Wedding Shoot

This weekend, I was able to assist Heather Armstrong, an amazing local photographer, at a wedding shoot. I have only done one wedding before, so I was excited to go with her and shadow/learn/glean anything from her that I could during the afternoon.

Heather was very generous to let me use her Canon 5D during the shoot and I had lots of fun with it (and walked away coveting it!), as well as fiddling around with her lenses. My favourite from the day has to be her 70-200mm 2.8f lens. I was able to take some beautiful shots with this one.

Things that I learnt:

- Be bossy and take control. As photographer, you have to work hard to make sure you get the photos you need. Don't be afraid to block people's views, stand right behind the couple during the ceremony, order people around, etc. to get the photos.

- You'll need lots of memory. A wedding shoot will require much more memory than a one hour portrait/family shoot, which is mostly what I have been doing. Fortunately, Heather was getting rid of her old 4GB and 2GB CompactFlash drives, and I walked away with an extra 10GB of memory for my camera on top of the 4GB I already had.

- Move fast, and stay focused. The shooting time, particularly the formal shoot, can sometimes be short and you've got to move fast to get all the photos in.

- Lenses, lenses, lenses. She brought with her the six lenses that she owns, and had rented two extra. Sadly, I'm not at the level to own six amazing lenses (I own two mediocre ones, and one decent one), but it has got me looking into them a lot more!

I get to shoot my friend's sister's wedding up in Seattle, WA at the end of the month, and I am very excited to take what I have learnt and use it there. Thanks Heather for this opportunity!

Here are my favourites from the shoot: