The Amazing Sony A1/A7/A9/APS-C & Anything else welcome Mega Thread!

F/1.4 said:
Aye man. Video gigs are even worse with all the gear lol
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Aye right enough gimbles etc. The video guy we had at our last wedding was an older guy who has being doing video for 24 years. He rocked up with a couple of cameras he must have borrowed off the BBC. They where Sonys too actually even took E-Mount glass but Jesus they where massive. He was dead on his feet way before the first dance.
 
f/2.8 said:
Why do you stay to midnight you rocket?
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Because I want to, some of the best moments are towards the end. All these are taken after 10pm.

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I get a lot of "I can't believe you are still here", or "I have never seen a photographer stayed so late" or "My photographer left by now".

I've only ever done it 3 times.
 
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Raymond Lin said:
Because I want to, some of the best moments are towards the end. All these are taken after 10pm.

iQ6JxM6.jpg


eVCWJfZ.jpg


YOrcsJ5.jpg


jILhGiF.jpg


6IIrkH8.jpg


wiet8N1.jpg


I get a lot of "I can't believe you are still here", or "I have never seen a photographer stayed so late" or "My photographer left by now".

I've only ever done it 3 times.
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Would rather be in my bed and up early able to earn the next day.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Because I want to, some of the best moments are towards the end. All these are taken after 10pm.

iQ6JxM6.jpg


eVCWJfZ.jpg


YOrcsJ5.jpg


jILhGiF.jpg


6IIrkH8.jpg


wiet8N1.jpg


I get a lot of "I can't believe you are still here", or "I have never seen a photographer stayed so late" or "My photographer left by now".

I've only ever done it 3 times.
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You get a lot of questions like that after 10pm?? I have honestly never been to a wedding where the photographer was gone by that time
 
f/2.8 said:
Would rather be in my bed and up early able to earn the next day.
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It’s not all about the money for me, I treat it as a business but I also put the art and personal mission (if you want to call it that) just as high. I hate missing a shot so leaving early when the wedding is still going on really bugs me. (I also start when they start their makeup so 6:30am is not unusual). I take the motto of if I am doing this, I do it all the way, and I enjoy every minute of it.

I promised myself when I begun that I need to enjoy this (and I enjoy shooting the dancing in the end), I will do it on my own terms and I will charge accordingly,
and I am mad.
 
Raymond Lin said:
It’s not all about the money for me, I treat it as a business but I also put the art and personal mission (if you want to call it that) just as high. I hate missing a shot so leaving early when the wedding is still going on really bugs me. (I also start when they start their makeup so 6:30am is not unusual). I take the motto of if I am doing this, I do it all the way, and I enjoy every minute of it.

I promised myself when I begun that I need to enjoy this (and I enjoy shooting the dancing in the end), I will do it on my own terms and I will charge accordingly,
and I am mad.
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How many are you shooting a year Raymond, we are averaging 50 and then video on top. I cant imagine ever shooting like you do for them though if our numbers were smaller I'd stay later.

We usually stay for the first 25 mins of dancing ish.
 
F/1.4 said:
How many are you shooting a year Raymond, we are averaging 50 and then video on top. I cant imagine ever shooting like you do for them though if our numbers were smaller I'd stay later.

We usually stay for the first 25 mins of dancing ish.
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About a quarter of what you are doing.

And I also have a 9-5 job in the week too, doing graphic design and food photography.
 
Raymond Lin said:
It’s not all about the money for me, I treat it as a business but I also put the art and personal mission (if you want to call it that) just as high. I hate missing a shot so leaving early when the wedding is still going on really bugs me. (I also start when they start their makeup so 6:30am is not unusual). I take the motto of if I am doing this, I do it all the way, and I enjoy every minute of it.

I promised myself when I begun that I need to enjoy this (and I enjoy shooting the dancing in the end), I will do it on my own terms and I will charge accordingly,
and I am mad.
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I don't think it's purely about business for anyone. A few years ago I helped my brother set up his own business in a completely unrelated field, which does very well. I could jack in photography tomorrow morning and do what he does, or go work with him and more than quadruple my income overnight. But, I do this because I enjoy it and it works well from a lifestyle point of view for me and my family.

To be honest I am surprised you mention art, please don't take this the wrong way, but of the photos you have posted here I haven't seen anything from you in terms of your work that I would regard as art.

