Photographing a Wedding with a Mobile Phone? Professionally!

This was originally posted on my main youtube channel.

Every Wedding Photographer needs to get this right!

Shooting a Wedding and Panic Attacks

Destination Weddings

At Tidbinbilla in ACT Australia

Over the years I have done a number of weddings that they now call destination weddings.
This means you are travelling a long way from home to do the wedding.
It could be overseas or interstate or in a neighbouring country or county etc.
Mine have all been within Australia which is of course a very broad canvas.
I have photographed weddings in Perth on the Westcoast and Canberra and Mollymook Beach on the East coast.

On Darling River at Bindara Station in NSW

On Kangaroo Island South Australia

At Wandiligong Victoria

Bright on the edge of the Australian Alps and Broken Hill in outback NSW and also Bindara Station on the Darling River in outback NSW.

I have also photographed 2 weddings in the Dandenong Ranges in Victoria.

You will need more thought and preparation if going to an overseas destination.

So what are the considerations when you take on a wedding that has this amount of travel.

1. Mode of transport. Borrowing a car or hiring one.

2. Timetable. Must inclue mobile contact details of all the key personnel.

3.Equipment required and how to get it there.
   Can you use less if needing to go by plane?

4.Accommodation

5. GPS and Maps if driving there.

6. A local person assigned as your guide. You will easily get lost if you are in unfamiliar territory.

7. Your quote for your assignment needing to cover all transport and accommodation.

8. Access to money via credit card.

9. Travel insurance.

10. A mobile phone that will work in your location.

11. A knowledge of local customs and a translator if needed.

12. Supplies of any medication you take and some form of letter from your doctor authorising you to take it.

Thus list is not exhaustive. It is a little bit more complicated if you are travelling outside your country.

Remember if you fail to plan you plan to fail.

After the Pandemic. Restructuring Wedding Photography by Geoff Thompson

We are living in very turbulent times amidst the Coronavirus Pandemic.
It came with little warning and has had a huge impact world wide.
Many in Photography are commenting what they can do to survive as photographers.
For many years,as you can see from this blog, I was a wedding photographer.
I never managed to see that I could do it full time, although I did a couple of times.
But I looked at the situation realistically and knew I had a mortgage and a family to support.
If I was a standalone operator with none of those responsibilities then I am sure I could have succeeded.
Albeit with some lean times.
I knew the difficulties of making a career in anything to do with the arts.
That could be Photography,Theatre,Writing, Painter,Singer, Actor and the list goes on .
I used to work in the Australian Government and would interview people accessing un-employment benefits.
Sometimes I found myself interviewing people who were well known names in the arts but between gigs things got rough at times.
Now I am grateful for the decision I made to be a "weekend warrior" as a wedding photographer.
I had a job all those years and superannuation was accumulating.
The money I got from photography was a bonus.
I still had the satisfaction of producing good photography and often mixed with those who were full time.
Indeed I found also I had an ability to teach photography.
I occasionally taught courses in wedding photography and some went on to be quite successful full time photographers.
I hope they are coping now.
I got a leaflet in my letter box yesterday for the first time from a local portrait studio.
That is a sign things are tough.
So my proposition is that Photographers may need to shift the goal posts a little.
Modern technology is such now that I think the time has come for people to rethink how they operate.
It may take a lot to swallow some pride and do the unthinkable and seek an alternative employment but maybe the time has come.
You can still pursue your craft with much satisfaction and financial reward in a different way.
I am sure many of the photographers whose work and blogs and youtube channels I enjoy have transferable skills.
I hope and trust all of you out there at this time are healthy and doing all the necessary things to stay so.

Essential Non Photographic items to Photograph a wedding

Much is made of Camera Equipment and other things photographic when people are seeking information about getting started in Wedding Photography.
There are essential items that are overlooked and usually you will already have them.

1. A reliable air-conditioned car and a full tank of petrol.
In Australia the wedding season is usually in hot weather.
You need to stay cool and be cool when photographing a wedding and moving around the different locations.
Also if you car stops you are in big trouble.
I once went off in my Camry station wagon  on a wedding and forgot to fill the tank up before I went.
I was still a long way from home and realised the tank was nearly empty.
Thankfully I had completed the wedding.

A well earned cup of coffee after the wedding assignment is completed. Roof of my car is used as a table.

2. A GPS navigating system and a street directory.

If you get lost you are in even bigger trouble.

