Hot 'n' Sweaty!

You get to the point where you've sweated so much that your underwear is cemented to your butt cheeks.  That happened about 15 min into the shoot on Sat.  

We were at a mansion, and the couple wanted to do formals (formally posed photos) with the bridal party before the ceremony.  They started with a "reveal" when the bride and groom see each other in their weddin' getups for the first time.  The bride and her gals arrived in a limo that was roughly the size of a city bus.  The mansion has a windy gravel driveway, and the security guard told him he had to back in, or else he would get stuck.  This led to the limo driver doing a 900-pt turn.  

This one is a little overexposed, but I think I like those really hot highlights on her face.  

That's the correct exposure, still works.  

I've never seen a bridal party this large.  Seven groomsmen and eight bridesmaids.  I guess they were figuring that if we had to go to war with a rival wedding, we wouldn't be outgunned  

The temp and humidity were in the 90s, so everyone was bathed in sweat within a few minutes.  I had to get some napkins for the groomsmen to dab their brows, and the bridesmaids were on permanent powder duty for the bride.  The staff at the mansion kept assuring us that it would cool off after the sun went down.  That never really happened.  We did get a great sunset, but it was still hot after dark.  Also, the wedding was in a tent, and even though the sides of the tent were open, it still held the heat in pretty good.

Wedding colors were yellow and green.  Very summery.  The bridesmaids had yellow dresses, and the groomsmen had yellow ties and boutonnieres (thank you spell-check).  They did cupcakes with yellow frosting instead of a cake.  And the bride's dress was all sparkly.  (I should really learn more wedding terminology).

Hot and sweaty, but still dancing. 

The heat didn't stop anyone from dancing.  In fact, I think it caused people to drink more, which made them want to dance more.  I got pictures of a lot of sweat-soaked dancers.  I learned something interesting, that really should have been more obvious, about shooting in an open tent.  One side of the tent is closed, so if you shoot with that in the background, you get a boring white background, but if you shoot with the open side in the background, you get a great background with the sunset or whatever's outside.

White background.  Blah.  

Also, the DJ played "Poison" by Bel Biv Devoe.  I remember having a copy of it on vinyl.  Rupert asked me who sang it when it came on.  I said BBD.  He disagreed, so I asked the DJ.  She told me that I was right, but then quizzed me on what else BBD sang.  I had no recalled, but it was "Do me!"  Then I asked her to play "Funky Cold Medina" but she refused.  She offered "Wild Thing" as a consolation, but it's just not the same.

At the Yacht Club

I might use this for my business card.  100mm, f/2.2, 1/320

So I've been away from the photography for three weeks.  It was my own wedding (hooray!)  So there was the bachelor party the first weekend, the wedding the second weekend, and then we went on a camping "mini-moon" the third weekend.

But now I'm back, and just a bit rusty.  This wedding was at a yacht club, right on the dock.  Rupert's comment when he saw the dozens of 50 and 100ft boats was "How the other half live..."

It was a remarkably compact wedding, in terms of location.  The ceremony was on the dock, adjacent to the tent where the reception was held.  Friendly couple, friendly staff, enthusiastic family.  We were asked more than once if we wanted a drink or something to eat.  Dessert was tiny ice cream cones, first time I had seen that.

The DJ has a laser box, and he was concerned that it would ruin the photos.  It definitely appeared in a few of the shots, but nothing too distracting.

I try to walk away with 10 really outstanding shots.  I usually shoot around 300 at the reception.  I keep under 100 of those.  20 go on my website www.jamiecphoto.com and ten of those will turn into prints.

This one was on the lean side, but again, a bit rusty.

My Gear

This is on the 100 f/2 at 4.0.  Notice the sense of depth and clarity.  

Bodies:
Canon 50D
This camera is fast.  It has a high fps.  It provides excellent IQ, even at ISO 1500.  It is sturdy and heavy.  It feels professional in the hands.  The controls are responsive and the capabilities are extensive.  It is really the last of its kind.  In retrospect, I would have probably been just as happy with a 40D, but at the time, the prices were about the same.  Besides, the better LCD made it worth it.  After the 50D, Canon made the 7D, which IMHO was overkill.  I didn't need anything to shoot that fast, and I didn't need video.  Then, they made the 60D which was not really a professional camera.  Plastic body.  However, the articulated screen does allow for some new and different angles (on the ground, overhead).

Canon 5D - Gripped
Full frame.  You can't beat it.  The real-estate you get from an image is huge.  You can get a narrower DOF from a wide aperture.  Plus the lower interference the larger pixel provides gives it a nice image.  Holding it feels a lot like the 50D.  The shutter button has a weird "soft-touch" interface that doesn't click though.  The grip makes shooting vertically much more accurate and comfortable.

Same lens, but wide open.  See how it isolates the subject.  

Lenses
Canon 24-70 f/2.8L
Everyone will tell you, this is the workhorse.  If you only want one lens, this is the one to get.  24 is wide enough on the crop-sensor to get two full figures at close quarters.  70 is tight enough on the FF sensor to do some decent framing from a distance.  2.8 is fast and gives pretty good isolation of subject from background, but it won't really make a portrait pop.

Canon 100 f/2.0
This is a beautiful and under-appreciated lens.  It takes amazing portraits.  On a crop-sensor, it works like a long lens.  Remember, it is right in the 70-200 range.  f/2 really isolates a subject from the background.  The lens is small and light.  It is easy to control, and it focuses fast.

