newrmdmike and thebeginnings adventures at a vietnameise wedding

[thebeginning]

I would think that as a professional you would know which clients appreciate a sense of humor and which prefer that you do your thing quietly. I think they have to be comfortable and so do you, if a photographer were too serious it may make some nervous.. even on my wedding day I was not keen about having cameras on me (we didn't even have a photographer) but I think these two would have put me at ease about that!

well thanks! that's what we hoped to do...it worked quite well at this wedding!

 

[Frequent Traveler]

From the looks of the wedding party, everyone was having a good time. Given excellent photographic work, everyone having *fun* at a wedding shoot is the single best advertising your business will ever get - most people may not remember a good photographer, but certainly everyone does remember those that have too much need for schedules - it's called PUSHY. Maybe RMThompson was simply trying to mention a bad side of too much fun by the photog's.

You have a great advertising opportunity at weddings - the unmarried females who live in your area - they are most often the decision maker in their weddings. They will remember how fun, easy and PROFESSIONAL you were especially as they look at their friends photos - you have the opportunity to be the photographer that they compare "the other guy" to - you can become the "benchmark". Not a single one of them will remember a missed shot unless you made a huge error - which does not seem to be the case, but they will remember how nice, easy and fun you were.

Professionalism is presumed (but oh how quickly it can evaporate!!!) and if, at the end of the day, you deliver the goods your light demeanor can convey confidence. This, as well as not having to control every little thing with an iron fist (AKA seriousness - no fun there). This isn't to mean constant clowning around, but you seem to know the difference. ; -)

Anyway, all this speaks nothing of helping put a potentially nervous wedding party at ease - another "perK' you can deliver - free of charge!

fm

 

[newrmdmike]

haha, dan . . . i'll just call you about it.

anyways, how about posting some actual shots from the wedding? i think i will soon.

 

[RMThompson]

haha are you serious??

first off...yes we were shooting this professionally. second, who said weddings couldn't be fun? in fact I find it better in almost every situation to try to lighten the mood as much as possible. you need to maintain a level of respect with your clients (in this case a bride and groom) but they need to like you as a person as well. I know when and when not to act 'fun'. None of the shots you see here caused us to lose any critical shots (and we got a lot of critical shots...over 30 gigs worth). If they would have, we would not have taken them. The only ones that even get remotely close to that were the ones where we were in each other's photos by accident. that happens. all the other shots were shots taken when there was nothing else to do (like when mike was taking the bridal portraits, I was not needed), test shots or shots taken when we had a break (between the ceremony and reception there was a 4 hour break. we had already completed the detail shots in the reception). none of these shots took more than a single second to compose and snap, anyway.


i respect your opinion and how seriously you take your clients (I too take my clients extremely seriously) but I also know that there is a point where there is 'too much serious', resulting in a stiff relationship between client and photographer.

You misunderstand me.

I mean there could probably be instances where this works against you. For instance in one picture, your partner is leaning against someone taking a difficult shot of some people dancing. You are taking a picture of him taking that picture, but who knows what Uncle Bob is doing? Maybe having a sweet dance with his daughter standing on his feet, but you didn't see it because you were taking the picture of taking the picture. In another you caught him chimping, but there is a bunch of people in the background apparently listening to someone. Both of you were NOT taking pictures.

I love fun as much as the next guy, but there is a time and place.

The shots before the wedding or reception, when people are standing around anyway, no biggie, I don't think a Bridal Party would mind much, but I still wouldn't be snapping pictures of my partner. I'm here to be as professional and serious as possible.

Eh Oh well, different strokes for different folks I suppose.

 

[newrmdmike]

no, i think you misunderstand us. this is a tiny portion of the day, during which there were several breaks with nothing happening. we don't shoot the same thing over and over and over, we get the shot and move on. if there is no shot, there is nothing we can do but wait for a minute, then boom, you have the above photos.

two photogs photographing the same thing is a bit of a no no in a posed situation. one photog poses, the other may get a better shot and then its ackward when they want to buy the other guys print.

were you there? no, so zip.

guess what, we worked a 15 hour day . . . believe me, there is no shot we missed, and if we did it is overshadowed by the 30gb of other photos.

while yes, there is a time and place to mess around, i don't think you realize that the shots you see are making up about 15 minutes of time, or less.

are you going to tell me that in a 15 hour workday you don't have 15 minutes where you go . . . "ok, what to shoot?"

if not then bravo, but i highly doubt that.

 

[RMThompson]

Again, I am not criticizing the downtime shots, I understand that, even though if I had paid for you and saw you taking pictures of each other I might be upset... I wouldn't say a word.

The problem I have are specifically in the two shots, the one where is taking a picture of people dancing, and you are taking a picture of him (or is it vice versa?)

You can't tell me there isn't something else you could've been doing? There wasn't ANOTHER shot you could've been taking? A floor shot? Uncle Bob? A bridesmain crying in the corner?

No doubt you did a good job, I am not doubting you, your partner, nor either of your skills, just the work ethic. You worked 15 hours and goofed off for 15 minutes, great... but my point is, there are shots that are only available for 10 seconds, and if taking one of these shots missed one of those, then you've done your client.

However I will not "zip". You've posted your pictures on a forum, asking for critiques. Just because I am the minority here doesn't mean I am going to shut up. You have my opinion.

Great shots BTW, in the other thread. I like your work, keep it up.

 

[thebeginning]

Again, I am not criticizing the downtime shots, I understand that, even though if I had paid for you and saw you taking pictures of each other I might be upset... I wouldn't say a word.

