Restructuring Wedding Photography after and during the Pandemic

We are living in very turbulent times amidst the Coronavirus Pandemic.
It came with little warning and has had a huge impact world wide.
Many in Photography are commenting what they can do to survive as photographers.
For many years,as you can see from this blog, I was a wedding photographer.
I never managed to see that I could do it full time, although I did a couple of times.
But I looked at the situation realistically and knew I had a mortgage and a family to support.
If was a standalone operator with none of those responsibilities then I am sure I could have succeeded.
Albeit with some lean times.
I knew the difficulties of making a career in anything to do with the arts.
That could be Photography,Theatre,Writing, Painter,Singer, Actor and the list goes on .
I used to work in the Australian Government and would interview people accessing un-employment benefits.
Sometimes I found myself interviewing people who were well known names in the arts but between gigs things got rough at times.
Now I am grateful for the decision I made to be a "weekend warrior" as a wedding photographer.
I had a job all those years and superannuation was accumulating.
The money I got from photography was a bonus.
I still had the satisfaction of producing good photography and often mixed with those who were full time.
Indeed I found also I had an ability to teach photography.
I occasionally taught courses in wedding photography and some went on to be quite successful full time photographers.
I hope they are coping now.
I got a leaflet in my letter box yesterday for the first time from a local portrait studio.
That is a sign things are tough.
So my proposition is that Photographers may need to shift the goal posts a little.
Modern technology is such now that I think the time has come for people to rethink how they operate.
It may take a lot to swallow some pride and do the unthinkable and seek an alternative employment but maybe the time has come.
You can still pursue your craft with much satisfaction and financial reward in a different way.
I am sure many of the photographers whose work and blogs and youtube channels I enjoy have transferable skills.
I hope and trust all of you out there at this time are healthy and doing all the necessary things to stay so.

Australia's limitations on weddings due to the Coronavirus.

I am not sure what the latest ruling on Weddings in Australia is but a couple of days ago because of the Coronavirus it was limited to 5 people.
There have been some weddings rushed through before the deadline on that.
They had imposed a similar rule on funerals but I think that has been relaxed a little provided people observe distancing rules.
So now how do you deal with this as a wedding photographer?

Some years ago a fellow photographer friend of mine told me she was doing a wedding shoot for a couple coming out from England for a private ceremony just for the 2 of them.
Thay had not told family back home but planned to surprise them when they got home.
They were going to have a party in England at a later date to celebrate.

My friend asked me if I would do a video and she would do the stills.

The only people present were the couple, the celebrant, my friend and her assistant and me.
The celebrant may have had his wife also.
The wedding was conducted at a favourite location in Adelaide outdoors.
             .

My friend and I signed as witnesses.

The couple went to a hotel afterwards in Glenelg in Adelaide to have a quiet meal.

The crazy thing that happened was that I had a great new video camera, the Canon Xl1, but I was not an experienced videographer.

The lighting was difficult as the couple were in deep shade under a tree, with the bright sunlit face of a historic sandstone property in the background.

It was quite a warm day.

I did not have any video lights with me.

I spent some time getting the exposure right.

The ceremony went for about 15mins and then they signed the register.

During the signing I decided to review the footage I had so far and was dismayed to find I had recorded no sound.

At a normal fast moving wedding this would have been a disaster.

The benefit of this small wedding was that there was no reception to go to and no rush to go anywhere.

So I ate humble pie and confessed my sin.

I asked the couple and the celebrant if we could do the ceremony again.

They said why not?

They managed to keep a straight face as they embarked on their 2nd wedding.

This time I got the results I needed.

At the end of the day I was invited to the pub to share a meal but I was so traumatised I declined.

My youngest son did the editing for me later and they got a nice record of their very small wedding.

So don't despair wedding photographers.

There may be some advantages in this scenario.

The no limit on time was a big bonus.

On another occasion I photographed a similar elopement but they did have a wedding party.

 I did enjoy that although the challenge of steady rain made it difficult.

I got soaked but everyone else was fine.

I got some beautifully saturated colour shots.

Looking back at Film Weddings

I have a great number of weddings in my archives.

I like to go through them now and then and analyse how I went.

