is this unusual???

mastertrinity

mastertrinity

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Luke
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a few weeks back my mate told me that his uncle was getting married and my mate thought he would ask me to see what i would say about taking the photos however i had to turn the offer down as i have only shot a few pics as a guest snapper at my aunties wedding.

next up is being offered that my step dads brother (my step uncle in a way) is getting married this year (or next year i think) and was asked to shoot but again i had to turn it down.

and lastly my moms friend is getting married and wondered whether i'd take the pics but again i turned it down.

now the reason i turned these down is due to lack of experience which leads to stress but to me its a catch 22, to gain experience to shoot a wedding you must shoot the wedding to gain the experience. has anyone else had this trouble?

i wass willing to shoot the weddings but i was going to be paid and i didnt want to be the only one to rely on the pics. if there was a three or four togs getting paid £50 for a few pics i would be willing to but i dont have the courage to do it on my own. is this normal? has anyone else been in the same position as me? what would you do? an i just being paranoid?

sorry for the overload of questions:p
 
This is why people are keen to act as an assistant or second shooter to an established wedding photographer. They then serve an apprenticeship with them, so the employers gets the return on the investment of training them.
 
or..... establish your technical competence by producing a portfolio of work that you do already (landscapes, portraits, architecture, candid, etc)

then, if you have the confidence to deal with groups of people and hustle them into groups (with the aid of an assistant) for the formal poses

and you've browsed the internet for tips, techniques (and practiced them)

and you buy/own sufficient kit to do the job

and you have warned the B&G that you are only an amateur and they are fine with it

then go ahead and shoot your first wedding.

My first was a small one for a friend (35 guests) the paid £150 for my time and bought a stack of pictures off me too.

I lost money on it because I had to buy a 50mm lens and I've spent £60 putting together an album/prints portfolio to show future clients (2 already - one tentatively booked).

Now I've bought a second body because the next one will not be for a "friend" but a "client". I also now have to buy professional indemnity insurance and Public liability insurance.

we all have to start somewhere and somehow - how you do that is down to you.

If you are nervous about it - I'd suggest asking a pro if you can tog as a second for nothing - but I would have a decent portfolio to show them to show you are not just messing around.

HTH :)
 
If they are asking and have seen your pics then its an opportunity but make them aware that your no seasoned wedding tog
 
mgdaviso said:
or..... establish your technical competence by producing a portfolio of work that you do already (landscapes, portraits, architecture, candid, etc)

then, if you have the confidence to deal with groups of people and hustle them into groups (with the aid of an assistant) for the formal poses

and you've browsed the internet for tips, techniques (and practiced them)

and you buy/own sufficient kit to do the job

and you have warned the B&G that you are only an amateur and they are fine with it

then go ahead and shoot your first wedding.

My first was a small one for a friend (35 guests) the paid £150 for my time and bought a stack of pictures off me too.

I lost money on it because I had to buy a 50mm lens and I've spent £60 putting together an album/prints portfolio to show future clients (2 already - one tentatively booked).

Now I've bought a second body because the next one will not be for a "friend" but a "client". I also now have to buy professional indemnity insurance and Public liability insurance.

we all have to start somewhere and somehow - how you do that is down to you.

If you are nervous about it - I'd suggest asking a pro if you can tog as a second for nothing - but I would have a decent portfolio to show them to show you are not just messing around.

HTH :)
Click to expand...

my moms friends wedding will only around 40 so that might actually be easy when it comes to organising. i have looked at tips and techniques i think the onyl downside is that i have no proper lenses, only a 50mm f1.7 and a 55-200mm. but i will be buying a 30mm f2.8 macro so i might be able to stretch that plus i already have a flashgun for use in dark conditions.

cheers youve really opened my eyes up and i might phone 'em and organise a client meeting.
 
I was warned never to do a friends wedding, but that said i helped a friend out last year as they were relying on just gathering copies of the guests photos together.

main lesson learnt is PLAN... draw up a list of the classic wedding shots and tick them off. I have seen some website provinding some great advice i wish I had read.