The problem I have are specifically in the two shots, the one where is taking a picture of people dancing, and you are taking a picture of him (or is it vice versa?)

You can't tell me there isn't something else you could've been doing? There wasn't ANOTHER shot you could've been taking? A floor shot? Uncle Bob? A bridesmain crying in the corner?

No doubt you did a good job, I am not doubting you, your partner, nor either of your skills, just the work ethic. You worked 15 hours and goofed off for 15 minutes, great... but my point is, there are shots that are only available for 10 seconds, and if taking one of these shots missed one of those, then you've done your client.

However I will not "zip". You've posted your pictures on a forum, asking for critiques. Just because I am the minority here doesn't mean I am going to shut up. You have my opinion.

Great shots BTW, in the other thread. I like your work, keep it up.

I see where you're coming from...if I saw something like this from another photographer (without knowing the circumstances) I might have a similar opinion as well. I think what mike was trying to say was that we were shooting constantly. literally. we took so many shots of so many people in so many situations that any other shots (unless some unique or special turned up) would basically just be wasting space that we didn't really have. We kept our eyes open for anything special happening, and if it didn't, we didn't shoot it. If there wasn't anything happening, or if there was something happening that wasn't super important, like the cake-cutting (haha just kidding), we might have snapped a photo of eachother. like i said before, no more than a split second. and of the 'uncle bob' shots and other shots like that, we got quite a few. I honestly think that we didn't miss any special moments or great shots because of any of the photos we took here.

 

[AprilRamone]

Sorry RM, I see your point, but I think it's very thin. Do you think that a wedding photographer shouldn't at some point get a break (like to eat) on a full day wedding shoot? There is a reason why some wedding photography companies have 2+ photographers shooting an event. So that they can get most of the special moments captured, but even if you had 50 photographers milling about anticipating moments and non-stop shooting, they will miss SOMETHING.
If I saw my wedding photographer being crazy and goofing off for a good amount of time, I'd say something, but if they were just having fun and I had seen their work before and liked it, I doubt I'd worry about anything and just trust that they know what they are doing.

 

[newrmdmike]

THANKYOU!

 

[Richard]

Ok here is an opinion from someone who doesn’t consider themselves a real photographer… yet. I understand RMThompson is saying, for example if I paid big bucks for a service and I saw them playing around even if it was one time for 10 second, but that happen to be the exact time I saw them, well I wouldn’t make a big deal of it quite yet. That would just sit in the back of my head. Especially if you have been joking with me and the guest previously, and I’ve gotten to know your personality a bit. What would happen is I would be expecting some great photos. I’m assuming I have already seen your work and know what I am expecting. If I get anything less then that’s when that time I saw you playing around might come back to me, then I might get upset.

I can kinda see how fooling around in your situation might be a little dangerous. There is a small risk you could make the client upset, but at the end if you produce the expected or even better than expected then I know I really wouldn’t care how much joking around you guys did.

On the other hand I can see that instead of joking around with each other you could have been joking around with the guest to try to make some more crazy pictures, which is like being a perfect employee and always concentrating on work. But come on who wants to concentrate on work 100% of the time. Shoot I’m writing this while I’m at work!

BTW with the pictures you posted I can already tell you guys know what your doing behind a camera so I'm sure the real pictures will be great and when the Bride and Groom see them they will be very happy.

 

[Rayna']

blah blah blah...more pic please!

 

[thebeginning]

blah blah blah...more pic please!

that's all i have :cry:


at least of the shots of mike...

 

[Rayna']

that's all i have :cry:


at least of the shots of mike...

that's ok..it just looked like a fun wedding.

 

[RMThompson]

Sorry RM, I see your point, but I think it's very thin. Do you think that a wedding photographer shouldn't at some point get a break (like to eat) on a full day wedding shoot? There is a reason why some wedding photography companies have 2+ photographers shooting an event. So that they can get most of the special moments captured, but even if you had 50 photographers milling about anticipating moments and non-stop shooting, they will miss SOMETHING.
If I saw my wedding photographer being crazy and goofing off for a good amount of time, I'd say something, but if they were just having fun and I had seen their work before and liked it, I doubt I'd worry about anything and just trust that they know what they are doing.

Again, people are missing my point.

Did you NOT see the picture where he is taking a picture of his partner, who is in turn taking a picture of people dancing? Of course the wedding photogs get a break, we aren't talking about during a break, he can go do whatever he wants during the break!

My point is this: In that moment, there COULD'VE been an opportunity for a shot he missed, merely because he was shooting his friend instead of focusing on the wedding party.

I'm merely suggestion the POSSIBILITY, I'm not saying that they did this, nor am I saying they DID upset their customer, merely (again) suggesting the possibility that it could happen if one weren't really paying attention!

 

[thebeginning]

Again, people are missing my point.

Did you NOT see the picture where he is taking a picture of his partner, who is in turn taking a picture of people dancing? Of course the wedding photogs get a break, we aren't talking about during a break, he can go do whatever he wants during the break!

My point is this: In that moment, there COULD'VE been an opportunity for a shot he missed, merely because he was shooting his friend instead of focusing on the wedding party.

I'm merely suggestion the POSSIBILITY, I'm not saying that they did this, nor am I saying they DID upset their customer, merely (again) suggesting the possibility that it could happen if one weren't really paying attention!

yes, but you could also miss that split-second amazing shot because you're taking mediocre shots of guests dancing and such. you're always going to miss SOME shots, whether you're having fun with it or not. the more you drill this point of yours the less valid it seems...