This particular wedding shoot of Cassie and Travis I found very enjoyable and I captured some great images(in my opinion).

It was entirely shot on film.

I had the negatives scanned at processing to produce low res files.

They were processed and scanned at Black and White Photographics which are still operating today.

 http://www.blackandwhitephoto.com.au/

I would have been using my Pentax Mzs film camera and I was working with an assistant.

My film would have been Fuji VPS 160 and Fuji VPH 400.

Some of these pics were featured on the Weddingsa website.

http://www.weddingsa.com.au/bom/jan06/default.htm#.XD6x0vxS_dS

A good example of using daylight fill flash shooting into the light. Metz 45cl3 Pentax Mzs

What makes you a real photographer?

Based on my definition there are not a lot of "real" photographers these days.

You need to use a tripod to be a real photographer!

In the early days of photography it was a must.

Do I use one all the time?

Very rarely.

One of my favourite photography authors is Bryan Peterson.

In his book "Understanding Exposure" he emphasised time and time again "first place your camera firmly on the tripod."

Even in this day and age of image stabilised lenses and cameras he still probably uses that as a mantra.

I tend to shoot hand hold most of the time and there are times when I wish I hadn't.

Back in the day when I was doing weddings I always used to take my tripod with me.

1. To get steady sharp photos.
2. In case I struck low light.
3.To maintain eye contact with people, mainly in group photos, while I pressed the shutter.

4. This next one is a great use of the tripod when you might not even put the camera on the tripod.

If you are wanting to do family and bridal party group photos and you are at a location and it is just after the ceremony and you are about to get started.
If you are at a location where the wedding has been outdoors and people may be mingling and talking and having a bit of a cocktail party.
They are scattered all over the place.
Then is when I would pick the spot where I wanted to do my group photos and then set up the tripod
where I would be shooting from.
I would then announce to all the key people " hi folks, the bride and groom are now ready for family photos can you all gather where the tripod is thank you."

Now people associate the tripod with real photographers.

Professionals!

You will find this works a treat .
 They might not know who you are but they know what a tripod is.

Try it at your next wedding.

"Real Photographers" use tripods.

A typical group shot. How did you get them there?

Room set up for one of my training classes. Note the tripod on the table.

Please note I am available for group training in photography or for individual tuition.

Reviewing your Photography Career

Shot on film, Pentax Super A

I first started taking photos in 1970.
That is apart from maybe one or two rolls of film when I was very young.
I started weddings in 1975, strictly as an amateur and progressed to charging for my work as well as the materials.
I last shot a whole wedding probably about 3 years ago. 

Just lately I have been archiving a lot of my wedding and other photography.
Some of it shot on film, some on both film and digital and some just digital.
It has been an interesting exercise.
Some weddings,where my memory said I probably didn't do too well,
they weren't so bad.
Likewise some were pretty low in overall standard but usually had some good thrown in with the bad.
Enough to save the day.
By today's standards, and if I was critically honest with myself, overall I would give myself an average score of 6 out of 10.

In the latter years with the benefits of digital capture I probably progressed to about 8 out of 10.

As far as what I have learnt over the journey there has been heaps.

Mastering film shooting and manually setting cameras.

Using an incident light meter.

Using bounce flash and fill flash.

Creative posing of people as couples,singly and in groups.

Shot on digital. Canon 400D

Interacting with customers and people.

Working out a timetable system that works on a wedding day.

The business side of photography.

Mastering digital photography and the necessary post processing.

If you want to learn some of the things I have learnt in more detail then visit my youtube channel and pick out the posts in particular on wedding photography.

I am available for teaching 1:1 or in small groups.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATgCH2ByWdE

These posts are sourced from my course in Wedding Photography that I have taught to many over the years.

Also there are similar posts on this blog and my photography blogs if you search the archives.

https://geoffthompsonsblog.blogspot.com.au/search/label/wedding%20photography%20training

What would I have done differently in hindsight?

1. Possibly used better lenses and cameras.
2. Improved my photography and charged more.
3. Not given away negatives which I did for some time.
4.Supplied more upmarket albums with my packages.

