Not long after reading
this post on Damon Coulter's blog, I was asked to photograph a wedding. Believing myself to be up to the job, I said yes. In hindsight, I should have said yes after a pause.
It's not that I mind working from 8 till 2:30 without a break, then dashing to my designer friends to download the data before the after wedding party. Neither do I mind the fact that they asked me because they knew me and hoped I would do it cheaper than the hotel (not difficult).
What should have made me pause for thought was knowing that they not only wanted snaps, but also wanted them for an album which I was to produce, and although I have taken a few nice photos in my time, even some that have made a passable series, an album is a series that you shoot in a day.
The wedding began with traditional dress, and the couple entered the dining room after a short ceremony and a studio shoot in the hotel studio (not me). The dining room is variously lit, the routes are set, the whole event is choreographed and despite having attended the planning meeting I got caught out on more than one occasion as the curtains suddenly opened to reveal the backdrop of Nagoya castle, or the lighting suddenly changed and so changed the light settings I was working with.
This would have all been routine for the hotel cameraman who must have done the whole gig a thousand times, but not for yours truly. I woke the next morning with the unnerving feeling that too many of my shots were badly lit, too many had been out of focus and the album would be a no go. I dashed round to see the designer who I have worked with before and sure enough many of them were. The album, however, seems to be a goer.
I found myself lacking in many ways that day, but it was experience, and as a friend said before the wedding "well, it's digital, so you'll be o.k". What I have working in my favour is Atsuko, the designer, who like professor Dumbledor will provide the phoenix (photoshop) that will cry on my wounded images. Oh, and there are also some shots that stand on their own.
There he sat in Central Park plaza as I was walking by, and it felt like an intrusion to scoop him up in my digital eye.
The wedding began with traditional dress, and the couple entered the dining room after a short ceremony and a studio shoot in the hotel studio (not me). The dining room is variously lit, the routes are set, the whole event is choreographed and despite having attended the planning meeting I got caught out on more than one occasion as the curtains suddenly opened to reveal the backdrop of Nagoya castle, or the lighting suddenly changed and so changed the light settings I was working with.
This would have all been routine for the hotel cameraman who must have done the whole gig a thousand times, but not for yours truly. I woke the next morning with the unnerving feeling that too many of my shots were badly lit, too many had been out of focus and the album would be a no go. I dashed round to see the designer who I have worked with before and sure enough many of them were. The album, however, seems to be a goer.
