Why I don’t shoot weddings yet!
22 Mar 2011 Leave a Comment
in Business
My First Wedding Picture
In the course of reading one of the blogs I follow, I saw a post from an individual who was asking what lens they should buy so they could shoot weddings. The poster said that he had a Canon 50D with the standard kit lens. Now, the Canon 50D is a good camera and could easily handle the speed and the dimly lit wedding venues that one would typically run into at a wedding shoot but is it enough?
I am lucky that I have friends that know I am a photographer and will constantly refer different people to me. In the course of the last year, I have been requested to shoot probably 5 weddings and it pains me that each time, I have had to decline the opportunity. Not because they couldn’t pay enough or my schedule was full but because I realize that a wedding is one of the single biggest events in a persons life and that at this stage in my career, I am not ready either from an equipment standpoint or from an experience standpoint either.
Take for instance the individual that I mentioned when I started this post. He essentially said that he had one camera body and two lenses (when he purchased the new one). I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he also has one SpeedLite for working some of the post ceremony and pre-ceremony shots. Now, while I don’t ever want to discourage people from doing what they love, there are certain safety aspects that one needs to take into account for everything in life. Shooting someones wedding is a once in a lifetime (well, in today’s society that isn’t necessarily true) but their FIRST wedding is a once in a lifetime event and there are no do-overs. Working with only one camera by yourself is very risky. There are a myriad of things that could go wrong from a camera malfunction that renders the camera inoperable to tripping over the ring bearer and dropping your camera on the ground. Once that camera is done for, there are no backups and no other pictures get taken and in all likelihood, you are facing a lawsuit. Similarly if the lens has issues or your SpeedLite fails, you are facing the same albeit slightly less drastic outcome.
As of recently, my gear situation has improved. I have a fairly good main camera (Canon 7D) and a suitable backup (Canon 40D) in case I have a failure of the first camera. Additionally, I have a couple of fairly good pro lenses that I can utilize and two SpeedLites to give the appropriate fill lighting and flash needed for the portrait sessions. To be honest, I’d still like to have another high quality prime lens to round out my repertoire and perhaps upgrade my backup camera to the same camera I use as my main camera, a Canon 7D or even perhaps upgrade all the way to a Canon 5D Mark II and relegate the 7D to a backup camera at weddings. Even then, I consider my gear to be a the bare minimum for shooting a wedding.
The second portion of the equation that I mentioned was the experience. Hmmmm, I’ve been married, been to a few weddings and have seen a few wedding albums so that should be enough right? Honestly, I wouldn’t even attempt to shoot a wedding until I had shot at least 2 or 3 as a second shooter to an established professional. My reasoning is that weddings have ebbs and flows. It isn’t all constant posing and shooting with the bride and groom but there are plenty of other opportunities for making sure your gear is set up correctly to photographing guests as they come in. I’m sure I could layout a game plan and hit all the ‘major’ and ‘expected’ shots but to me it is the small things that make the wedding and I would hate to miss those by not knowing what to look for.
With all that said, would I begrudge our photographer that was mentioned at the beginning of this post the opportunity to shoot a wedding? Probably not. There are plenty of brides and grooms out there that simply cannot afford a higher priced wedding photographer. I would hope that our photographer would take a few precautions however. First of all, explain to the couple that you are just getting started and that there are inherent risks involved. Secondly rent a back-up camera and lens. There are plenty of rental sites online ( personally prefer Borrow Lenses at http://www.borrowlenses.com ) where you can rent excellent gear to at least minimize any chance of problems. Finally I would hope that he doesn’t charge an arm and a leg. One of the reasons that he is in consideration for the job in the first place is that he is less experienced. Cover the cost of some time and the rental gear and then figure that you’ll make any money on appropriately priced prints.
Now, will I ever shoot weddings? In all honestly, I think that I will and probably within the next year or two. It will probably be on a limited basis to start. I also see myself more as filling the low end of the price option. Not because I’m not capable of shooting a higher end wedding but to me there is something about helping out a couple getting started that may not be able to afford all of the expensive trappings. Naturally, I’d have to make sure that I’m not just getting used by someone who just wants it cheap but truly needs the services.