Looking back I think my decision a couple of times to stay part time and continue my day job was a wise thing. The desire is to be totally self supported by photography but that is a very hard gig if you have a family to support.

Shot on film. Pentax MZs

Minolta light meter 1VF, Pentax MZs, Metz 45CL3, Quantum Battery 2 power pack.

Nat Rogers photographer.

Shot on film.   Pentax MZs

Wedding Photography while demanding is a fun thing when you have got to a certain level.

As the light fades a well earned cup of coffee.Pentax *istD. These bottom 2 pics by Nat Rogers

ADVICE TO NEWLY WEDS- from a Wedding Photographer

Some years ago, starting out as a young married couple we were very much immersed, particularly when we had young children, in the Ministry of Dr James Dobson from Focus on the Family ,a Christian organisation that he founded.

He had a film series that was very helpful to us in the 1970’s and also had  a radio programme from which many cassettes were produced.

One of the cassettes was entitled “Advice to Newly Weds”.

It contained very good  advice for those wishing to heed it.

At one stage as a young man  starting out in  wedding photography who regarded his photography as a Christian Ministry, I had an idea of presenting the tape to all couples whose wedding I photographed.

I decided not to do that as it was not really my role as a photographer to do it, so I thought..

Sadly I am aware some of those marriages have not lasted.

Some whose weddings I did,  caused me to question the match and how long the wedding would last and thankfully some of those people proved my judgement wrong.

So now in the age of blogging I thought I would share some of my thoughts on the theme as titled.

As a wedding photographer you are given the privilege of being very involved with young couples on their special day and I am always prayerful that the marriage will be a good one and able to withstand the challenges along the way.

As wedding photographers we present the couple as atrractively as we can and try to capture the romance of their special day.

While the photos I produce , I  think are great, and as a romantic at heart I try for the  romance of the occasion, they do not depict real life in as much that after all the celebration and the honeymoon period is over, couples have to settle into the daily task of being married, working, bringing up children and interacting and relating with others. .

There are all the challenges that can happen in life;  illness, accidents, mortgages, possible unemployment periods, children difficult to handle, teenagers running off the rails, schooling difficulties, broken friendships and relationships.

The scourge of Drugs and other ills in our society.

So what is a plan to make your marriage work.

Here are some of our thoughts.

My wife and I have engraved on our wedding rings a quote from the book of Ephesians Chapter 4:2

From the Living Bible it says this.

² Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.

The following verses also are an important part of the plan as well.

³ Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. ⁴ For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. ⁵ There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶ and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all.

Be committed to your Marriage and your partner.

If you are Christians it is God’s will for you that your marriage is until death do you  part.

We try to make sure that we do things together,

        go on holidays together,

to the same concerts.

This doesn’t always happen.

I have come to enjoy operas but I doubt my wife will ever enjoy football.

At all times to always be on your guard when mixing with the opposite sex.

If you are a good listener and you care about people  you may find yourselves in a situation where the person receiving your help thinks there is more in it than you intend.

Be very judicious if you drink alcohol.

When we are intoxicated is when we are in trouble.

My preference and rule is no alcohol at all.

(Bearing in mind I don’t believe the Bible

forbids the drinking of alcohol but we are warned to  “ not let our Brother stumble.”)

The thing is you or your wife might be the one stumbling.

Do not hero worship your partner.

They are capable of letting you down as much as anyone else.

Build in to your marriage the highest aims and ideals but realise that the only perfect

human being was Jesus.

It is He we should put first and worship.

When the going gets rough in a marriage don’t be so proud as to not ask for help but

choose your counsellor wisely.

1 Corinthians Chapter 13 is often read out at weddings.

Don’t just read it claim it for your marriage.

And at verses 4-7 substitute the name Love or it with your first name.

In a marriage and in life as a Christian give up your right to yourself.

1 Corinthians 13

New Living Translation (NLT)

1 Corinthians 13

Love Is the Greatest

 ¹ If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. ³ If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;^[a] but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

 ⁴ Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud ⁵ or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. ⁶ It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. ⁷ Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

 ⁸ Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages^[b] and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! ⁹ Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! ¹⁰ But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.

 ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. ¹² Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.^[c] All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

 ¹³ Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

Well there is so much more.

