PBPhoto

So I was an assistant at a wedding recently.  A second shooter if you will.  As I've said before, my friend Mark Morgan and I have found that shooting a wedding with two photographers is a must these days.  Not only is the stress load on either photographer reduced but the end result is better.  A second shooter is able to look for and get angles that the primary can not.  I believe the customer is more pleased with the results.

Photographing weddings has taught me to think more on my feet photographically speaking.  Situations arise that were not expected and you just have to get the shots.  Using whatever light is available and augmenting/replacing bad lighting. 

The lead shot above was lit by holding a strobe in my left hand bouncing it off of the ceiling.  The lighting is balanced with the natural light coming from a window and some of the fluorescent light in the room.

This one was shot using the same technique only this time I'm standing on a chair in the kids Sunday school room.  OSHA would not approve of my 230 lb. self on that plastic chair.


The ceremony itself is one of those "capture what you can capture" kind of things.  We set up lighting in the huge room and Mark was in control of those so I was shooting ambient light.  Here is the classic first look photo of the groom getting his first look at his bride.


I met the limo at the reception and was very happy with the sunset light here for this bridal portrait.


We snuck outside for some portraits during the reception.  It was overcast and started to rain, bringing our outdoor session to a premature close.  But we were able to get some nice shots.


I always capture some of the details from the reception.  Much time is spent on decorations so it is worth remembering.


The reception is fun I must admit.  For lots of reasons.  It is a blank slate in terms of lighting.  Typically the bride and groom don't care what you do during the reception.  So most of the night I used the technique describe above bouncing a strobe off of the ceiling but I set up another bare strobe somewhere else in room to provide backlight/rimlight of some kind to create some drama.  These shots are some of my favorites.

Here you see the key light from the right being bounced off of a beige wall, rimlight coming from the left from a bare strobe across the room.


This is just a great moment.


A loving moment.  Here you have the key light from my bounced flash balanced with the ambient lighting to create a nice effect.