I enjoyed the candid shots throughout the day as these really added something extra to the album and I got a picture of almost everyone (small wedding) who attended.
 
Build up the confidence to do it, do a lot of research, and start on small jobs I'd say. I am no professional by any means, infact I am just a youngster in the same position as you. I'm doing a "cheap and cheerful" wedding later this year for a small sum of money, should be good practice and not too much pressure to get everything absolutely perfect. Start small and gradually build up the confidence! Then you need never decline an invitation again :)
 
Go for it!! As long as they know the position you are in, and they are prepared to put in a little prep - working out the shots they want, having you visit the locations with them etc then you should be fine.

I did the Sister in Laws wedding on my bridge only.

I took some at a wedding recently, and having just seen the togs shots, whilst there are some good ones, I reckon I could do better, and some of mine are way better.
 
Don't be fooled into thinking that a small wedding is easier, it takes the same level of skill to shoot 20 people as 200, and the same care needs to be taken.
Another problem with a small wedding is with less people to shoot you'll tend to get less photos, which may make it harder when putting an album together, it's easy to shoot say 1500 different pics with 200, but you'll soon run out of combinations with just 20.
Yes theres less people to manage, but you'll still get uncle albert and cousin george vanishing off to the bar or whatever, and now when you send someone to find them half your guests have gone.
Personally I'd avoid a friends wedding for experience, if it goes wrong you'll not only be in the ****** but you may well loose a friend or two as well.
 
I took about 300 pictures at Jon and Sandys wedding (35 guests) - once culled out I produced 180 keepers for them.

I used a 1.8 50mm and a stock 17-55 on my 450D. the thing I needed most (and bought) was a decent flash - it was a winter wedding.

As long as you give realistic expectations to the B&G and meet those, you can't go wrong.

Don't write the list yourself - get the B&G to write the list of "must haves" - then add your own based on your research....

I coerced a female friend to act as an assistant for the duration, she carried my tripod, stepladders and hustled the best man and chief bridesmaide to make sure everyone was brought to the assembly area for the "formal" pictures so it was done and dusted..... it worked well.

Its NOT easy, it is HARD work, it is STRESSFUL and it could POTENTIALLY go horribly wrong.

remember the 7 P's

Prior Preparation and Planning Prevent **** Poor Performance

so

prepare
practice your technique
visit the location
gather your kit
get some help (assistant)
Get someone to critique your current portfolio - does it need improvment before shooting weddings?
Do you understand F stops? bracketing? ISO? aperture? depth of field? use of flash?
Can you take charge of a group of people (without being overbearing)
Can you engage with them? make them relax and smile?
most importantly - know your camera and be able to (without thinking about it) switch ISO settings, change the shutter speed, adjust the aperture and do anything else without referring to the manual or having to stop and really think about it!
Shoot in RAW... it may save some of those shots you screw up.... :-)

think carefully about it - there is a lot more to it than just "snapping away" - but I am sure you have thought about that.....

EVERYONE has to start somewhere.
 
Hello, i would just like to add something. Firstly, if people ask you to take pictures (and its something you'd love to do) then why not give it a go. As others have said, maybe let them know you've no wedding experience, but show them some "other" pics.

Also, and this is something that spurred me on a bit, i have looked at other wedding photographers galleries online and i would say some of the pictures i have seen are nothing special.
In fact there was this one guy saying how important wedding photographers are and the amount of money he had spent on his kit... blah blah blah.... then when i awoke again i looked at some of his pics.....

PMSL he had a lovely picture of the bride and groom, perfectly focused with..... a chocolate bar wrapper on the foot path in front of them....

I was gonna send him an email, but i thought, no, he knows best.... :)

There are lots of young couples on "budgets" these days, maybe use this to your advantage until you have it off to a tee. (Thats what i'm doing!!!)

Good luck and dont be afraid.
 
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