I don’t believe marriages are made in Heaven. In fact the Bible tells us there is no marriage in Heaven.

However we should ask God's guidance on who we should marry.

Marriages are made here on earth and we need to fight for our marriage to be as God intends it to be.

There are high standards for marriage in the  Bible but God never asks us to do anything that He cannot or will not supply the power for us to carry it out.

The Christian family , if it is being Christian, has by virtue of Jesus , the in built ability to overcome  any challenges.

For a useful study on how to reconstruct your marriage see the link below.

http://geoffthompsonsblog.blogspot.com.au/2016/08/how-to-reconstruct-your-marriage-by.html 

Introducing 5038 Photography and saying Goodbye to it.

I have just finished watching an excellent Wedding Photography presentation on youtube by Jerry Ghionis.
Jerry is one of the top wedding photographers and photographer educators in the world.

Many things he said I have learnt myself over many years as a photographer and share much of his philosophy on wedding photography.
The programme is about posing in wedding photography.
When I train people in wedding photography I always teach them about basic posing as building blocks for their own creativity.
I tell them photojournalistic realism is all very well but if you don't give people direction it might be possible to go all day with the bride and groom hardly being in the same vicinity of each other.
You have got to creatively bring them together as also with all other people in the wedding.
By all means do candid stuff but do that when you have set the initial pose and randomely.
One of the things Jerry said was I think very good advice and something I have decided to try.
He said to strive to be the best photographer in your zip code or post code as we say in Australia.
One of my sons makes a very good living selling real estate in the suburb he lives in and he has concentrated on being the best in his patch.
Well I have decided to market my photography locally to my own postcode.
I will offer photography training and accept other assignments.
I have now decided not to take on any more wedding work but I am open to family photos and workplace photography.
Also I am available for training in wedding photography.
I am open to helping people with scanning and production of special milestone photo books eg. 90th birthday, special anniversaries etc.
Why not call me on 0417867476
Please note. My days of photographing weddings and other paid assignments are now behind me.

The Future of Wedding Photography: for Photographers

 I have been looking at just some of the myriads of instructional and promotional videos on you tube about wedding videos and wedding photography and the use of technology and how to make your own hardware to assist you with eg. sound recording on a canon dslr.
The quality and production skills of these people are generally very good and sometimes exceptional.
But I wonder where there is room in all of this to actually stop and consider the actual event, a wedding, taking place.
It is a commitment before God and witnesses of a marriage between a man and a woman.
It is something instituted by God.
It is a sacred event.
Some photographers and video operators are very intrusive in their attempt to get the the magazine type shot that can be found in the world of fashion.
There is one video showing the still photographer standing on a bed ,towering over the bride, to get the shot. Uggh!
I know the people who pay top dollar are looking for this look but there is something about it that is so false.
No matter how good you look on your wedding day those pictures are going to be poison on the day when your marriage might be in tatters and you are facing a crisis to hold it together.
A more important record may be of the prayers that were offered for the couple and a transcript of the Minister's sermon or homily.
The book that someone gave you as a present about how to have a successful marriage might be better consulted on a regular basis than the wedding photos.
See my vision for wedding photography on this blog.
You will also find a link to my photography blog with sample wedding shots.

http://geoffthompsonsblog.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/geoff-thompson-my-vision-for-wedding.html

http://geoffthompsonphotographics.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/wedding-photography-gallery.html

I have nothing against wedding photography and admire great work that people do but be prayerful and/or considerate as you go about your profession.
There is a future for Wedding Photography.
What I am suggesting is that practitioners don't get carried away with their craft to the point that they don't respect the institution of marriage.

