What's In The Bag??

I read a blog post today by one of the bloggers that I follow, and it was about what he carries in his camera bag. It was a long list, and it definitely got me thinking about things that I'd like to have, but also about what I have in my own camera bag, so I thought I would go ahead and give a little breakdown to show what I carry around with me. All photographs, by the way (with the exception of my business card), courtesy of Google searches for the products being described and none of which were taken by me I am sorry to say.

First of all, when talking about what I have in my camera bag, I suppose I should start off by talking about the bag itself. Until recently I have been carrying my gear in the stock standard Canon bag that came with my lens, which managed to fit my camera, the flash that I have been borrowing and three lenses (one on camera) at a squeeze. On my recent trip to Cape Town, my Dad offered to let me take his older Lowepro EX 180, and it has proven to be the best bag for me (for the moment anyway). It comfortably fits my camera, four lenses, the flash and all of the extra bits and bobs like batteries, charger, cable release, business cards and more. I have yet to find myself short on space, and it is barely larger than the bag I was using before and infinitely more comfortable. I am sure that in the years to come, I will be looking at getting something bigger, but for where I am now it is a perfect fit for me.

Next I'd better talk about the camera itself. I only have one DSLR that I carry with me everywhere, and that is my Canon Kiss X4, also known as the Rebel T2i and the 550D. It is a pretty mid-range, beginner DSLR, and it is the camera that introduced me to photography. I bought it back in 2010 while I was in Korea, and it has grown on me to the extent where I never want to put it down. It is one of the loves of my life, along with Grant and Puddims, and though there are better cameras out there, I am not looking at getting a new one anytime soon. My Kiss X4 is my baby for now.

On to the lenses! First of all, the lens that I use most often is my Canon EF 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 USM zoom lens. It is a lens that was given to me by a good friend of mine in Grahamstown (or someone that I consider to be a good friend, though he may think of me as more of a leach on his talent), Mr. Paul Mills. The lens itself is not in top notch condition, the reason he gave it to me being that it fell at some point, breaking the manual focus ring. It still works, but with difficulty, and I have managed to master it in my own way to make it work for me. It has replaced my original 28-80mm lens, and I have never really looked back.

One of my favourite lenses is my Canon EF 50mm 1.8 ii Prime lens which I bought while I was in Korea. I was a little silly when I got it, because I should have splurged the extra cash and bought it new, but instead I chose to get it second hand, and over time the lens itself has started to give me problems. But that does not stop it from being one of the most fun lenses that I own, and one that I use to give me a new perspective on life. It is wonderful in low-light situations and a lot of fun to play with, a good reminder that feet are the best zoom that a person can have.

My new baby (when it comes to lenses) is the birthday present that my parents got me this year, which is my Sigma 10-20mm f/4.0-5.6 Wide Angle which I am looking forward to having lots of adventures with! A wide angle has been one of my wishes for so long that it feels as though a world of possibilities has opened up before me, and I can't wait to take a nice long trip just so that I can test it out the way that it should be tested, on the open road.

My fourth lens, and the one used least often these days, is my Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Telephoto lens... although technically I can't call it mine since it is still on indefinite loan from my father. This is the joy of having a dad who understands photography and the costs of starting out - lenses on loan. Though I do find this lens to be good for a bit of Macro photography, I don't get a chance to use it often considering that I take portraits for the most part. And though a telephoto can give you the advantage of being able to take photographs from a distance, giving your subject the space that can so often let them be more themselves, I find that I haven't had a chance to use it in my photo shoots... yet. I still carry it with me should the need arise, and I look forward to the day when it will come in handy to capture that perfect moment from a distance.

To add a little spice and a little fun to my lens collection, while I was in Korea, I bought a set of extension rings to add to my collection. Though I don't use them nearly as often as I used to, with it being so much easier to flick the switch to Macro on my telephoto lens than dismantling the rings and changing, taking off and putting lenses onto the rings, I still find them a lot of fun to play around with and I've written a few blogs about them. I still carry them in my bag because, as I found out at a wedding last year, they can definitely come in handy.