Canon 50 f/1.4
50 mm is the standard "normal" view.  It's neither telephoto nor wide angle.  What you see is what you get.  And since the manufacturer doesn't need to go to the trouble of magnifying or compressing the image, the lens can be inexpensive, small, lightweight, and provide a huge aperture.  Few lenses at this price offer this image quality.  It looks like the 100, but it's a little smaller.  Also, it doesn't have the Ring USM motor, so it doesn't focus as quickly or silently.  And it has a peculiar habit of focusing past the mark, then backing up.

Flashes
Metz Mecablitz 50 AF-1
AKA "the Spaceship."  It's a fairly large flash with what looks and feels like an indestructible housing.  Packed with features including High Speed Sync and 2nd curtain sync.  It provides great coverage and great light color.  Similar to the Canon 430, but a little cheaper.  I actually need to get a second one of these.

Sunpak PZ42X
It's a decent flash.  It does what it is supposed to do.  It provides strong output, and it's reasonably consistent.  It's lightweight and feels a little cheap.  It has an auto-sleep function that makes it turn off after 10-min, and the remote trigger won't wake it up again.  You have to flip it off and on by hand.  The power switch is a slider switch, and that's pretty useful for when I want to do a shot without flash, because I can turn it off quickly and easily.

Trigger
Yongnuo RF-603
This is a neat little device that acts as a a remote trigger for the flash, or it can act as a wireless shutter trigger. It will not communicate TLL info, but it does the job.  The TX goes in the camera's hotshoe, or syncs with the PC port.  The RX has a hotshoe, and it can also sync with a flash's PC port (if the flash has one).

Welcome and Introduction

I'm not in this picture.  This is from a wedding a few weeks ago.  Lovin' that green highlight.  

The purpose of this blog is to chart my path to stardom as I become a world-class wedding photographer.

Why wedding photography?  Good question.  Maybe I should start with "why photography?"

I've been taking pictures since first grade when my parents gave me a Fisher Price 110.  It was flat and blue with a yellow button and black rubber bumpers.  I particularly enjoyed taking the roll of film out and showing people. Perhaps that's why none of my pictures came out.

In sixth grade, I upgraded to a Minolta P&S with an electronic zoom lens.  I remember taking pictures of the heart at the Franklin Institute.

Then, in high school, I took B&W Darkroom Photography.  Not every HS has a darkroom, but ours did.  I borrowed my uncle's Nikon-F.  I did a lot of self-portraits and still-lives of chess pieces and shot glasses.  Something about the reflection and refraction of the glass.

In college, I studied English and Fine Arts.  My concentration in FA was painting, and again, I focused on the reflections and refraction in glass.  I began to pursue what I termed the "abstract and surreal elements in everyday life."  Fill a glass halfway with water, and look at it close up from many angles.  You will see crescents of pure white on the surface of the water.  You will see waves of greenish-yellow and navy in the edges of the glass.  The glass, transparent, is perfectly opaque from many angles, but only in certain places.

I also did a lot of self-portraits.  The human form, particularly the face, is eye-catching, and as a self-portrait, I had a model for a subject who was always available when I wanted to paint.

I picked up a Canon Rebel 2000 in college, and a cheap kit lens with crack in the barrel.  I hauled that camera and lens all over Europe.  I attached a film canister to the strap with duct tape to hold an extra roll of film.

I taught a darkroom-photography course at a summer program for gifted and talented students.  That gave me access to a darkroom.  I was able to use two enlargers simultaneously to make some really cool double exposures.  I put one friend inside a windex bottle, and pitted another against a giant squirrel.

Then I got a Sony DSC-W1.  That was sort of the death of my photography.  It was small, light and had few capabilities but a great deal of storage.  I took a lot of "snapshots" (I use quotes because I find that word insulting when referring to any sort of photograph with artistic intention).  I toted the little Sony around Europe and then on a bicycle trip across the USA.  Eventually, I replaced it with one even smaller and lighter.

Then, my mom got into photography and she bought a Nikon D90.  On a visit, I was explaining to her about aperture and shutter speed.  My wife, Emily, (then my fiancee) said, "if you know how to use a camera like that, why don't you use my DSLR?"  To which I replied that I didn't know that she had a DSLR.  But she did.  It was an original Canon Digital Rebel, which her dad, an early adopter, had bought for her.

So I started walking around Providence and shooting everything I saw.  Buildings.  Flowers.  Ducks.  People.  Mostly uninteresting stuff.  The images were aesthetically pleasing at best, but for the most part, quite boring.  When it got to the point that I had outgrown the lens, I picked up another zoom lens, and then a few primes.  When it got to the point that I felt that I really understood how to use the camera, but I was running out of ideas for photographs, I took a photography course at RISD.

The course really confirmed my suspicion that human subjects are always the most fascinating.  The most eye-catching and dramatic.  It followed pretty quickly that wedding photography is the best way to photograph the most people.  It gave me the opportunity to photograph people who generally wanted to be photographed, and they would pretty much ignore me while I was doing so.  Plus, it is a challenging environment.  The light is difficult.  The action is fast.  The etiquette is... specific, if nothing else.  And it has the opportunity to be profitable.

So, at the beginning of this season, I got in touch with a professional wedding photographer, a really outstanding one, and I began to work as his assistant.  I hold lenses and carry lights for part of the event, but for the rest of it, I'm free to shoot.  So here I am.  Building a portfolio.  Working on my technique.  Waiting to become a star.