I talk a lot about how much I love my job, and it's all true! I get to meet amazing people, shoot beautiful details, and spend time with people during some of the most important moments of their lives. That doesn't mean that it's easy, though. I shot two weddings in a row this weekend and now I am absolutely and thoroughly exhausted - it's definitely a full-body workout :) In case you're tempted to quit your day job and become a wedding photographer, or you're just curious about what it's like, I thought I'd break it down for you by the numbers. So, here's how my last 48 hours was measured:Weddings : 2
Images shot : 92GB worth
Weight of my Canon 5d Mark II with 50mm 1.2 L lens and 580 EXII flash : 4.8 lbs (according to my bathroom scale :)
Weight of my Manfrotto 190XDB tripod (with the 701 HDV video head) : 6.1 lbs
Weight of my shooting bag: 3.2 lbs
In my shooting bag (an old leather messenger-style laptop bag) : other lens, batteries, pens, hairbrush, business cards, pocket knife, safety pins, breath mints, phone, lipstick, protein bars, screwdriver, tampons, lens cleaning cloth, lens cleaning pen
Weight of my Dakine Reload waterproof camera bag (with everything else inside ): 21.8 lbs
Total weight I carry with me : 35.9 lbs
Hours on my feet: 23.5
Energy drinks consumed : 4
Days it rained : 2
Number of concerned fathers, stepfathers, grandfathers, and fathers-in-law who said the exact phrase, "Better hurry, it's gonna rain!" more than one time while we were shooting: 6 (I counted!)
Needless to say, I woke up this morning feeling like I ran a marathon. With the flu. While getting hit by a semi. But I'm happy, and I STILL love my job :) I can't wait to post some images from this fabulous weekend!
I had another recent question come in about my lighting. I use natural lighting whenever possible, and I'm lucky enough to have a studio space with natural window light coming in from three sides! I never use a flash when I'm shooting babies or children because a) it's disruptive to the baby, especially if we're trying to get them to sleep or calm down, b) older kids move pretty quickly and any flash needs a bit of time to recycle, and c) the light sensitivity of the 50mm 1.2 means that I'm never in a situation during the day when I actually need more light. I do have some old studio lights that I rarely, if ever, use. I'm not even gonna link to them because I'd have to go find out what kind they are - that's how little I use them. When you start getting into the world of studio lighting setups, you have to start worrying about color temperature a lot more. I love the way skin tones look in natural light, and I'm reeeally not a fan of how skin tones look under 99% of studio light setups, so I just don't even go there.
That being said... if I'm looking to create some added drama and want to get creative with supplemental lighting outside (or inside a venue), I LOVE my Lowel iD video light. It's dimmable and what you see is what you get, which is super helpful with composition. It's also less disruptive than a flash if you're trying to be a little more subtle, although it gets hot quickly and isn't as powerful, but in most situations, that's okay with me. Before I decided to make the switch to Canon, I was using a Nikon SU-800 commander unit to trigger my SB-600 speedlite units. The visual effect was AWESOME, but it's all line-of-sight communication, which seemed to be a problem in more situations than not, and the trigger range was less than I had hoped for, so although I had fun playing around with that, it quickly dropped out of my setup. Now that I'm shooting Canon, I'll probably be investing in some Pocket Wizards soon :) Yay! Oh, gear... there's always something to buy. Okay, that's probably enough nerd talk for now. I'll end with a quick sneak peek from this weekend- congrats to Theresa & Jason and Christian & Heather!
