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During this past week I traveled with my family to celebrate the wedding of my nephew in Honolulu. In this blog, I want to detail what I look for in a wedding as an Uncle photographing the couple, the families, and the event.
First, I try not to repeat what the pro photographers are taking. No pre-wedding bride/groom images, no altar returns, and finally, what most people don't do, no bride coming down the aisle. Now pro photographers need to focus on the bride. The wedding is all about her, and many times she or her family are paying for the tab. Bad news if the pro(s) didn't center on her--and the print/image sales would be decimated.
However, what do I concentrate on, as a family member? How about the groom, you know the "other" person who needs to wait while all the attention of the entire congregation, photographers and minister(s) focuses on the bride. There is a lot of emotion and feelings on the other end, but almost nobody notices. Except me. I've done this for quite a few weddings, and the grooms usually do not notice, until they see the pictures--and can then express what they were feeling at that time. Many grooms have complimented me that I did not ignore them.
The most important aspect for shooting the groom is the angle from which you take the shot. Trust me, nobody's going to squeeze you out of these angles. Just pick and choose. And wait. My angle was the first row of the Church on right-hand side.
In this typical wedding, the groom and his troupe came out at the beginning of the service and waited just outside the sanctuary.
This is when the full weight of the decision to marry becomes evident to him. That's when I start shooting. Oh yes, nobody's looking at him, not even the video camera & pro telephotos notice him. All the P&S cameras focus on the bride and her radiant, beaming face. So I missed her coming down the aisle--there would be 10,000 pictures of her coming down the aisle, so I figure what would be one more from me?
But for the groom, nobody took much of a picture of Steve.
As he explained right after the service, he struggled to get hold of his emotions, with his eyes swelling up, "trying not to lose it." He wiped his moist eyes multiple times, so I made sure I got at least one photo of his hand on his eyes (no hankie for him).
What do you see in the rest of the pictures, with his eyes?
Do you see the changes in his eyes as his bride reaches the santuary,
and he hurries to greet her and hold her and express his love to her by holding her hand to lead her to the altar.
Perhaps these weren't the most resplendent pictures of the wedding, but for at least Steve, he wasn't forgotten on his bride's long walk down the aisle. All in about 40 seconds.
BTW, all available light, as the Church rules specified no flashes.
After visiting Filoli for the past three weeks, it was nice to take a break. The Tulips there need another couple/few weeks to push through the soil, find the sun and show themselves.
So we had some time to visit our own garden, which, being in Contra Costa County, has more sun. Our daffs are just about gone, but our tulips went beyond themselves, announcing the Spring. The red tulips were gargantuan, beyond our high expectations. What fascinated me about them, however, was not the size, but the details of the buds. The reds flashed in the morning and afternoon sun. I tried light modifiers, but the splendor of the colors screamed for plain sunlight! Sometimes photography just doesn't get better than this.
I practiced my handholding techniques and found that if I just better concentrated--and didn't force any shots, my steadiness came back. By force I mean handholding a macro-lens 2 inches from a patient bug. I still shake for thing like that. But that's what a tripod is for. Other shots, when I was able to pin myself against the boards of the planter box, came out just fine. Hope to visit Filoli in the coming weeks, to show a parade of tulip colors.
Next Blog: TBD
Sometimes the weather just cooperates. Today was such a day at FILOLI, Lurline Roth's garden estate in Woodside, California. The coolness of a late February afternoon, with the sun behind the clouds, made taking images fairly easy. No flash or modifiers were needed. I purposefully did not bring my tripod; I wanted to practice my technique with my 80-200mm zoom. I placed the D200 mode on Shutter priority, so that I would take pictures at speeds I could hand-hold. Why do that with flowers, leaves and landscapes? I wanted to see if I could consistently hand-hold my camera rig for practice before an upcoming wedding ceremony in Hawaii next month.
Yes, I found out that if I kept the speed 1/125 and faster, placed my elbows into my body, and slowly exhaled as I shot, my pictures were sharp. Depth of field had to be controlled, of course. But I accomplished what I set out to do. More images can be found here.
We have been to FILOLI to take stock pictures for a year now. So it is nice to see how the grounds start off--as barren grounds, just before the plantings begin in March. Will be back there for the manicured patchwork of color that will sure to brighten my spirit.
Next Post: Filoli - A Week Later
I hardly ever use Nikon, because my equipment has worked in heat and rain and snow. I've grown accustomed to not worrying much about how much abuse the equipment can take, even though I sorta baby everything.
When I bot a Nikon D200, I also purchased a 2 year (additional) Warranty from Nikon. I don't know why I did it, because in general, Warranty plans don't plan out economically. But it was my first digital camera, so I plunged.
A few years later, I found dust on my camera, and the metering system tended to underexpose by about a stop. I sent the D200 back to Nikon under the Warranty. I didn't send it at the optimal time, being just before Christmas. Well, it came back 3 weeks/2 days later on January 5th. Now remember, the repair facility went through 2 major holidays, and I'm not a Nikon PRO. So given the holiday period, I was expecting the camera to be sent back in mid-late January.
Nikon exceeded my expectations.
Here's what I wanted: Dust Cleaned of my Sensor & Meter adjusted to Nikon specs.
Here's what they did for me:
Replaced Mode SW
Replaced Rewind Side rubber
Replace CF Cardholder rubber
Adjusted auto focu operation
Checked Meter Accuracy
Firmware upgraded
Replaced rubber grip
Checked image test
Checked meter operation
Adjusted exposure
The D200 was returned with all that I sent them, in much, much better shape.
Sometime is pays to pay more for exemplary service. Thanks, Nikon.
Next Post: FILOLI in February
