I had another wedding this past weekend. This one was a bit different thought. For the first time I was the main shooter (partially). An Indian ceremony is quite extensive. There are almost always pre-wedding events which occur on separate days.For some reason our main shooter was not present on one of the pre-wedding events (the Sangeet).
Therefore, Jay planned for me to take portrait pictures. I was very excited. I felt I knew enough from previously setting up lights for the main photographer etc. Taking his light readings, helping the couple to pose and photographing casual shoots all lead up to this.
For some reason I was more exited than nervous. I felt as though nothing would go wrong. With Jay’s help I was able to get through it. I guess it also helped that I photographed the couple during their casual shoot a couple of months ago (3 location shoot). We photographed their wedding on Saturday and it ended better for several reasons which I will explain.
For starters I invested in some new equipment on Friday. An adapter which allowed radio communication with room lights and a bracket helped to improve my photography a lot. With the ability of using room light my backgrounds will no longer suffer from being dark. Yippee! I used the Steve’s (main photographer on wedding night) radio to communicate with the room lights. After shooting portraits on the Sangeet night and in the morning of the wedding, I plan on purchasing my own radios soon (seeing how effective shooting with an off-camera umbrella can be has inspired me).
Going back to how well the night ended. We began shooting at 7am and ended around 11pm. As the night ended the bride walks up to me to thank me for a great night and then hands me an envelope. I’ve been given tips several times (as an assistant), but I received a feeling of satisfaction when she handed me this envelope. I didn’t bother checking the amount until after I left the building. As I was loading the bags into the car I discovered the tip was much greater than I had expected. Nonetheless, the refreshing feeling did not result from the fact that the tip was larger than my paycheck for that night, but rather it came from the fact that I made someone else feel good simply by doing my job. Feels great when the newlyweds see this.
To add to the joy, as I walked into the studio today we received an email from the newlyweds:
Hi Jay,
We wanted to thank you for all the effort you took to photograph our wedding! The few pictures from the Sangeet look beautiful, you were great to work with.Also, please give our regards and thanks to your staff, especially Elvis who was with us through it all.
We look forward to seeing the rest of the pictures and putting our album together! Hope to work with you again in the future.
Best Regards,
[Client’s names]Sent from my iPhone
Wow! Thanks guys. Now the pressure is on us to give them a great album. Not that I’m worried.