3. A time sheet for your wedding day.

Essential to have a plan. See my previous post on wedding timetables.

https://geoffthompsonsblog.blogspot.com/search/label/wedding%20photography%20timetable

4. A wedding photography agreement.
 You need to have yourself covered by a contract if things go wrong.See my previous post on this.
https://geoffthompsonsblog.blogspot.com/search/label/wedding%20photography%20agreement

5. Water and food.

You need to stay hydrated. You need food also to keep your energy levels up.
Your clients will not necessarily be supplying you with food and drink.
It is a long day.

6. Phone. When I started mobile phones were unheard of. Could you do one now without your phone.

7. Drivers license.

You could get stopped by police. I have been.
Ironically I was on my way to photograph a police wedding.

8. Credit card and/ or cash.

You might need to pay for  a car park  or even by something like batteries or an sd card if the need arose.

9. An assistant to help you on the day.

https://geoffthompsonsblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/working-witrh-assistant-wedding.html

Either as second shooter and/or as a helper.
I started out doing weddings by myself but found it essential as I got into it to have an assistant.

If you haven't got all these bases covered you may strike problems on the big day.

A Marriage of Technology.- Metz 45 Flash and Qantum Battery 2

Fill flash using Metz 45.

Bounce flash using metz 45.

When I was photographing weddings in the pre-digital, film days I tried various equipment until I settled on a great combination.

It was for me any way.

The Metz range of hammer head flash guns and the Qantum  Battery 2.

The Metz flashes are powerful and excellent for wedding and portrait work.

I have owned 3 of them and I still have a working 45cl4 and the 45 ct3.

The quantum battery pack when fully charged I could do two weddings in a row if required.

I only ever did that once or twice.

I could take numerous full bounce flash and fill flsh all day knowing my flash would keep firing.

I did own two of these for a while but sold one.

I still have one and recently went to use it and found through unuse the battery cells had given up.

My local "battery world" people said thay could fix it and now it is working better than ever.

This combination can be used successfully with digital cameras.

Looking Back at Film Weddings

I have a great number of weddings in my archives.

I like to go through them now and then and analyse how I went.

This particular wedding shoot of Cassie and Travis I found very enjoyable and I captured some great images(in my opinion).

It was entirely shot on film.

I had the negatives scanned at processing to produce low res files.

They were processed and scanned at Black and White Photographics which are still operating today.

 http://www.blackandwhitephoto.com.au/

I would have been using my Pentax Mzs film camera and I was working with an assistant.

My film would have been Fuji VPS 160 and Fuji VPH 400.

Some of these pics were featured on the Weddingsa website.

http://www.weddingsa.com.au/bom/jan06/default.htm#.XD6x0vxS_dS

Finally pulling the plug!

In 1975 I started photographing weddings.

I was 29 at the time.

My Dad, Glen Thompson, who was my first trainer and Inspiration in photography. The safari suit was my standard wedding photography uniform in the 1970's. This was in the Dandenongs in Victoria.

Now this last weekend I assisted a young friend in a wedding shoot and at the end of the day and into the night I suffered some terrible cramps.

I decided that now almost 70 it is time to declare my innings closed on officially shooting weddings.

I have been averaging about one a year over the last five years.

I have been thoroughly enjoying over the last 10 years the transition from film photography to digital and marvel at the cameras now being produced at a rapid rate.
I will probably in future still take some shots at weddings where I am a guest but apart from that maybe only when I am Uncle Geoff.
It has been a fantastic journey and I have made many wonderful friends in the photography industry and also been able to mentor and train some young photographers along the way.
On this blog and my other blogs I have posted some of my training in wedding photography tips from my course I developed some years ago.
If you are an aspiring Wedding Photographer you may find a lot of help there.
See my other blogs on photography.
 A lot of this training is also posted on this blog.

http://geoffthompsonphotographics.blogspot.com.au/

http://geoffthompsonsphotographytraining.blogspot.com.au/

Thanks to all who have helped me along the way.
Especially my lovely wife.

From last weekend. A beautiful wedding.

ADVICE TO NEWLY WEDS

ADVICE TO NEWLY WEDS- from  a Wedding Photographer

Some years ago, starting out as a young married couple we were very much immersed, particularly when we had young children, in the Ministry of Dr James Dobson from Focus on the Family ,a Christian organisation that he founded.

He had a film series that was very helpful to us in the 1970’s and also had  a radio programme from which many cassettes were produced.

One of the cassettes was entitled “Advice to Newly Weds”.

It contained very good  advice for those wishing to heed it.

At one stage as a young man  starting out in  wedding photography who regarded his photography as a Christian Ministry, I had an idea of presenting the tape to all couples whose wedding I photographed.