PS.
Since I posted this topic it has attracted a lot of page views.
If you are professional in what you do I am sure you can deal with the issue of so many trying their hand at wedding photography as there is such good technology now available.
When I entered the workforce in a large Government organisation in 1964 we all regularly used the typists in the typing pool to type our letters.
Now everyone does their own typing and the typists had to become mainstream in their careers.
Now though, their are specialist "Typists" in he form of PA's or Secretaries.
You will need to find the things that set you apart if you want to make a living out of Wedding Photography.
If you want to be  a part timer I am sure there will always be opportunities in wedding photography and other photography genres.
I only ever went full time for about 9 months in 37 years as a wedding photographer and in that time was very busy but I opted to have a dual career as a Public Servant and a Wedding Photographer.
I recently attended a seminar by a successful wedding photographer who was mainly coaching about the business side of Wedding and Portrait Photography.
I was struck by the fact that most of the attendees were young female photographers.
This is a good thing but it was interesting in that if I had attended something similar 10-15 years ago they would have been mainly male photographers.
My most recent wedding I did(dec 2012) highlighted the the amount of photos mow taken at a wedding.
By the time I delivered my package to the couple about 2 weeks after the wedding they had already received 100's of images on Cd's from their friends.
There is a lot of competition so you do need to make sure you have a professional product.

Geoff Thompson-My Vision for Wedding Photography

Here is my vision for wedding photography and my involvement as such.

I have photographed Weddings since 1975.

While I am officially retired from the work force, from time to to time I still photograph weddings for those who are family or friends, or friends of friends.
I am not attempting to photograph lots of weddings as they are physically tiring and I am not getting any younger.

I am  open to training a local photographer or photographers  in wedding photograph.

I have  trained many photographers in wedding photography in the past and some are now successfully pursuing their own careers.
I am currently assisting a young photographer to establish the wedding side of her photography business.(as at march 2016)
My thoughts have been germinating for some years now about doing "not for profit" charity work with my Photography.
Many people expect to pay large sums of money for their photography and the whole wedding,  and while they have budgeted for this they may  often feel that they have spent a lot of money quite extravagantly on something that is important on the day but all you have to look back on apart from your personal memories of your big day are often just the photos and the video.

I feel sure there are couples that would like to make a difference in their community or globally but may feel a little guilty about their extravagance on their wedding day.

This approach enables them to make a contribution through their wedding a bit like how at Christmas time various charity  organisations allow you to  donate a goat or vegie garden as a present through a friend or relative who doesn't really need some extra gift at Christmas but has a heart for the under privileged.

What I have been wanting to do for sometime is offer a flexible pricing  for the cost of their wedding with much of the proceeds going to local or overseas charities in which they would have some choice.

The advantages of this approach are numerous.

The recipients of the  assistance would be very  grateful.

The happy couple will know their their wedding day has started  something good.
For instance a commitment to sponsor a child through out their marriage may be an option that is woven into the pricing of the wedding photography.

I have also recently met with and assisted a photography group where the participants all suffer from Parkinson's disease.(2015/2016)

It would be great to photograph a wedding, bring one of them along with me and donate most of the profit to Parkinsons SA.
See a link below to their website.

http://www.parkinsonssa.org.au/

I would gain an enormous amount of satisfaction from starting a successful venture of this type with a view to handing the vision to others when I have reached my "use by date."
I think I am at the use by date at the present as far as physically photographing a wedding.

Local people(Adelaide and surrounding areas) wishing to contact me for wedding photography training  should do so on my mobile on 0417867476 or indeed anyone wishing to contact me about this vision please email at geoff.g.thompson@gmail.com

Below is the link to my Photography only Blog that has recently started and has a gallery of wedding photography for perusal.

http://geoffthompsonphotographics.blogspot.com.au/

Deanna Dunbar-Wedding and Portrait Photographer

It was great to hear from one of my former students today who is doing well in her photography.
Check out Deanna's work at her website as per the link below.

http://www.deannaphotos.com.au/

keep up the good work Deanna. Your website looks great.

37 Years of Wedding Photography

http://geoffthompsonphotographics.blogspot.com/

Helen and Rob on a recent walk in the Riverland

Congratulations Helen and Rob on your wedding anniversary. I remember this being my first wedding and as a complete novice and 37 years ago today.
I had got the photography bug while living in Darwin after my wife and I got married and lived there on a working honeymoon.
On the day of the wedding I was staying at the Bride's house,my wife's sister, and captured all the activities of preparation as we went.
We had all been putting finishing touches to the Paringa Hall  for the reception the night before.
I was using a Pentax Spotmatic 2 and had asked for a few tips from some photographer workmates and a neighbour.
I had been taking photos for 4 years at that stage of Darwin, Renmark, pet cats and our eldest son who was approaching one year at the time of this wedding. I had done some photographs of course of family gatherings and outings.

