jeffreyc

Sheena,

 

We're going to be in Lafayette all weekend, but I can recommend a few local resources. New Orleans Weddings Magazine (www.neworleansweddingsmagazine.com) is a good starting point, along with the New Orleans Wedding Planning Experience (aneworleanswedding.com). Bob Walker's Book (www.mynolawedding.com) is another resource. Finally, try the New Orleans LiveJournal Community (community.livejournal.com/neworleans) the users are good at recommending particular people. Best of luck as you're working through making this happen. My wife and I were married on January 19th this year as a cold front came through. Morning rain, then windy and cold, but then again a couple days before we were in shorts and a t-shirts.

Marv, you're right, too many bags + jackets could leave the wearer looking like a tepee.

 

I wear a suit and what works well is to position the lens bag on the outside front of my leg, and the square bag next to it on my side. The jacket will bulge a little thanks to the side bag, but it is a good compromise rather than trying to cram lenses in pants, shirt, and jacket pockets along with cell phone, keys, cards, batteries, etc. or navigate around with a shoulder bag. Also the bag eliminates the chance of kicking the battery pack for the flash out of my jacket pocket when I crouch down for a shot, which happened once during toasts. The pack landed on a wood floor and was pretty noticeable.

 

I have also worn the larger bag with a suit when walking from locations A to B but it will get stashed the first chance I get. There was one day I worked out of it most of the time since there was a lot more walking between three locations (and travel to a fourth) than shooting. I just kept the large part of the bag on my side or over the outside front of my leg (or in front) and let the jacket fall behind the bag or bunch. Others may have found a better solution but this worked since we were in more of an industrial setting and touring work areas not really designed for 3+ people with photographer and camera crew.

 

Think tank has recently come out with non-padded versions of their products which may address your concerns better, but I have not seen them at my local store and have not had the chance to try them out.

I have the speed racer + lightning fast and chimp cage which I pack for most work and wear if we're going to do a lot of walking or work in several locations. I bring it to weddings but it's too bulky to navigate around and ends up hidden under a table. When I plan to stash the bag I bring the belt, trim changer, and a lens bag 35 which works best for me, holding essentials without becoming too cumbersome.

Harry, I did a similar search for Canon equipment not too long ago and didn't find anything either (The closest was LightTec in Houston). You may have better luck searching for national or regional renters that offer Next Day Air services or work out a loaner program with some of the other locals. Best of luck.

Sometimes it does not come up in searches no matter how good your Google-fu may be. The ISBN is 0-89577-379-1 and a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0895773791/ref=dp_olp_3/002-7829088-7500051?ie=UTF8&qid=1203803076&sr=8-1" target"_blank">link to the Amazon.com sellers page</a>.

I have one of Michael Langford's books. He wrote for Reader's Digest and, as a contributing editor, released "Creative Photography" in 1991. The book was a great way to get a quick 1-2 page treatment of almost every aspect of photography which built up my vocabulary of terms and introduced concepts like natural light, color, framing, and composition. These topics are sometimes skipped glossed over, or introduced as a small part of a larger topic, as people may be focused on the camera's aspects. Anything I still didn't understand I was able to discuss with my wife (she started in weddings as an assistant in '96), set-up and attempt to figure out with the camera, find info on photo.net or elsewhere on the Internet, and put into practice.

 

Amazon.com has it used for $8.00 tops. Hope this helps.

While we don't keep any to bring to shoots, black and white parasols will show up in the occasional wedding here in New Orleans. They may be provided by the location if the couple plans to have a second line either led by the band (usually a brass or jazz band), or by the couple if they have a DJ. They may also purchase or decorate their own carnival, Saints or LSU themed parasols usually for the groom, but I've seen one or two brides sporting the black (or purple or purple, green,) and gold. For everyone else at the reception, handkerchiefs may be provided as wedding favors or white napkins work in a pinch.<div></div>

I'd like to second Jeff's comments about parade access. We're wrapping up Carnival today with the Mardi Gras Day parades. While the parade is rolling, in order to walk up and down the route or otherwise remain in the street (in front of the barricades or curb) you usually need some type of official identification, find detail officers that don't perceive you as a problem, or make nice with the officers covering the area. Without an ID there's also a lot you can do moving through the crowds. My wife came with us as I covered the Saturday parades for Nola.com and got great shots without moving more than 10 feet from our stand.

Sometimes you can find those natural vignettes with the existing lighting. Attached is a first dance picture I took in November, where a hanging stage light drooped and illuminated a portion of the couple with a spotlight. It worked out that the groom's face, and more importantly his expression, was still in that light and made for a good picture.<div></div>

You can probably find SanDisk readily on most store racks. I don't see many Lexar products on store shelves but that may be my market. We use both Lexar and Sandisk and have yet to have any problems.

