The worst thing that happend to you while shooting the wedding.

[marekd]

<p>I thought it would be very interesting to hear some heart-stopping, every-photographer's-nightmare-come-true stories that you have experienced while shooting the wedding. <br>

Hardware failure, loosing all the images from the wedding, bridzilla, getting in fight with a videographer, etc... Any crazy story that happened to you.<br>

Thank you!</p>

[ellis_vener_photography]

<p>Why should other people's misfortunes be of interest to you, a complete stranger? Especially since you offer no tales of your own?</p>

[marekd]

<p>I was hopping to learn from other people's experience. I wonder sometimes what would I do if I lost all my pictures, if all my equipment broke/got smashed. What would I tell the bride and groom? I guess I'm more interested in how photographers who have had more experience than I, deal with such things. Sometimes despite having a dual card camera, three bodies, four flashes, things can still go wrong.<br>

But perhaps you are right. I didn't mean to come through as someone who finds joy in others' failures and it is not my business to demand of others to open up.<br>

I appologize if that's the impression my posts gives anyone. I meant for it to be a learning experience.</p>

[daverhaas]

<p>My worst wedding experience was when my Tamron 17-50 mm f2.8 stopped focusing during the formals. Turned the camera off and on again and made it through without further issues...Of course I did have a backup lens and body, so it wouldn't have been too bad.</p>

<p>Dave</p>

 

[silverdae]

<p>Shooting a quincenara (sp?)- my first major "event"- I somehow managed to get red-eye reduction on. I have never even looked at red-eye reduction on my camera, so as silly as it seems, I couldn't for the life of me get it off. Called another photograher who was shooting with the same camera, and he didn't know. So through the whole event, my candids weren't so candid as my sb-800 went "blink-blink-blink-flash." Killed my batteries in no time. I spent the whole night switching out quatums to shoot candids where people would pose. It sucked.</p>

<p>Needless to say, know your equipment. Even the parts you don't use. It was a simple fix, but coupled with my nerves and lack of knowledge about my camera, I couldn't solve the problem and it showed (if only to me) in my final images. And yes, now I know where the red-eye controll is. </p>

<p>Embarrassing story, but hopefully someone will learn from it.</p>

[rayt]

<p>Worst that happened? To me or to the wedding?</p>

<p>Worst that happened to me was two film cameras jamming, my primary and my backup. Luckily I had a third camera which I normally did not carry.</p>

<p>Worst that happened at a wedding was the death of the bride. It was to be a sunset wedding at a park on the lake. The ceremony was timed to start just before sunset. Well the sun starts setting, I am getting impatient as the light is going. No bride. I go to the father and explain the situation and plead my case not very tactfully. While I am talking the father gets a call on his cell phone. His expression changes, in fact his face goes completely blank. He turns and leaves and I find another family member and inquire about the bride. Seems she was killed in a car wreck on the way to the ceremony.</p>

<p>I quietly packed up not knowing what to say or do. I felt like a complete ass for getting antsy with the father. I refunded all the money the family had paid and sent flowers to their funeral.</p>

<p>Two years later thay called me up and had me photograph their son's wedding. Again outdoors but this time it all went smoothly.</p>

[picturesque]

<p>Can't top that one, Raymond. Worse thing that happened to a wedding that I covered was when the groom didn't show up. The bride decided to go on with the party. Second worse thing was when a fight broke out at the reception. I went outside until the police came.</p>

<p>Worse thing that happened to me was when my camera's shutter broke just when the bride came down the aisle, AND, she didn't want to restage it.</p>

[swede_spoltore]

<p>My worst moment was when the bride's father had a heart attack at the reception & died</p>

[joseph_wisniewski]

<p>Nadine, I had one where multiple fights broke out. It was weird, people were coming in to look at all the pictures (not just the ones I culled for the proof book) and ordering copies with affadafits for use as "evidence"...</p>

<p>Raymond, I have one to slightly balance yours. The bride was in month 9, and having false labor pains. I thought we were going to have a new life in the middle of the ceremony.</p>

[lightsmith1]

<p>I was shooting a beach wedding solo and just as the processional started one of my cameras stopped working altogether. Hard enough to run around on the sand much less lose time changing lenses with only one camera. After that I started carrying a 3rd camera to all my weddings.<br>

My worst personal experience was getting food poisoning at a wedding and missing 40 minutes of the reception. Luckily I had a second photographer so nothing was missed completely. A second photographer provides many benefits and a full backup in every sense is one of the most important.</p>

[er1]

<p>Marc Williams & I were once shooting bridals in a wonderful little park on our way to a reception. The twilight setting created the perfect diffused light from the sky with the beautiful thick clouds near an old gazebo, it was just perfect except for just one small problem. The sky opened like I have never seen... it was almost like a tropical cyclonic wave of water that completely drenched all of us with no warning and it lasted 30 minutes. We all scrambled to the cars but the limo driver drove off for a few minutes while we were taking photos! So we all had to jam into Marks vehicle. The B&G had to lay across camera bags, tripods, and other equipment! Imagine the Bride & Groom and Mark & myself jumping into a lake... same results. Just another good reason to always have a backup body and lenes at all events. We can look back and laugh about it now but Marc was shooting digital medium format and I was shooting with my Mark III which both got soaked as well!</p>

[davidandkara]

<p>one of my grooms literally messed his pants while he was getting ready and was 70 minutes late for the 90 minute time slot for formal shots. fortunately the hotel he was at had an in-house dry cleaning service, but I feel sorry for the dry cleaning staff. and the bride... she didn't know where he was for about an hour. a pretty crappy situation overall, if you ask me. [insert obligatory pity laugh here]</p>

[shirkwolfe]

<p>Batteries. I was young.</p>