The first paid job I had done, and I am not sure this was before the wedding ,was  of a full dress rehearsal for and end of year concert for a dance school. A work colleague was the instructor.
That was a nightmare.
Armed with a standard 50 mm lens, a flimsy tripod, a manual soltron flash gun.

I knew nothing of posing but fortunately Rosalie the instructor did.

Well back to the wedding. It all went well except that I thought the minister was going to sign the register in his vestry so I had ducked around to the back of the Church and in the back door waiting for the couple to appear.
To my horror they signed in the Church proper and when I realised this raced around to the front of the Church and managed to fire off one shot. Not the best photo I had taken but I got one.

Everyone was happy with the photos and I was on my way as a wedding photographer.

The weekend after I photographed my brothers wedding and of course felt a bit more realaxed for that one.

I think in the first few years of weddings I was reasonably relaxed as I had not much idea about wedding photography and did not realise how much I didn't know. 

Over the last few years I have started to photograph weddings of the children of my first generation of couples and have had the privilege of photographing the weddings of Rob and Helen's two girls.

To have a look at a gallery of wedding shots that have appeared on this blog follow the link below the above image.

Ps As at 8/2/16. and approaching 70, I am photographing about 1 wedding a year as an assistant. Next wedding 5/3/16.

Shooting a Wedding with Film

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I am aware some people still shoot weddings on film. Usually they are the high end photographers who are charging that much they can shoot without regard to cost and prefer the look and quality of film.

http://www.slrlounge.com/9-film-shooting-wedding-photographers-you-should-follow 

So  if you came into photography after the film era and someone asks you to shoot film or you would like to try it anyway?

Well here are some tips.

1.     You need a good slr film system with at least one wide angle prime lens (28mm) also a mid range zoom say 28-105mm and maybe a longer zoom up to about 200mm.You also should have two bodies.One can be a back up to the other or dedicated to black and white film.
       My favourite 35mm camera is the Pentax MZs, a professionally specced camera.

2.     Cameras that meet the bill are any by Nikon,Minolta,Canon,Pentax,Olympus preferably with auto focus.If  you wanted to be a purist you could use a roll film camera like a Hasseblad, Rollei, Bronica ETRs or a Pentax 645. This is a more expensive exercise but the results from such cameras will blow you away but you have to change films more often.Using 220mm film instead of 120mm helps speed up the process as you get twice as many shots on 220.On a pentax 645 you get 15 shots at 120 and 30 at 220mm.
       On a 6x6 format camera you will get 12 and 24 respectively.
       35mm cameras film comes in 36 frame lengths or 24.

3.     A  flash system of either one dedicated to the camera with full tilt and swivel and also ttl metering, or alternatively the Metz 45 range of hammerhead type flashes are great.Preferably your flash sync on your camera should be at least 1/125^th of a second.(for daylight fill flash)

4.     A tripod would be useful.

5.     For film I used to use colour negative film of 160iso,400iso,800iso  and Ilford xp2, iso 400 for black and white shots. My preference was for Fuji film rather than Kodak.
Fuji Reala film was rated at 100iso and gave great skin colours and as good as medium format sharpness. It was very fine grained.I used it on some weddings.

6.     Towards the  end of my film weddings days I would shoot about  11-12 rolls of  35mm colour and  3 rolls of 35mm black and white.I would get them processed and printed as 6x4’ or 5x7” proofs and also get them scanned at he same time. Not highest resolution but good enough for an 8x10”enlargement.

7.     If you have an assistant you could get them to back you up with a digital slr. During the transition to shooting full digital that is what I did.

8.     Remember when shooting with colour negative film it is better to over expose rather than underexpose as film has a great tolerance for error. I would often deliberately set my meter to overexpose by one stop.

9.     You need to pay closer attention to how much film you use as you go, maybe allowing for say 2 rolls of film at each shooting segment of your wedding shoot time table. (see my earlier blog on the Wedding Timetable)

10. When you are about to film the ceremony I would always make sure I had a fresh roll of film loaded as it is not good to run out of film just as the bride and groom kiss.

