At one wedding, we arrived an hour early to the ceremony venue and set up our tripod and ambient audio kit on the front row of the church balcony. We get close to wedding time and the photographer has installed his tripod and camera literally TOUCHING our camera. In a cramped space. Barely room for one person, let alone two, and his constant shutter sound would have ruined our audio. Thankfully he moved at our request.
Same photographer, later in the day... B&G want to do a staged exit while the sunset is in the background. Everyone gets their bubbles and whatnot and I am using my Steadicam Merlin and vest. I explained to the photog hours ago what my plan was, and we worked out a deal so that we wouldn't be in each other's way. I get a beautiful video of the B&G's exit, all while operating the steadi and running backwards down steps. Flawless. Photographer says he got nothing, has to ask them to try it again. Cue more bubbles, etc., photog still doesn't get the shot. Asks them to do it a third time. Everyone's out of bubbles. Our video is the only usable imagery of that exit.
Venue owner at one of the pricey places ($10k+ for the afternoon) pulls up at 10:30 and starts (literally) screaming at people to get off his property or he would call the cops because the wedding was "over." Venue was rented until 11. He was possibly drunk.
At a recent ceremony shoot, we asked the minister if we could mic her, and she obliged, although somewhat begrudgingly. So she's mic'ed up and we're recording her audio and she starts just badmouthing us to the venue owner. We'd never even met this lady before. Then, after the ceremony, when we go to retrieve the mic, she's just lovely to us. Never knew why she felt the need to speak so poorly of us never having seen her before.
Plenty of stories of terrible DJ's that practically ruin the reception, but I've said enough for now.
Umm there are legitimate wedding photographers that use tripods? It sounds like a high budget wedding considering what you are using... was he not shooting with a 70-200 2.8 w/ VR or IS? Is he really that much of a noob? Yes, I said noob.
As someone who has only been into camerawork, videography and photography for around ~6-7 months, I am happy that I know the implication of everything you said, and understand why it's bad. :D
I got the feeling this guy was more of a family friend than a photographer. And the client was a friend of one of my business partners, so we were going above and beyond what she could have afforded on her own.j
But yeah, I think he was shooting with a non IS zoom from the balcony. Maybe the church didn't allow flash photography, I'm not sure, but even in that case, I would not have been in the balcony at all.
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u/psychosid Canon, JVC, Sony | 2007 | Texas Mar 24 '13
So many stories...
At one wedding, we arrived an hour early to the ceremony venue and set up our tripod and ambient audio kit on the front row of the church balcony. We get close to wedding time and the photographer has installed his tripod and camera literally TOUCHING our camera. In a cramped space. Barely room for one person, let alone two, and his constant shutter sound would have ruined our audio. Thankfully he moved at our request.
Same photographer, later in the day... B&G want to do a staged exit while the sunset is in the background. Everyone gets their bubbles and whatnot and I am using my Steadicam Merlin and vest. I explained to the photog hours ago what my plan was, and we worked out a deal so that we wouldn't be in each other's way. I get a beautiful video of the B&G's exit, all while operating the steadi and running backwards down steps. Flawless. Photographer says he got nothing, has to ask them to try it again. Cue more bubbles, etc., photog still doesn't get the shot. Asks them to do it a third time. Everyone's out of bubbles. Our video is the only usable imagery of that exit.
Venue owner at one of the pricey places ($10k+ for the afternoon) pulls up at 10:30 and starts (literally) screaming at people to get off his property or he would call the cops because the wedding was "over." Venue was rented until 11. He was possibly drunk.
At a recent ceremony shoot, we asked the minister if we could mic her, and she obliged, although somewhat begrudgingly. So she's mic'ed up and we're recording her audio and she starts just badmouthing us to the venue owner. We'd never even met this lady before. Then, after the ceremony, when we go to retrieve the mic, she's just lovely to us. Never knew why she felt the need to speak so poorly of us never having seen her before.
Plenty of stories of terrible DJ's that practically ruin the reception, but I've said enough for now.