With the lenses out of the way, it is time to get down to my other gear, or at least the gear that I carry with me. First of all is the flash that I have on loan as well (have you noticed how I have amassed most of my gear through borrowing, loaning and just pure luck? Because going over this, I have!) It is a beautiful Canon Speedlite 580EX which is on loan from my boss at work, and which works particularly wonderfully together with my new studio lighting (another birthday gift that I am looking forward to practicing with). With a tilt range that is practically perfect, it is the ideal on and off camera flash, and is an item that I would love to own for myself one day. For the moment though, I am just happy to get to use it on occasion and keep it in my camera bag until Dianne needs it.

Speaking of my birthday present, part of it is my new Elinchrom EL-Skyport Speed Transmitter which will live in my camera bag from now on rather than in the studio itself. It is what ties the flash to the new lighting system, and ties the new lighting system together overall, and though I have only played around with it so far, it is what is going to bring my studio photography to the next level. I can just tell.

Next up is my Aputure Shutter Release Cable that I bought for myself to try and attempt some astral photography, which I have only gotten around to once since the purchase. But this little device has been used for self-portraits and random odd-jobs that I would never have expected, and is one of the cheaper, but more useful purchases that I have made.

Along with the pieces of equipment, there are one or two other bits and bobs that I store in my camera bag, and this includes 3x memory cards, a second camera battery, a charger (not going to be caught without with that again!), camera and lens covers and, finally, some business cards (which I am also now storing in my wallet and my handbag since being stuck one too many times without them and looking a real fool talking about being a photographer and not having a card to give out.

And that is it! That is the gear that I have on me at all times, and next time I may go into talking about the equipment in my studio, particularly once I have given the new lighting system a real try instead of the playing around that I did on Sunday.

Another Flash Tutorial

I do not own a flash. It is one of the items on my wishlist for this year and I do intend to get one sooner or later. For the moment though, when I need to use one, I need to borrow it. Thankfully, my boss is also a fan of photography, and has one on hand that she has lent to me before (for the last wedding that I had to shoot). With another wedding around the corner, I needed to borrow it again and needed to get used to using it again.

The flash in question is a very very nice one, but the exact specifications are not actually all that important for this blog. What is important to know is that the flash fits into the hotshoe of the camera and has the ability to tilt upwards by 90 degrees and 45 degrees to either side. It is something that I absolutely love about the flash and something that I am definitely going to try to find in whichever flash I end up buying.

Why is this so important then? First of all, having a flash that fits into your hotshoe is very useful when doing photo shoots outside of a studio. When you are in a studio, you can arrange the lighting in any way that you like through the use of umbrellas, reflectors and more powerful lights than a flash can provide. When you are out and shooting, however, you do not always have these available to you. The on-camera flash is too harsh for most situations and, since you cannot adjust where it points, it often ends up only illuminating what is in front of you and not providing sufficient ambient light. This can, of course, be made up for by adjusting the shutter speed and exposure, but when the images are being taken with a hand-held camera rather than a tripod, it can be difficult to perfect. This is why having a flash that fits onto your hotshoe can be useful. Of course, being able to use it off-camera (which this one can do) would also be useful, I imagine, but I have yet to experiment with that, and for the moment will only be talking about using it on a hotshoe. Having a stronger flash on your hotshoe, which can be adjusted in terms of brightness, can have diffusers attached to it and can tilt gives you a lot more flexibility in the images that you can take and make.

The tilt is the other big advantage to having a hotshoe flash. This flexibility is less important when using a flash off-camera, since you can point the flash in any direction that you choose. But, when the flash is attached to your camera, you cannot point the flash in a different direction to the one that the camera is facing unless it has a tilt function. And the tilt function makes a huge difference. By tilting the flash, you can bounce the light that the flash provides to illuminate your subject in the best possible way. I have taken some images to illustrate the point.

In the above image, the first two shots were taken with the flash, a shutter speed of 1/50, an aperture of f/8 and had an ISO of 400. The final image was taken without flash. It was taken with a shutter speed of 1/25, a fairly low one and good for handheld photography, the lowest aperture that my lens would allow for (f/4.5) and an ISO of 3200. All shots are directly from the camera and have not been edited except to put them together in this "collage".

