ANATOMY OF A PHOTO SHOOT

An in-depth look at a recent wedding photo assignment that I undertook

The object of this post is to give you an insight into a recent photography job I was engaged for in North Devon.  From beginning to end this booking took the biggest part of 5 days and a lot of local travelling.

Wednesday evening

The bride to be had invited me over to her house for a coffee and a last minute chat about the “big day” and what was the basis of the plan.  Fortunately I had been given the information that the florist was going to be there and that she would be working with the bride and chief bridesmaid on the floral designs.,

I arrived at approximately 7.30pm and almost immediately began taking photographs, the bride looking stunning in her pink dressing gown, pyjamas, pink rubber gloves and with her sunglasses perched on top of her head.

The room was a blaze of colour with all the beautiful flowers and the air was heavy with the aroma of the flowers and greenery.

I took several photographs with my phone to get a feel for the atmosphere and colours then began with the camera – a mix of shots with both the standard and telephoto lenses gave an interesting combination of images.

Some two hours later I left the venue and headed home.

Thursday

Today was spent checking and editing the 120+ photos from the Wednesday shoot.  They were then compiled into a file ready to be put into their own online album and sent to the bride after the wedding itself. 

Once this had been achieved it was sort the camera time…………. Lenses cleaned, external body cleaned, internal mirror cleaned.  Both batteries fully charged, phone fully charged (my back up camera in case of camera problems) and lens cleaned.  Tripod sorted (just in case I needed it!)

Friday Morning and Afternoon

The bride and chief bridesmaid were being picked up from the hotel at approximately 11.45 to make their way to the wedding venue so I arranged to get to the hotel at 11am and take some preparation photos. 

As it transpired things were running a little close to the wind time wise so we ended up simply taking photographs of the bride and bridesmaids in the hall of the hotel, a couple in the lounge and 1 in the garden.

It was in the garden that panic set in – my camera screen went black, the shutter would not operate, the preview image function was not working, and I did not know if there was a power failure.  So I took the battery out, left it for a few minutes and replaced it, the lens motor ran and then stopped.

Now I was really panicking………………

I removed the battery a second time and waited.

I replaced the battery and the camera burst back into life!  I still have no idea what caused this situation but we were back in business.

Time had been marching on and as I drove out of the village the wedding car passed me going to pick up the bridal party.

I now had about 25 miles to drive to the wedding venue, a town to navigate around and only an hour to do it in.

Isn’t it strange how whenever you are trying to get somewhere in a hurry all the traffic appears to be on a go slow and drivers decide to stop in the middle of the roads for no apparent reasons, traffic lights always appear to be against you and so on?

Anyway, I made it to the venue just prior to the coach that was bringing the groom, best man and the first of the wedding guests.

I met and spoke with the Registrar who apparently remembered me from the last couple of weddings I had done that she had officiated at.  She took me to the room and ran through the procedural issues although she said “I am sure you have done enough weddings to know this anyway”

There was then just enough time to grab some photos of the groom and the best man before the bridal party arrived and I had to divert my attention to taking their photographs.

Time to head up into the ceremony room for a few quick shots of the gathered throng, the groom and chief bridesmaid before the bride and her step father arrived at the door.

I took photographs throughout the ceremony and finally I made a quick dash downstairs to take the outside shots including those of the happy couple getting into the car.  I then began the dash back the 25 miles to the village and get ready to do the bandstand shots before everyone arrived.

When the bride and groom arrived at the bandstand there had been a change of plan and it was just a few photographs of them and then to the reception to take the group photographs in the beer garden.

I had an hour to complete those photographs before my parking time expired.  Fortunately the group shots went well and with a little bit of artistic direction provided by the chief bridesmaid the shots were “in the can”.

Now it was back home and a quick download of the photographs I had already taken, a quick selection of 20 images to go onto the iPad to show the happy couple at the evening reception.  A quick wash and brush up followed and then it was time to head off again back to the reception.

Friday Evening

I arrived at the reception venue at approximately 7.30pm and spent the next 3 hours photographing guests, the buffet table, the presents and another 100 plus photographs later we made our way home and collapsed in a heap.

Saturday / Sunday and Monday

All photographs reviewed and the wedding images placed into an online album first.  This was sent over to the bride by Saturday evening.  The album of the evening reception followed mid afternoon on Sunday and then the flowers album followed early Sunday evening.

On Monday I had to take one image to the photo printers to have an enlargement made and framed and tomorrow (Saturday 28^th May) I will be collecting that framed print and delivering it to the newly weds after they arrive home on Saturday 4^th June.

To contact Moonshadow Media 

call - 07050 644101
email - moonshadowmedia@mail.com