larry schaefer - chicago, Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 Of all the equipment wedding photographers carry what do YOU consider to be the piece of equipment that could cause the worst problems if it failed. Name the piece of equipment only, spare any tech talk and opion for now and another post will follow for discussion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wedding-photography-denver Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 Me :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
picturesque Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 Any piece of gear that failed and you weren't aware of it throughout the day or don't have a back up for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
35mmdelux Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 camera. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken c oshkosh, wi Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 None, have at least 3X backups for everything. Maybe my car or brain... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmichaelc Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 Any of it if it happens to be the piece that fits the purpose at any given time. Hopefully you've prepared well and you've got a backup of everything within an arms reach. Also what David said, however, i find it hard getting into my gear bag. With digital, my biggest nightmare is card failure because with everything else you know at the time mechanically if it's working or not. With that little card.....you simply have to put all your faith into it. Even if you see those little thumnails your never assured that it wrote properly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colleendonovan Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 My cards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timcorridan Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 asprin? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben_rubinstein___mancheste Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 Camera, my backup is film which would be a pain in the neck with my workflow though not detrimental to the wedding in any way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kari douma Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 I would have to say my car. (Although that is not in my camera bag.) I have 190,000 miles on it, and I am worried that one of these days I won't be able to get to the reception. I have backup of everything else. Although cards would be top on the list too.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaun_carter Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 my cf cards cause i'd loose all the day's images. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_levine Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 I'm old school. I shoot with two different (film) cameras at every wedding. In fact I shoot two seperate sets of "formals", with different cameras. This eliminates the possibilty of an unforseen camera malfunction. I also check my flashes with a flash meter, 2-3 times during an event too. I never take anything like this for granted. And I check my camera settings before every frame ! So the only real gremlin that can invisbly strike is a flash sync failure. And this can be visually checked by firng the camera with the back open. Every other mechanical failure is noticeable to the photographer. So this is the only "potentially detrimental" failure that can happen without you knowing it. My two camera method insures that 50% of the day will be fine though. I'd rather have to tell a bride that 50% is bad, than 100% ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
picturesque Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 Steve--there might still be one or two other mechanical problems that can occur without your knowing it. For instance, shutter bounce or shutter blade hanging, causing a strip of overexposed area on every frame. Or, sticky shutter, causing intermittent black frames. Of course, maintenance will get these, but not on the first day it happens, which is usually on the job. Also, your external flashes not going off--even if you check them before starting to shoot, they can be intermittent, and if you are using them as key light, can cause your images to be underexposed--again not a bad problem since film has the latitude, but annoying nonetheless, and it can happen without your knowing it. I once had a shutter blade come undone and hanging, and even though I do the "flash through the back of the camera" test with film, I didn't notice the blade because I didn't open the aperture completely. Not opened up, the iris looked normal. This was with a leaf shutter lens. Lots of weird things can happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larry schaefer - chicago, Posted July 3, 2006 Author Share Posted July 3, 2006 Cool answers, as for vehicles-important yes but let's assume we are at the wedding. I will have a fresh post around 10:30pm Central Daylight Hayseed time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_schilling___chicago_ Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 Well I'm curous what yer up ta'.....I've got backups for my backups and the wedding images are spread over several different CF cards. I'm thinking of getting a portable external flash drive to dump the cards in to for extra safety redundancy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uk Posted July 4, 2006 Share Posted July 4, 2006 My vocal chords. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
conraderb Posted July 11, 2006 Share Posted July 11, 2006 cards. I can smile my way through a wedding if my vocal cords are suddenly gone. I can do a pretty good job with a 50mm and a flash. I can't do anything if all of my cards go beserker on me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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