The first image was taken with the flash pointing directly at the guitar. You will notice that the shadows in the centre are dark, the light in the centre is very stark compared to the shadows, the light reflecting off the string and the left side of the guitar is very bright, and you can see the shadows underneath the strings because of the angle that the photo was taken at. If you look to the upper right corner, you will also notice that it is completely in shadow.

In the second image, I had tilted the flash 45 degrees to the left. You will notice that the shadows in the centre are a lot more muted. There are still shadows, but they are less obtrusive and the light in the centre is less bright and less stark because of it. The strings are brighter, but not as reflective and there are no longer any shadows underneath them. The light itself is better distributed throughout the image and if you look at the upper right hand corner of this image, you will notice that it is white (as it should be).

In the third image, you will notice that the photo is not well lit in general, even at a fairly low aperture and shutter speed. However, there are noticable details. The colouring is a lot yellower in the image and the shadows are also distinct, especially when compared to the second image. There are no stark contrasts, however, and everything is fairly muted. 

The third image clearly needs more or better lighting, which the flash provided in both of the photos to the left of it. The second image might be a little too well lit. Shadows do provide interest to images, and there are hardly any in this image. Adding a little contrast would take it a long way. The first image is better in terms of the interest that the shadows provide, but may be a bit too stark and is far from ideal for most situations. I would likely end up brightening it to some extent in post-editing.

The same can be seen in the next images.

None of these are perfect photos, none of them were meant to be perfect. But they do show the usefulness of tilting your flash and bouncing light on a subject. It can have great results if you know how to use it, and it is something that I am still learning how to use. But I can already see a big difference in the photographs that have been taken while I used it. It is something that I look forward to learning more about!

What area of photography do you want to learn more about?

2012 Photography Goals

Good morning Ladies and Gents :)

It is that time of year again where holidays are around the corner, work is winding down and you start reminiscing of the year that has past and dreaming of the year that is ahead. A lot of the photography blogs that I have been reading have been listing their photography goals for 2012, and it took me about 3 minutes to write up my own, purely because they have been on my mind a lot recently. So here they are:

MY 2012 PHOTOGRAPHY GOALS


1. Get my website up and running.
This is something that is already in the pipeline. Watch this space within the next week or two for more details, but I am expecting to have my website up (not quite complete, but at least up) before the end of the month. Maybe even before Christmas. *Holding thumbs*


2. Build my photography studio.
For those of you who are not aware (i.e. those of you who do not follow my other blog about what goes on in my life rather than my photography) I recently moved to a new house. This house is still in Grahamstown, not far from where we used to stay, but is a lot bigger. It also has a double garage, and Grant and I have decided that we are going to make full use of this extra space - Grant by buying a table tennis table, and me by building a small and mobile photography studio. Mobile because, of course, I need to park my car in there at night. But imminently doable. The move, of course, has been quite harrowing on our budgets and so Project Studio will need to wait until next month to get its feet off the ground.

3. Create at least one printed portfolio.
I have been thinking about doing this for awhile now. I know that I intend to have more than one portfolio since I enjoy so many different types of photography - portrait, nature, events, etc. - but by the end of 2012 I hope to have cut down and printed at least one portfolio to show to prospective clients.


4. Be paid for at least one job.
This is one of the biggest tests for 2012. So far, out of all of the photography shoots that I have done, I have only been paid for one, and even that was a special deal for a friend where I charged her a third of my intended price. Don't get me wrong though - the photo shoots that I did were intentionally free of charge because I needed to get experience, needed to get a working portfolio before I felt that I could start charging. However, now that I have got some experience, I feel that charging clients for shoots is the next logical step. The rates are still likely to be lower than other photographers, because I am still an amateur, and negotiable for the same reason. But I am hoping to gain a meagre income from my photography, and by 2013 I hope to make a decision as to whether this is a viable business opportunity or nothing more than a hobby.


5. Have at least two clients who are not direct friends or relatives.
This is another of the big tests. I am never going to be able to make a business or a career out of photography if I am only photographing friends and family. It will especially be the case if I am not charging friends and family for sessions. I need to see if others find my services good or worthwhile, and the only way that I am going to find that out is if I put myself out there and see if anyone is interested in the services that I can offer. Here's hoping that I get the opportunity to have sessions with people in and around Grahamstown.


