Wedding Photography Notes

I was lucky enough to be part of a wedding shoot of an officemate. She was too busy thinking about a lot of things for her wedding (if you are getting married get a wedding planner to make it easier) that she missed booking a pro photographer for her wedding. The photographer would have been Carlo Cecilio of ImagineNation who also happens to be a good friend and also the one who did splendid photographs of our wedding! If you are into weddings getting Carlo or any of the photographers of Imaginenation is one of the Best things you can do for your wedding!

Now back on my musings. During Joy's wedding I was given two days notice that I'll shoot. Given the poor camera equipment rentals availability in our country, I was again down with my trusty Canon EOS 7D, 17-50 f/2.8, 50mm f/1.8 & 580exii speedlite. Here are some of my realizations during that wedding.

(1) Do a prep (notes in prenup) would definitely work! Weddings and prenups are quite alike in terms of pre-planning. But things get so different on the wedding day itself. Check your equipment, check the venue.

(2) Know the parts of a wedding! All things happen so fast that you have to be ready, there are no retakes here. I MISSED a lot of shots as I was talking with guests, and the sister of the bride! (A bad thing if your tasked to shoot weddings!) I guess one of things to make this right is get the program flow of the wedding and attend weddings! Also write these down on a notebook and bring this with you! If you haven't attended a wedding in your life, ask the wedding coordinator!

(3) Like what I said on (1) things are different during weddings. There may be restrictions in the church like no flash allowed, upto where the photographers will be. Get to know these things before hand. This also left me shorthanded during the wedding since I was down to my 17-50 where a 70-200 is very very appropriate for closeup shots of the couple.

(4) If you have a friend who does weddings as his bread and butter, ask questions. Better yet if he is open to it, work for him as an assistant. One of the best ways to learn is to have a mentor. When I realized that I had so many things to learn as well as the mistakes I did during the shoot, I consulted with my brother(he is not a pro, but has worked in countless weddings as backup photographer and assistant). I also asked a friend that if he can spare some time that I'd work as his assistant, and I won't mind if all I have to do is lug around gear, hold the strobe or hold that reflector. In the exercise I know that I will learn by observing the pros.

(5) Here in the Philippines there is such a thing as "Fifty-Peso Wedding Photographers", well I name them as such because they crash into weddings, take picture of everyone, print in the nearest photo printing lab and sell the pictures ranging from PhP 50.00 - PhP 100.00 a piece (That's 1 USD - 2 USD per photo). I really bear no ill will against people trying to make a living but there is such a thing as courtesy in weddings, most of these photographers take pictures in front of the wedding march, literally at the middle! 

Watch that lady photographer in yellow
Take notice on where she is and what she's wearing

And when they have the pictures printed they either peddle it outside the church or they would go around while the ceremony is ongoing, pictures in tow looking for the people photographed and asks for payment for services they weren't asked of. My only thing against them if you're the wedding photographer is that they don't care about you, they would literally go infront of you and block your view. So there goes.