An idea that might be a little more practical which will also maintain a spontaneous atmosphere and challenging lighting of a reception may be to find local dance groups or studios that are hosting dances like ballroom, swing, or Latin.

 

Dim lights, sometimes conflicting between candlelight, low houselights, stage or DJ lights, tables and a crowded dance floor to navigate, (if at a studio) a wall sized mirror, an of course your own flash combined with people doing their own thing offers a venue of people who are in their element and once they get over the novelty of your being there will probably act naturally. Or at least more so than photographers trying to play a part.

 

Also, in addition to lighting, photographers working on their timing, ability to find better angles when trying to capture candids of people talking or dancing, or just exposure in general could also see a benefit to participating.

 

In theory, there would be little or no cost to your group as this event was already happening, you and one or two others would be there to photograph, and if there is some expectation to perform (work out a deal where the studio gets to get pictures to give to the attendees or use the pictures for promotional use (w/ model releases of course)) there would be some leeway in balancing the experimental vs the safe bet when it comes to exposures. Plus multiple photographers could work with each other, for example, one holding the secondary to back light a solo couple on the dance floor.

 

Coordinating photographer participants would also be much easier, needing only 2-3 people covering a dance rather than the 30 needed to pull it off. The larger club could participate in the critique, along with those who were on-site helping and learning from each other. With a good schedule keeper this could be something executed several times a month, rather than a once in a while plan.

 

Of course there would be some elements found in receptions, not covered: cake cutting, bouquet and garter, wedding dress next to black tux, etc. If the goal is to create a project for a local photography club or professional association, work with lighting which provides a challenging environment that allows for experimentation this may make a fun assignment.

Art, have you been in contact with your brother regarding a written contract? If he does not specifically deal with contract writing, he might have some resources to point you in the right direction. I believe the PPA also provides some templates with their membership. There are also some books on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble which cover legal aspects of photographers.

<br>

Information on the contract could include a form for the couple's information, a list summarizing the wedding party breakdown (Number of parents, immediate family, groomsmen bridesmaids, Jr Brides, flower girl/ring bearer), date, start/end time of coverage, locations covered (with est arrival times), clauses usually include but may not be limited to:<br>

<br>

- Sole photographer clause <br>

- substitution of photographer in case of sickness, emergency, or conflict<br>

- expected shot list / clause outlining performance required by each party to coordinate shot list / notice that stuff happens which may prevent every image from coming out or even being photographed<br>

- commercial use of photographs by photographer/<br>

- model release for use of likeness<br>

- date reservation/ conditions to refund/withhold deposit<br>

- a limit of liability in the case of sickness, equipment failure, act of God, etc.<br>

- remedies for your failure to perform<br>

- provided meal or a break for meal <br>

- longevity of printed materials/ produced media<br>

- notice of copyright/ usage or license terms of the client<br>

- notice of agreement/ understanding & procedure to change/ amend contract<br>

- dated signatures with printed clarification of names<br>

<br>

Hopefully this serves as the start to an outline of items to think about what you want to include and start a basic draft of the intent of the clauses which can be legalized by a lawyer. There will be a lot of back and forth about specifically what to include, as John pointed out the intent has to fit in your business, and you should be the one to reason it out with a lawyer to make sure the intent matches the language of the contract.

Last night we had weird battery issues, Jessica's 5D was reporting that one of the batteries was spent, it seemed strange because they were relativity new batteries and two batteries in the camera have made it through 7 to 14 hour days without a blink. We were 3 hours into the day. I tested them and my 40D showed they were full.

 

Then, my flash died right before the processional, swapped to my Sigma backup. When I found a second I checked the flash, the display was functioning and communicating but wouldn't light the pilot light or recharge the battery, this was with or without the ext battery pack. I put regular alkaline AAs in the flash and it worked fine.

 

To say the least it, was the start of an interesting night.

Marc, I found a tool a while back that helps show the DOF range in feet or meters at a selected focal length and aperture. It doesn't help too much in the field, but illustrates the concept very well. The online version also lets you select your camera which takes into consideration other factors like circle of confusion.

 

http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

<p>Kevin, if you haven't read already there was a <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00NfUL">thread</a> a couple of weeks ago that might help. We're running CS2 and Lightroom on an Intel Core 2 Duo and do not have any problems with speed. Some good suggestions were made about what to buy. I think the consensus was Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent multi-processor AMD, at least 2GB RAM, Motherboard that supports SATA II and RAID 1 or 5, and multiple large fast hard drives running Win XP... or a Mac.</p>

I also assemble most of my boxes, Steve.