6. Purchase at least one new piece of equipment.
This is something that I am going to have to save up for and there are going to definitely be decisions to make. There are so many bits and bobs that I want to add to my camera bag (not to mention a new camera bag itself)! Most of all, I want a wide angle lens, but as that is the most expensive lens available, it will take some searching to find a good second hand one for a reasonable price. If I can't manage the lens itself, I am considering getting a wide-angle attachment for my lenses, and then I will look into getting other things like an off-camera flash, a new camera bag, a Lensbaby Composer (so cool!), lens filters and more.


7. Rebrand/Revise/Redo my Facebook page.
Every time I look at my Facebook page compared to those of other photographers, I feel way behind. This is partly because I am way behind on followers and partly because they all have uber-cool designs and logos and are constantly updating their posts, sites, photography, etc. This is something that I intend to do more of next year and I am hoping that it will lead to more popularity and more followers.


8. Gain at least one follower on this blog.
Speaking of followers, I have no idea how many people are following this blog, but the stats aren't looking too good. Most of my posts get between 5 and 17 views in their lifetimes, with photo shoots with friends (who pass the link on to others) getting far higher viewing stats. So I am hoping that this number will rise with more photo shoots and with the website. Speaking of which, there is going to be a little redecorating and renaming of the website going on. Keep an eye out.


9. Write at least one new photography blog post every two weeks.
Part of the problem with people not visiting the site, I feel, is that I don't post often enough on interesting subjects. Well, I tend to post on subjects that are interesting to me, but I definitely don't post often enough. So, one of my goals for next year will be to post a lot more regularly. I feel that once every two weeks will be enough to keep people interested, but not drown them in information that they don't necessarily want to read.


10. Do a new photography challenge every week.
And finally, I have set a goal to do a photography challenge every week. Some weeks I am sure will coincide with the challenges from the photography sites that I follow - sites like Digital Photography School and Photofocus. But there is also a book that I am going to be using as a tool for deciding on challenges. I am going to occasionally run my own challenges, and I am hoping that some people will participate in these challenges. You don't need to have a fancy camera, you could just use your phone. But I will be posting different ideas each week for photographs, and I am hoping that people will participate together with me. Consider it a 52-week challenge rather than a 365 day challenge. 52 awesome photos in a year? Totally doable.

And so there they are. My own photography goals for 2012. What are your goals, photographic or otherwise?

Flashing

Flash can be a pain, but with the right one, it can also be a hell of a lot of fun!

When my camera battery died at the wedding (a mistake that I am hitting myself over the head for, even now), the first thing that the groom did was to whip out his camera and tell me to start taking photos with that. I took one look at it and my expression must have shown my disappointment. "I know it's a piece of junk compared to yours..." I tried to stop him right there. His camera is no piece of junk. It is a pretty decent Fujifilm, a lot better than the camera I was using before I got my Canon, and certainly more than your average point and shoot. It wasn't the camera that I was upset about. It was the flash.

The bride and groom cutting the wedding cake with a dark backdrop.

I hate my own on-camera flash, and there is a good reason for this! You know those photos where the faces of the people in the front are completely over-exposed and the background is pitch black? What about those ones where just about every person has there eyes shut from the shock? Yeah, those are the kinds of photos that you get with an on-camera flash. It doesn't matter if you are using a Fujifilm point and shoot or a Canon 550D, the results are going to be fairly similar. Until recently, I thought this meant that I hated flash photography. And then I played around with the Canon Speedlite 580EX.

The exposure is just right with the Speedlite 580EX.

I managed to get my hands on one of these babies specifically for the wedding, My boss at work just happened to have one lying around and said that I could borrow it for awhile. And I was dubious. I did not like flash, I did not want to use flash, I knew that it was just going to be disastrous. For a good day or two I just sulked about the matter not wanting to try. And then I pulled myself together and got shooting and practicing... and found that flash photography is actually a lot of fun when you have a decent flash!


 It does take awhile to get used to bouncing the light and positioning the flash for the best effects. I blinded more than one person by capturing a shot when the flash wasn't at the right angle. I also got more than a couple of blank photos when I tried to take pictures with the flash too quickly after one another. And yet, the photos that I did get came out so well that I was really happy. No more over-exposed foreground and under-exposed background!

