A Run & Gun Opportunity
This past weekend I had the opportunity to try my hand at several different types of wedding photography. I was asked to make some marketing photos for Coastal Gourmet Catering at Latitude 41° Restaurant in Mystic, CT. The photos were to include shots of the event tent and function rooms and were planned to coincide with a wedding that was to be held on Saturday evening. I arrived early and was able to make the desired shots, all of which you can see on my flickr page here.
As a bonus I was welcomed to stick around for the festivities. This provided a great opportunity to practice event photography which I am beginning to like more and more. The weather was absolutely PERFECT and the space provided many different types of lighting (read challenges.) The bad news is I made A LOT of mistakes. The good news is I think I actually figured out how to go about fixing many of them the next time around. I know there will be new mistakes to learn from, but it is refreshing when, little by little, things seem to come together. I have always learned best by doing. The lessons from countless hours of researching various flash modes, equipment how-to and photography videos are filed away in the recesses of the mind as moments pass quickly and continuously by. If a great scene or image presents itself it’s not going to be possible to recreate it or stage it as with planned or studio shoots. These realities forced me to try a variety of different approaches in hopes of “capturing the moments.” The ceremony was held outside and having my 70-300 proved to be a wise decision; since the sun had not fully set at the outset I also added a Nikon CP-13 circular polarizer into the mix.
I made the decision to bring only one camera and since I wanted to capture both photos and video that meant shooting solely with my Nikon D90. I also brought along my 50mm f/1.4, Tokina 11-16 f/2.8 and Steadicam Merlin. I had to get the shots I had been hired to make first so that meant leaving the ceremony to get the shot I wanted of the fully prepared event tent and chefs while the wedding was happening in the background. (Next time I will make sure to get the vows!)
My main goal when doing any type of shooting, whether it be still or video is to try my best to capture the essence of the moment that is unfolding. In order to do this successfully, I am learning, there need to be an arsenal of various techniques available to be used at a moment’s notice. Apologies in advance to all the non-photography geeks out there, but this means to me that I need to work on such things as successfully employing rear-curtain sync (not used in any of these photos – OBVIOUSLY!… NOW I know why it’s needed!), using the right sync speeds, establishing a keen aptitude with pulling focus, choosing the right time to use dolly shots, incorporation of high quality audio and above all not giving up on constantly trying new things. You can see from this shot that by the end of the night I was bordering on ALMOST figuring out a couple of these techniques!
When it comes down to video editing I feel like it’s sort of like putting together pieces of a puzzle. I hope to have captured the footage I wanted and that it’s in focus where it needs to be (the Zacuto Z-Finder and new Nikon D7000 might REALLY help with this, not that I have any more room left on my wish list!), and when the results aren’t as planned then hopefully “happy accidents” might reveal themselves. For this video, the song I Gotta Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas, while having become the quintessential cliche wedding song by now, is actually what was playing during a majority of the video shots used. The on-the-fly “run and gun” style of video shooting employed here really appeals to me and I hope I get to try it again very soon.
You can see all my photos of the event here.
Until next time – CSH