In terms of technique managing light etc. your work is good but not what I would regard as "art". Like a lot of wedding photographers myself included and I don't mean this in any sort of negative way a lot of your work looks very similar to everyone else's. I guess art by definition is in the eye of the beholder though to be fair and for me it needs to be something different. I don't think that there is anyone on this forum that is producing art as I would see it. I see a lot of great photographers though and occasionally even from the wedding guys you do see something different but then a quick look online at the sort of stuff that is being put out elsewhere and it's easy to see they have just copied ideas and styles from elsewhere.

It is probably easier for you with photography just being a side gig to work such unreasonable hours, but from the outside looking in that's is mental hours. Starting at 6.30 a.m and finishing at midnight, is just nuts. I guess you can get away with that though if you are only shooting a small amount of weddings and treating it as a photography day out rather than a job. How long do you think that you can keep that up for? I am in my 40's now and planning for what I do next, I wouldn't imagine I will still be photographing weddings when I hit my 50's. In an ideal world if everything goes to plan I won't be working at all.
 
f/2.8 said:
I don't think it's purely about business for anyone. A few years ago I helped my brother set up his own business in a completely unrelated field, which does very well. I could jack in photography tomorrow morning and do what he does, or go work with him and more than quadruple my income overnight. But, I do this because I enjoy it and it works well from a lifestyle point of view for me and my family.

To be honest I am surprised you mention art, please don't take this the wrong way, but of the photos you have posted here I haven't seen anything from you in terms of your work that I would regard as art.

In terms of technique managing light etc. your work is good but not what I would regard as "art". Like a lot of wedding photographers myself included and I don't mean this in any sort of negative way a lot of your work looks very similar to everyone else's. I guess art by definition is in the eye of the beholder though to be fair and for me it needs to be something different. I don't think that there is anyone on this forum that is producing art as I would see it. I see a lot of great photographers though and occasionally even from the wedding guys you do see something different but then a quick look online at the sort of stuff that is being put out elsewhere and it's easy to see they have just copied ideas and styles from elsewhere.

It is probably easier for you with photography just being a side gig to work such unreasonable hours, but from the outside looking in that's is mental hours. Starting at 6.30 a.m and finishing at midnight, is just nuts. I guess you can get away with that though if you are only shooting a small amount of weddings and treating it as a photography day out rather than a job. How long do you think that you can keep that up for? I am in my 40's now and planning for what I do next, I wouldn't imagine I will still be photographing weddings when I hit my 50's. In an ideal world if everything goes to plan I won't be working at all.
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Re Art...I think you had taken that way further than I intend to. No, it’s not fine art wedding but then isn’t all photography a form of art? The point in that sentence is about enjoyment of the job.

Well I don’t intend to shoot weddings into my 50’s either hence I have a desk job in graphic design, it’s 5 min drive from home and I get to go home at lunch time.
 
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Raymond Lin said:
Re Art...I think you had taken that way further than I intend to. No, it’s not fine art wedding but then isn’t all photography a form of art? The point in that sentence is about enjoyment of the job.

Well I don’t intend to shoot weddings into my 50’s either hence I have a desk job in graphic design, it’s 5 min drive from home and I get to go home at lunch time.
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For me no all photography isn't art. Like I said though art is in the eye of the beholder.

I used to have a 9-5 well sort of it was an 8.30-5.15 and I went home everyday for lunch, but it was in retail and I hated it.

Now I work as much or as a little as I want. I get to spend loads of time with my kids, I never miss a birthday, I only work bank holidays if I want too and I love what I do.

I can actually remember years ago talking in work with @F/1.4 about if things went tits up where we worked how we could just go into photography full time. :LOL:
 
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f/2.8 said:
For me no all photography isn't art. Like I said though art is in the eye of the beholder.

I used to have a 9-5 well sort of it was an 8.30-5.15 and I went home everyday for lunch, but it was in retail and I hated it.

Now I work as much or as a little as I want. I get to spend loads of time with my kids, I never miss a birthday, I only work bank holidays if I want too and I love what I do.

I can actually remember years ago talking in work with @F/1.4 about if things went tits up where we worked how we could just go into photography full time. :LOL:
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I love what I do too, both my day job and photography, and I get to shoot into the night which I also love.

We are all different and I don’t see any problem with that. I don’t expect others to shoot the same and I know full well most don’t, as I get those comments about staying late at every wedding from half a dozen people. It just makes me smile when I hear it.
 
Raymond Lin said:
I love what I do too, both my day job and photography, and I get to shoot into the night which I also love.