Of course, getting the background right also took a lot of practice. It is about more than just pointing the flash in the right direction. You also need to have your shutter speed and aperture settings down to a tee. Why? What ends up happening, especially in manual mode, is that the flash ends up only providing fill light for the picture. What this means is that the flash will only try to illuminate at a short distance, as most on-camera flashes do. But the difference is that it will also allow you to adjust your own settings to ensure that the background is equally well lit. This means that if there is little light, you will still need to shoot at a low shutter speed and with a wide aperture to ensure that the background is well lit. It also means that you will often need to bring your tripod along even when you are doing flash photography.

So what is the benefit of having a flash if you are still going to have to lower your settings? Well, the ISO will certainly be lower, and even if your background is slightly under-exposed, it is still a lot better than having a well exposed, completely blurry photograph or having an over-exposed, completely clear photograph with a black background.

So, what kind of flash do you want? To be honest, that's going to depend entirely on you. You can get some of the lower end flashes which just attach to your camera and acts as a stronger flash, but with the ability to add bits and bobs that will adjust the light the way you want it to be. You can get a mid-range flash which you can connect to your camera or can be held away from your camera and pointed in a specific direction that way (attached via a cable of some sort).  Or you can get one of the high-range flashes (like the Speedlite 580EX) which can swivel in any direction as well as doing all of the above. I have decided that after playing with the 580EX, it is the only way for me to go. It was far too much fun to ignore!

And so, I have a list of gear that I am scouring Bid or Buy for. First of all it's going to be a spare battery so that there won't be any more stupid mistakes. Second is going to be my Speedlite 580EX flash. Third is going to be a nice wide angle or fish-eye lens, and for the last two I am going to have to save up a ton.

Let me know what is on your photography wishlist!

My First Wedding Shoot (What To Do and What Not To Do)

"In the art of marriage... it is not only marrying the right partner. It is being the right partner."

So, as many of you may know by now, I spent last week Friday doing the photography for the wedding of two friends. It was the first wedding shoot that I'd done, and there were bound to be mistakes. In fact, there was one very big one, but I will get back to that later. Let me tell you first how I prepared for the day.

Preparing is one of the most important parts of the big day. Go there unprepared and your photos will show it.

First things first, I wrote down a list of shots that I wanted to take. I knew the bride and groom already and knew some things that they might want to do and some things that they might not want to. They were not available at the time to ask, so I wrote up my own list and prepared myself to ask them for specifics when they came back from their honeymoon (which they took before the wedding).

One of the shots that I had on my list. Mike throwing Vicky into the river.

Once I had the preliminary list, I started searching through the photography blogs that I follow for more ideas and advice. I added more photographs to the list that was steadily getting  longer and longer, and decided to visit the venue for the wedding a week early to get a feel for the place.

The main stage for the ceremony. It was a good idea for me to go there first otherwise I wouldn't have known that the area was badly lit with nothing to bounce light off of. I knew that I would need to bring a lens which could get wide open and that I would be dealing with higher ISO images.

Seeing the venue was a great plan, since I found out that I would need equipment that I didn't have and wasn't familiar with using, namely a flash. Luckily, I managed to find one, and that part of the day was saved. I quickly learned to use it and learned to love it, and you can expect a post on that at some point within the next few weeks.

One of the shots that I took with the super-awesome amazing flash that I borrowed for the evening, showing how well the light bounced in the reception venue.

On the day itself, before leaving the house, I made a checklist of all the photography gear that I was going to need - lenses, tripod, flash, batteries, charger, bag, etc. and made sure that they were the first things packed into the car since I didn't want to forget anything. We then made the half hour trip to Port Alfred and relaxed for an hour or two in our accommodation before meeting the bride and groom and getting the day started.

Leaving your gear behind would be like an artist leaving his/her brushes at home. Thankfully, this was one thing that I made sure to include.

So that was the prep that I did. And at the time, it felt like the right kind of prep to be doing. I arrived in Port Alfred feeling nervous, but pretty much ready for anything. I had met with the bride and groom and had removed some of the photographs from my list simply due to lack of numbers, since there was only one bridesmaid and one groomsman, which took away a lot of the photographs that I had planned for the bridal party. I had printed out the list of photographs that I had in mind and kept it in the camera bag that I was going to be using. So where did I go wrong then?

