TWiP Weddings 054: Unplugged Weddings & Dealing with Photography Guests
TWiP Weddings 054: Unplugged Weddings & Dealing with Photography Guests
Wedding photography is comprised of once in a lifetime moments. Moments that happen in an instant and our job is to make sure those moments are captured for our couples. In addition to all of the technical aspects such as lighting, composition, & camera settings, photographers today also have to deal with another challenge – over-enthusiastic guests wanting to get in on the photography action with their cell phones, tablets, and SLRs. Today we’re going to talk about unplugged weddings and how we deal with well intentioned guests who sometimes make it harder to do our jobs.
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- Bruce: Canon 5D Mark IV
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Great show. I found myself nodding in agreement continually. This is a question for the next show and builds off this particular podcast … Over the years I have found myself at a couple one-photographer weddings where the person holding the camera was noticeably out of their depth: a college art school student with a new Rebel and a 3.5/5.6 zoom kit lens standing in the corner of the church lobby trying to figure out how to make the thing work. I suspect this happens a lot. As a professional commercial photographer should I offer to help? What’s the protocol for being helpful without Uncle Bobbing the situation? It’s kind of like being an off-duty cop – should you watch the crime go down because it’s your vacation? In this case a “crime” against one of the most important days of the couple’s lives. I remember viewing the images after one of the aforesaid weddings and feeling a little guilty about not intervening to help my friends get better images. Your thoughts? Thanks for a great show.
Meh, I’ve mixed feelings about it. I like the idea of educating the client so they know what to expect in their images, and show them samples of images with over enthusiastic guests. I could careless about cellphones, but selfie sticks I HATE.
I mean, if it’s photojournalistic wedding photography, let the scene unfold whatever it may be and embrace it. This is the current culture. In my opinion, the photographer can always deliver great pictures during the private session. Everything else is gravy. That’s me speaking as a client.
I like the education part, the restriction part, mmmm. The guest’s facial expression might be miserable if all they have in their head is “I need a quickie fix with my cellphone”. Let’s face it cellphone is an addiction. I’m also not a pro wedding photographer, so I’ll defer to the people who do it for a living and know what sells. Interesting discussion regardless.