We are all different and I don’t see any problem with that. I don’t expect others to shoot the same and I know full well most don’t, as I get those comments about staying late at every wedding from half a dozen people. It just makes me smile when I hear it.
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Yeah you absolutely got to do what works best for you.

After we had photographed our first few weddings we got loads of well meaning advice from other well established wedding photographers around how to work, what to charge, how to market the business and while it was all good advice, pretty much none of it worked well for me. I only got some joy especially on the marketing side of things when I scrapped all of it and just did things how I wanted to do them.

I think every wedding photographer gets told by guests, wow are you still here, we certainly do and we don't stay anywhere near as late as you. That is mostly because old school wedding photographers only stay to the speeches/ fake cake cutting.
 
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f/2.8 said:
For me no all photography isn't art. Like I said though art is in the eye of the beholder.

I used to have a 9-5 well sort of it was an 8.30-5.15 and I went home everyday for lunch, but it was in retail and I hated it.

Now I work as much or as a little as I want. I get to spend loads of time with my kids, I never miss a birthday, I only work bank holidays if I want too and I love what I do.

I can actually remember years ago talking in work with @F/1.4 about if things went tits up where we worked how we could just go into photography full time. :LOL:
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Jeez man remember that. I went in yesterday man and not one thing has changed. Same s*** jobs being occupied by people that are wanting out but have no other option. Retail sickens my life
 
F/1.4 said:
Currys/Dixons/PCWorld

All retail jobs are hideous. I got sucked into management when I was about to leave and ended up there for the guts of 14 years. Pure s***hole
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Because I worked in B2B when anyone asked who I worked for I used to say Equanet as I was to embarrassed to admit that I worked in what was basically McDonalds only flipping Macs rather Big Macs. :ROFLMAO:
 
f/2.8 said:
Because I worked in B2B when anyone asked who I worked for I used to say Equanet as I was to embarrassed to admit that I worked in what was basically McDonalds only flipping Macs rather Big Macs. :ROFLMAO:
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Lmao, I hear ya man.
 
TGphoto said:
Tough job shooting into the sun like that!
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Its more manageable with a Sony sensor ;)

TGphoto said:
Posted this for critique and got absolutely 0 responses so I'll just stick it in here.

Glencoe earlier this year.

Changing Conditions - Glencoe by Thomas Green, on Flickr
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I do like the way the line is leading into the mountain and then to dramatic cloud formation there after.
I find bridge passage a little distracting, perhaps shooting a bit more from the right and getting a steep angle with out it being my face bang in the middle would have helped?

Overall a very nice shot indeed! (but wouldn't much of a critique if I just said great shot :p )

I don't tend to post much in the photos section for this reason myself. Not many people seem to reply.
 
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nandbytes said:
Its more manageable with a Sony sensor ;)



I do like the way the line is leading into the mountain and then to dramatic cloud formation there after.
I find bridge passage a little distracting, perhaps shooting a bit more from the right and getting a steep angle with out it being my face bang in the middle would have helped?

Overall a very nice shot indeed! (but wouldn't much of a critique if I just said great shot :p )

I don't tend to post much in the photos section for this reason myself. Not many people seem to reply.
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That’s very true actually, I hadn’t seen that before and you make a very good point!

Yeah that’s true.
 
f/2.8 said:
Forgot to mention it is ridiculously light weight. Really doesn't seem like a f/2.8 lens at all.
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Yep almost 100gram saving on the Sony f4, f2.8 instead of f4 and same filter size as the 28-75 are 3 reasons I'd consider changing
 
f/2.8 said:
This arrived this morning.

On first impressions it seems pretty good. A.F is snappy and accurate even when using eye a.f. Will give it a proper workout at tomorrow’s wedding.


View attachment 251387
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Niceone man. I cancelled my order on it, I'm gonna get the 14-24 Sigma I think if I'm getting ultra wide.
 
F/1.4 said:
Niceone man. I cancelled my order on it, I'm gonna get the 14-24 Sigma I think if I'm getting ultra wide.
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Yeah, I looked at that too but isn't a lens I will use a lot. My 24G.M is usually wide enough.

Having something light weight that I can throw in a bag and not notice until the odd time I need something wider was more important for me than ultimate I.Q. Have no doubt that the Sigma will be great and has the added advantage of being a fair bit wider too.

The 16-35 f/4 suits me fine, but I needed another wide lens for the wife and didn't see the point in buying the same again. If I used the focal length a bit more I would have got the 16-35G.M.
 
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