First of all, I would recommend insisting that the bride and groom make their own list of photographs in addition to your own. They will want to have specific photos taken, as will their families, and if you do not know what those are, you will be thrown off guard when they ask for them. In this case particularly, the bride and groom told me that they had no specific requests and that they just wanted "everything". That is great and all, but your everything may not be their idea of everything and can lead to slight chaos.

Even though the bride and groom told me that they wanted "everything" they did have some great ideas for "romantic" shots that ended up working out really well and being some of my favourites for the shoot. This is another reason why you should ask your bride and groom what kind of shots they want. I guarantee that not all brides would be impressed with their hubby trying to hit them over the head with an oar. This particular couple were completely into it, which meant that we could have a lot of fun playing around instead of only having serious shots.

Next, I had everything planned down to a tee, and that is never a good idea. What happens then is that when someone comes along suggesting something different, you get thrown off. I had tons of ideas for great shots, but I suddenly found myself forgetting all of them when the bridesmaid refused to pose with the bride's brother (family drama) and when the groom's family (aside from his parents) got stranded in Cape Town and were not able to make it. It is great to be prepared, but try to leave some room for error. Do not freak out when things don't go exactly as planned.

I had planned the family shots very carefully, wanting to bring in first parents, then siblings, then extended family, etc. When Mike's family missed their flight in Cape Town it messed with the order of things and I was left utterly stumped while Mike and Vicky took over and told who to come forward when. This is not ideal. As the photographer, you should be in charge. But since this was a first for me, I think I was forgiven.

Make sure that you have your tripod everywhere, and that you know it inside out. I had hardly used my tripod before the wedding, and while I used it for the family shots, which was great, I found that the dial used for turning the camera on its side was stuck, and not wanting to fiddle around with it, I elected to leave it instead and only took landscape oriented pictures of the family, which I later regretted. I also regretted not having the camera with me at the ceremony, as the area was dark and there was nothing to bounce the flash off of, which meant that I needed to use low shutter speeds with wide apertures and try to hold the camera as still as possible. I managed to get some good shots by leaning on a tree, and I am still not sure that I would have found a place for my tripod due to the angle that the venue was placed at (I'm not sure I would have found somewhere steady enough), but I know that I would have appreciated it.

Knowing your gear well is a definite must! I was kind of lucky with this photo as the little girl was the only one who didn't jump and was therefore the only one in focus, since I forgot to set the shutter speed correctly prior to the jump.

Don't loiter. I very nearly missed the bride and groom leaving on their quick boat trip to the reception simply because I stood around chatting when I should have been off and away as soon as they had left. I missed them climbing into the boat, but thankfully managed to catch them before they rowed off and managed to get a good number of shots in.

Loitering around during the wedding means missing the important shots of the bride and groom when they are alone after the deed has been done. You can get photos of the guests before and at the reception, but the time after the ceremony is time best spent following the bride and groom and catching their glances, their excitement and their special moment.

And now for the big one. The biggest mistake that I made that night was not being sure how many photographs my camera's battery could handle. It turns out, that number is around 715. I didn't know this and wasted a lot of shots on the bride getting ready (another mistake, unless you have a spare battery lying around and a lot of time to do processing of the photos later) which I could have saved for things like the cake being cut and the couple's first dance. I had also left my charger in my bag in the accommodation (yet another mistake) which meant that I really was just completely out of luck. I missed a  large part of the ceremony, but thankfully got the necessary photographs of the family and the friends, the speeches and some of the food, the romantic pics, the ceremony and the preparation, which meant that the bride and groom were not too upset, but that didn't stop me from being furious with myself and vowing that the next item I buy will be a second battery.

Because I left my camera at home, this was the last photo I was able to take, which was thankfully the last of the speeches. However, it also meant limiting my photographs to try and get this much life out of the camera and there were special moment missed in between, such a Mike's father tearing up during his speech.

So, what did I do right? Preparing, making lists of photographs, making checklists of items to bring (and bringing them), getting to know any new equipment that I may have needed to use, checking out the venue before hand, checking with the bride and groom what the bridal party was going to be like and being there nice and early to get all of the necessary shots.

