Need Ideas for anniversary party pics

[clbd39]

So, a friend's friend, wants me to come take pictures at her parents' surprise anniversary party. Any ideas for pictures? I don't want them to just look like snapshots, but I'm not exactly sure what else to take other than posed family shots (should be about 20 people there) and pictures of the cake and them getting there and the surprised face shots

The location is a park that is around a pond with a covered area to eat at

it looks like they're calling for thunderstorms off and on during the day too

so i need to get as many shots as possible before the weather gets bad

any ideas? or examples? Not exactly something that was easy to find on flickr or anywhere else

 

[myfotoguy]

Some random ideas that come to mind:

• The expressions during the surprise moment.
• Watch for opportunity to capture the honored couple looking into each others eyes (hopefully smiling)
• If they are cutting the cake, a shot of them cutting it.
• Handing out the cake
• People hugging
• People laughing
• Maybe a couple shots overhead with your 12-24 of the scene, but for the most part I would focus on smaller groups of people (1-3 or so) to capture the details of the moods.
• It helps to observe conversations a bit and aim waiting for the right moment to come, vs. snapping any group any time. I like to hold a few seconds with the viewfinder to my eye until I see the expression that makes the shot.
• Capture details of the decorations and setting (before the party). The folks that you give the shots to might like those details to enhace the scrapbook.
• A couple shots of the view from the party.
• When snapping shots, watch backgrounds where possible.
• When possible, move objects to reduce clutter. Clutter kills shots, I would minimalize it when possible, but don't get annoying about it LOL.
• Get as many candids capturing the emotions as possible. Staged shots are fine (you probably will need to get a few of VIP), but I would go into it hoping for wonderful candids if I were doing it.

I don't know if the article links below will help, but they come to mind, since party pictures are about the right moment. The first article is about "The Decisive Moment". The second is birthday party ideas, some of the ideas there can be transferred to anniversary party. Where it talks about kids and their friends, think about the couple and their immediate family that are there. Also, if they do have some lifelong friends at the party, I would include them as important shots.

Although, you did say small party, so likely everyone there would be good to get shots with the couple at some point.

http://www.my-fotoguy.com/2010/03/decisive-moment-when-to-click.html

http://www.my-fotoguy.com/2010/04/how-to-take-great-birthday-party.html

For equipment, I would bring everything. I would plan on a couple shots with the 12-24. A few isolation shots with the 80-200. If you have room to move the 50mm. The 12-24 might be sufficient at the longer end for under the covering and moving around, but maybe the 18-135 will work out better. I would also bring the SB-600 for fill-flash when needed.

Watch your WB when you go under the covering. If using flash, flash WB. If not, then consider toggling to cloudy or shade WB. If you can, shoot in RAW+Jpeg or just RAW so you can adjust the WB in post.

When I am doing outdoor activities, with flash I often have the WB set to flash. If the flash is off, I find myself switching to cloudy and back to sunny. It really depends on the subject and what is beyond them. In auto the camera may choose wrong if there is a mix of light in the scene, which is whey I usually adjust it manually for the subject.

 

[clbd39]

Excellent post, thank you very much!

If there are anymore ideas let me know, but wow that covered a lot, thank you!

I only shoot RAW and have fallen in love with LightRoom2 recently