 

When we had the AMD FX-60 2.6GHz + 4GB RAM, the system booted (to Start Menu) in about 45 seconds. Since you already have a Socket 393, you could swap out your RAM (bring it to 3-4 GB) and processor and try an FX-60. Like I said in a previous post, we had issues with the CPU or Mobo and RAM, but we think there was a short on the MoBo, or a bad copy of the processor, coupled with crappy RAM which caused the problems.

 

We're currently running an Intel Core 2 Deo @ 2.4 GHz Duo w/ 4GB RAM and it also does a nice job, I do not get to use it as much as Jessica but she has not complained about speed.

 

Hope that gives you some thoughts to go on.

JDM - "Even Chicken Little was right sometimes, I guess."

 

Your statement remind me of another quote, "Macro-economists have successfully predicted nine of the last five recessions."

NOD32 also popped up a warning for your main page but detected a different threat: Win32/Virut.NET

 

I was not able to find any specifics on a .NET variant of Virut, so it may be a false positive, but you may want to look into it.

Jim S: "I know it's a possibility that unprotected LiIon batteries can short out, then burn, or even explode, but I would like to read just one real account of, "Hey, this happened to me. Look at my 20D!""

 

It's not quite a story of poorly made batteries exploding but I had a situation once where I needed to dispose of one of the batteries for my Treo after I dropped the phone. (About 3 feet on to asphalt) The trauma caused the battery to swell. It was hard to detect visually and you could tell because the back cover of the phone wouldn't slide off easily. Upon closer examination there was a small swell in the center on the surface of the battery. I threw it out soon after the discovery, since I wasn't too keen on walking around with a swollen LiIon in my pocket.

 

On the other hand, I also dropped a Canon BP-511A in my cat's water bowl. After verifying it still worked, I took the battery out of service. I keep it in my desk to format cards while our non waterlogged batteries are charging.

I use Delkin, and my fiancee uses Impact. We also purchased the Impact chargers that charge each battery separately and has a 12-hour refresh option. Both of us have the Canon equivalent battery packs on 580 EX flashes.

 

I've been using the Delkins since the beginning of summer without issue. The Impacts are newer (Mid-October) and also have been working well. Some brand talk and experiences were discussed in the thread I posted in October there are other threads as well: http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00MtwN

 

Hope this helps.

I just purchased a 40D so we each have a dedicated backup. Having also come from a 20D, I agree with many of your points. One I would like to add:

 

1/3-Stop increments ISO control: It's very handy to have that extra latitude to fine tune exposure, but I found myself trying to go from 400-800 in one-click. On a good point, being able to see the chosen ISO in the viewfinder, kept me from making the wrong selection.

 

I didn't have any issues with my mode dial shifting during the wedding. I did notice it shifted once when I took it out of my bag this morning.

Same here. When she shoots the first dance she usually uses a Radio Slave to control the Vivitar, secondary light. Next time we're out in a dark park we'll just make sure to bring the secondary just in case.

I agree with Nadine, pay attention to your distance and line of sight. We had a situation recently where the park shelter we were working in had almost no light. We had a lull during dinner and decided to get creative with the flash so I set up my flash as the master and hers as slave. We did a test fire and it worked, but as soon as I got 20' (6ish meters) away, someone blocked the line of sight and the slave didn't fire. It seemed like a neat idea (at first) but we didn't spend any more time on it as guests were finishing up their dinner and were starting to mingle again.

 

Nadine, I tried putting the slave on manual and the master on ETTL, the master set the slave to ETTL after the first fire. I also reversed the settings (Manual on master ETTL on slave) and the master again changed the settings. The manual references something about setting the groups to fire different ratios, I'm not sure how that well that will work in the field.

I have one more piece of advice to add. If you plan on shooting from the choir loft, make sure you identify that the light switch for the stairs exists and works before you go up there. Especially if it's an evening wedding. You may have plenty of light going up, but it gets dark quickly, and traversing narrow stairs in the icky blackness isn't the best of ideas.

 

I don't know why but many of the Roman Catholic churches that I have worked are like this. The Episcopal, Greek Orthodox, and Baptist churches never seem to have this problem.

"Knowing what to do when something goes wrong is very important. A backup camera and lens are useless if you do not know when to use them."

 

I think this is an important statement as nothing ever goes wrong the same way twice. Knowing how to recognize the "when." After that, problem solving skills and the individuals adaptability in addition to their abilities in photography are important in finding the right path when things go wrong.

 

My question is how do we put an objective number/value/test on those skills, how do we measure them without a live fire drill? New wedding photographers mitigate risk by working with experienced photographers, reading others experiences, or managing the expectations of the client. Without that risk is the learning experience, which builds those skills, the same as someone who, god forbid, made the wrong decisions regarding problems during a real wedding?