Showing a little courtesy is always the right thing to do. Being married doesn't mean that courting should go out of the window after all ;)

What did I do wrong? I over-prepared, didn't know my own equipment well enough, let last minute changes stress me, loitered (a little), didn't insist on the bride and groom's input on my photography list and didn't bring a second Canon battery or my charger along.

Abandoning your bride on a narrow pier in high heels is the wrong thing to do on your wedding day, much like the things that I did wrong!

At least now I know for the next time, and will learn from my mistakes. The next wedding that I do will hopefully go more according to plan, and less according to plan at the same time, since next time I hopefully won't plan as much and will be calmer now that I have some experience in my belt. No more stressing and more relaxing and having fun! Is there any advice that you would add?

Preparation

Hello guys and gals

It has been awhile since I last wrote a photography post, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been busy! So what have I been busy with in terms of photography? Mostly betting on lenses on bidorbuy.co.za (I lost) and preparing for a wedding shoot. While I could easily write a blog about bidding on lenses and how to go about it (or, more specifically, how not to) I thought that I would take this opportunity to let you know how I have been preparing for the wedding shoot.

The shoot that I am doing is quite an interesting one. The couple are already married and have been for three years. I was in fact with them when they went to the Home Affairs office to tie the knot, and am really happy to be with them to celebrate their three year anniversary by having a wedding. Because they are already married, it takes a lot of stress off the situation. There is no chance of either of them saying no now, no running back down the aisle and no surprises.

While having the wedding after the marriage does take away some of the stress, however, it doesn't take away all of it. There are still guests cancelling at the last minute and family members to juggle, and of course the photographer's job is no less important. This is, all things considered, still a wedding, regardless of whether the couple are married or not, and they are still expecting photographs of amazing quality capturing the special moments of the day. As a photographer who is only just starting out, this leads to a lot of stress. So how have I been coping with it?

I have been writing lists, studying up and borrowing bits and bobs from anyone I can find.

The first thing that I did was sit down with a piece of paper and write down some of the ideas that I had for the happy couple, which shots I wanted to take, where I wanted to take them, and any questions that popped up in my mind while I was doing it. Once I had a preliminary list, I started scouring the net for more ideas. I went onto each of the photography blogs that I follow and looked back into their archives for any wedding photography advice, and I found a ton of it. It gave me further ideas, which I added to my list, and made a number of suggestions that I kept at the top of my mind. One of the suggestions that I came across over and over again was that I should go and check out the venue beforehand.

So, last weekend I made my way to Port Alfred and went to a farm 14km outside of the town to check out the venue and what I could expect. I was glad that I did! If I had pitched up on the day, I would have been far from prepared, and it would likely have been a small disaster. The wedding is outdoors, and the area where the ceremony will take place is hidden under trees. Which means lots and lots of shade - enough of it that a wide open lens would not suffice. Add to that the reception area and the low lighting that it boasted, and I was left with no choice but to give into my most feared form of photography - flash.

I do not have a happy relationship with flash. I learned very early on that flash at night is never a good plan if you want good lighting. At least, not on-camera flash. All that it leads to is unflatteringly over-exposed faces and black backgrounds. Not a good plan for a wedding at all. What I really needed was a hotshoe flash, and I went scouring Grahamstown to find one. It took awhile, but I eventually managed to borrow a Speedlite 580EX, which I have been experimenting with and am now feeling a little more confident about using, even if I am not completely comfortable with my abilities as a photographer.

One I had the flash, I had to learn how to use it - how to bounce light, how to adjust exposure and how to make sure that the backgrounds come out as clear as possible without being hidden in shadow. There was more reading to be done and there was not much time to do it. I felt like I was back in University again, staring at pages that made little sense to me for hours on end until the information was bored into my mind and there was no getting it out. But it wasn't all study. I tried to take my own advice and get a little of the theory and a little of the practice, and have ended up with a knowledge that I am happy with.

So now I am left with a list of photographs that I want to take, a flash that I am feeling a little more confident about using and a day to become comfortable with the fact that tomorrow decides me future. Am I going to be a wedding photographer or am I going to flop on my face? Are my photos going to make the cut, or are the bride and groom going to be in tears (of horror, not joy.) We'll have to see. Wish me luck!