and the groom hoists the bride in his arms and carries her in and up a short flight of stairs. I’m glad he ate his Wheaties, because he just barely made it up J While I’ve seen and even participated in enough tea ceremonies to know what to expect for photos, I was very surprised when the bride and groom were called into the kitchen to eat a meal. This is another tradition, for the immediate family to sit down and eat a quick meal, as if no one else were around them. It was a surreal moment for me as I took a few photos of this moment because not only was I there to document it, but some other relatives were also taking photos and videos and meanwhile a house full of guests were also eating, drinking and chatting away as if this were nothing special. Earlier, the bride had been called into the kitchen to stir a pot of broth or soup, a passing of the ladle so to speak from the mother-in-law to the new bride. Another Chinese custom I had never seen until the previous year, when I had photographed the groom’s cousin’s wedding (hence my referral for this one). Thoughts of how integrated and assimilated my family was for western culture ran through my mind, but in the years since my parents moved to Vancouver, they seemed to have picked up on some of the old world customs again thanks to some coaching from my in-laws. I also
missed out on seeing and doing all of this because my wife and I
did a very non-traditional elopement to
Buying a roasted pig is part of a traditional Chinese celebration, but I assure you I knew nothing of this ritual until after the fact and if I had, I would not have liked the idea of hauling a freshly roasted porker in my car. While we did not have a pig when my son was born, my wife insisted on buying them when our daughters were born and let me just say the smell is quite piquant when the pork is sliced up. Needless to say, I don’t eat Chinese roasted pork J 4:30 pm, the tea ceremony is finished and I’m off to pickup my cousin, who will take my wife’s place as my assistant. At his place, I get a few minutes to sort out the equipment again, do a film count and prepare for the dinner. 5 pm,
we’re on our way to the restaurant in downtown
5:20 pm, we arrive at the restaurant, one that I had never been to and am very pleasantly surprised by the spaciousness afforded us even though there are some 20 tables to accommodate almost 200 guests. Often times, Chinese restaurants pack the tables in tightly to cram as many tables into a given space as possible, so to see something that does not follow the norm is a surprise. This is important because it means I can move around the tables quickly and unimpeded to take photos during certain moments of the dinner. Some guests are already on site to decorate and place thank you cards at each setting. Cards that had been designed and printed by yours truly as part of the package and incorporating Chinese and English text with a scanned image. We
set down my equipment along the back wall, out of site of most guests
and I bring out enough film and equipment to see me through the
night. I have everything with me from medium format, to strobes,
to light stands and tripod, in case the couple wants to do more
formal photos during the dinner. It was also my insurance incase
rain prevented us from doing photos after the ceremony in
I tried something a bit different this night by incorporating a second off camera flash on a monopod held by my assistant. It’s my oldest SB28 flash with the Nikon SU-4 wireless TTL slave adapter. Thanks to the low ceiling in the restaurant, I can use this off camera flash as a bounce instead of as another direct flash onto the subjects. My goal to is to achieve a good mix of direct onboard flash from the camera with soft, bounce light adding some fill. I know that this off camera flash will be set off by other flash units going off besides mine, because the SU-4 is optical wireless, not radio or infrared, but I figure the SB28 will recycle fast enough for my use. I also kept its use to moments when I would generally be the only one photographing, such as when the bridal party and family go table to table to toast the guests and when I also did another table by table photo session with the couple only. While I expected the off camera flash to be fired by other flash units, I didn’t expect it to not fire when I was the only one photographing and with a clear line of sight from the SU-4 sensor to my on-camera flash. It was probably just a case of the SU-4 being at just the right angle to not see my flash, but it was a minor annoyance when my cousin told me his flash didn’t go off. Since I regarded the SU-4 flash unit to be a bonus fill flash, I didn’t despair as I used normal settings on my on-camera flash. Definitely need radio controlled flash units next time around. Hmm, radio transmitters and receivers, or a new F6 and another SB800 for interference free flash control? Given the thinness of my wallet, I think I know the answer. Assorted games are played during the dinner, glasses and dishes tinkling for a kiss and I’m up far more than I’m sitting although I did manage a few pieces of the dinner here and there. For the whole day, I’m running on a morning cup of coffee, a couple of granola bars, a bottle of water, a couple of glasses of pop and a few bites of the dinner. However, I’m not feeling hungry at all and I got in enough liquids to keep me from feeling dehydrated. More than hunger or fatigue is the stiffness in the lower right side of my back, which is the side that I carry the second F100 with the 70-200 lens mounted. I’m feeling my age and good gosh I’m just barely approaching my mid-thirties. What am I going to be like when I’m nearing 50? Time for a get in shape regimen for 2005. 10:30 pm, the dinner is basically over with the guests wanting to leave. My day is nearly over with only a few cursory shots of the guests leaving to take. I take candids as I see situations developing. Thanks to the low, white ceilings, I’ve been doing a lot of bounce light shots to supplement the direct flash photos. 10:45 pm, I tell my assistant to gather up the gear and prepare to leave. I pack up everything except for one camera, lens and flash combo. Earlier, I retired the other cameras as I finished off the rolls of film in them, knowing the evening was coming to a close. I’m down to just the 24-85 lens as my primary. Throughout the whole day, it has been my most used lens, but as I worked through the day, I’m thinking that a 20-100mm f2.8 lens would have been so deadly as a standard zoom J 11:10 pm, I get the okay from the groom to leave. 12 am, I’m back home to shower up and eat my first real meal of the day. I sort the film, but leave the equipment for the next day. 1:30 am, I’m off to bed. Thus ends the 2004 wedding photography season for me. A day that went off very well and with enough rolls shot to ensure good coverage of the day’s events. 20 rolls of 35mm format is the most I’ve ever shot for a full day wedding, which will amount to well over 700 photos to sort through. I did a final battery check on the cameras after rewinding the last roll of film and I noticed the F100 that was used with the 24-85 lens is showing a half-depleted status whereas the 70-200/18-35 camera is still full, surprising since I used VR the whole time I had the 70-200 mounted. Some thoughts for next year, I really could use a third camera of my own and one that is of more recent vintage than the F70, which has limitations in handling VR and G lenses. However, its smooth and quiet shutter was nice to have. I really want that 17-35mm AF-S lens and do away with the old screw-driven 18-35mm lens. A few times I grabbed onto the wrong ring for zooming the lens. Some fast primes would also be great to have, especially the 28mm and 85mm f1.4 lenses for ambient light only photos. As mentioned already, gotta go with a real radio controlled flash instead of an optical based flash slave. Make the radio control TTL and we're rocking. |
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