11       Make sure you have lots of spare batteries if your camera relies on them or  your flash

The Pentax Super A(super program in America) was a great camera and I shot many weddings on these cameras.It was really a 35mm version of the Pentax 645. The controls and programs were identical.The camera was manual focus and I usually set manual exposure readings.I used 2 of these during weddings for colour and made sure the meters were set to the same calibration.I had a separate camera loaded with black and white.The idea of using multiple cameras was that you could not tell that your camera had a fault until you got your proofs back.If you had used more than one camera you were assured of getting something back.

12   Using film will make you think more about what you are doing and of course you will not know how you went until you get your proofs.A bit of anxiety such as this will make you a better photographer but practice with film first on something less important than a wedding.All the other posts on wedding photography on this blog are just as relevant to shooting with film as using digital.

Too Old to be a Wedding Photographer?

This question has recently been running on the Digital Wedding Photographers Forum(DWF).
As a 65 year old who last  photographed a wedding in November this year and started in 1975 I feel  I can make some observations..

Surely wedding  photography is all about quality of work, pricing, whether you can relate to the photographer, and you like what they have shown you of their last  work.

The customer may of course want to employ a  young,trendy, fashionable and award winning photographer for their own prestige not so much the quality of the work.

And that is perfectly legitimately their call.

From the photographer's point of view I make  the following points.


1. Are you fit enough to get through the day both Physically and Mentally?
2. Are you still on top of your game and striving for improvement?
3. Can you use all the modern technology?
4.Can you deliver what the couple want?
5. Is your age something that has grown with your photography and thus you have lots of experience or are you an older would be wedding photographer who may be  a good all round photographer?
It may be questionable to have a go if in that last category but once again in depends on your customer's perception of you and your abilities as a photographer.

My main concern personally comes in the physical ability area.As you get older you can become far less mobile and if you are ding wedding photography as it should be done you will come home feeling you have done a solid day's physical work.

My wife has continually said I need to be fitter and carry less weight.
She is right.
The worse case scenario and this is for all photographers , regardless of age, is do you have someone to step in if you are physically unwell or unable to do the job on the wedding day?

There does come a time when we all have to say I'm not doing this anymore.

I have done that several times but people still ask me.

The "Old Guy" in action

My next wedding is in December 2012.I will be closer to 67 than 66 at that time.

I was a reluctant starter for this but could not say no as I was keenly sort after and there are close friendship ties. I will make sure I have safeguards in place such as a standby photographer I can call on if needed.

I think after that it may be the final one but there are still nieces and possibly nephews that will want to engage my services.

Update: 2/12/12. Have just completed my latest wedding as above.
It was a very busy and action packed wedding and my wife and I are a bit "photo lagged" after taking many shots.
We stayed at the reception as guests.
As an older photographer I had a little bit of leg cramp at the Bride's house and hands cramping at times  on the way to and at the reception.
Not a good feeling but the amount of shots one takes with digital slr's is a factor in this.
I used a Canon 600d as my main camera and a Canon 400d for some shots on my telephoto zoom.
I had a Canon 430EX flash.
My wife used a Pentax Kr with short zoom and a Metz flash.
Too old?
We are possibly the oldest wedding photography couple around at present.
I am 66 my wife 63.
I think this will be my last wedding.
Time to pull up stumps at the same time(this week) as Ricky Ponting retires from Test Cricket and for some remarkably similar reasons.

Update as of February 2016: I am still doing about 1 wedding a year as an assistant.I am fast approaching 70. I have been helping a young friend who is at the beginning of her photography career. Next wedding 5/3/16.
Ps Did this wedding last Saturday. Enjoyed it and got some great shots that with permission I will post at a later date but I fear that will be the last except maybe to help out relatives.
It was a very warm day and suffered from severe leg cramps all night after the wedding.

NB:As at September 2016 I think I am definitely past my used by date as an active regular wedding photographer.
I have just last week had heart surgery after a very blocked large artery was discovered and now I am  home recovering.
I am hoping to end up fitter than I was but it was a close call.

late afternoon light on a golf course is hard to beat.

The race begins

More energy than the photographer