I decided not to do that as it was not really my role as a photographer to do it, so I thought..

Sadly I am aware some of those marriages have not lasted.

Some whose weddings I did,  caused me to question the match and how long the wedding would last and thankfully some of those people proved my judgement wrong.

So now in the age of blogging I thought I would share some of my thoughts on the theme as titled.

As a wedding photographer you are given the privilege of being very involved with young couples on their special day and I am always prayerful that the marriage will be a good one and able to withstand the challenges along the way.

As wedding photographers we present the couple as atrractively as we can and try to capture the romance of their special day.

While the photos I produce , I  think are great, and as a romantic at heart I try for the  romance of the occasion, they do not depict real life in as much that after all the celebration and the honeymoon period is over, couples have to settle into the daily task of being married, working, bringing up children and interacting and relating with others. .

There are all the challenges that can happen in life;  illness, accidents, mortgages, possible unemployment periods, children difficult to handle, teenagers running off the rails, schooling difficulties, broken friendships and relationships.

The scourge of Drugs and other ills in our society.

So what is a plan to make your marriage work.

A young couple who recently were married in our Church were given some homework by their Minister, to ask mature, long married couples in their Church how they had stayed married so long and what advice would we give them.

We were very touched that they asked us amongst others.

Here are some of our thoughts.

My wife and I have engraved on our wedding rings a quote from the book of Ephesians Chapter 4:2

From the Living Bible it says this.

² Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.

The following verses also are an important part of the plan as well.

³ Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. ⁴ For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. ⁵ There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶ and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all.

Be committed to your Marriage and your partner.

If you are Christians it is God’s will for you that your marriage is until death do you  part.

We try to make sure that we do things together,

        go on holidays together,

to the same concerts.

This doesn’t always happen.

I have come to enjoy operas but I doubt my wife will ever enjoy football.

At all times to always be on your guard when mixing with the opposite sex.

If you are a good listener and you care about people  you may find yourselves in a situation where the person receiving your help thinks there is more in it than you intend.

Be very judicious if you drink alcohol.

When we are intoxicated is when we are in trouble.

My preference and rule is no alcohol at all.

(Bearing in mind I don’t believe the Bible

forbids the drinking of alcohol but we are warned to  “ not let our Brother stumble.”)

The thing is you or your wife might be the one stumbling.

Do not hero worship your partner.

They are capable of letting you down as much as anyone else.

Build in to your marriage the highest aims and ideals but realise that the only perfect

human being was Jesus.

It is He we should put first and worship.

When the going gets rough in a marriage don’t be so proud as to not ask for help but

choose your counsellor wisely.

1 Corinthians Chapter 13 is often read out at weddings.

Don’t just read it claim it for your marriage.

And at verses 4-7 substitute the name Love or it with your first name.

In a marriage and in life as a Christian give up your right to yourself.

1 Corinthians 13

New Living Translation (NLT)

1 Corinthians 13

Love Is the Greatest

 ¹ If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. ³ If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;^[a] but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

 ⁴ Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud ⁵ or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. ⁶ It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. ⁷ Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

 ⁸ Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages^[b] and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! ⁹ Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! ¹⁰ But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.

 ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. ¹² Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.^[c] All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

 ¹³ Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

Well there is so much more.

I don’t believe marriages are made in Heaven. In fact the Bible tells us there is no marriage in Heaven.

However we should ask God's guidance on who we should marry.

Marriages are made here on earth and we need to fight for our marriage to be as God intends it to be.

There are high standards for marriage in the  Bible but God never asks us to do anything that He cannot or will not supply the power for us to carry it out.

The Christian family , if it is being Christian, has by virtue of Jesus , the in built ability to overcome  any challenges.

For a useful study on how to reconstruct your marriage see the link below.

http://geoffthompsonsblog.blogspot.com.au/2016/08/how-to-reconstruct-your-marriage-by.html 

Barossa Valley Wedding

I have already posted this on my other blog but same text and a few more pics.Many thanks to Aden and Nicola and their family and friends for a lovely wedding.
For anyone interested in me photographing their wedding, my position is I will consider any requests but I am not seeking to do heaps of weddings as my years are advancing.
The Barossa Valley is a very popular South Australian Tourist Destination and Wine Growing District.
It is about 1 hours drive out of Adelaide.
Over the years I have photographed many weddings there and this my most recent wedding in November was in Tanunda and then at Maggie Beer's Farm.
The "reccy" that I did a few weeks ago was for this particular wedding.
The weather forcast all week was for rain on the Saturday of the wedding  but thankfullywe had overcaste conditions but no rain.
The soft light was ideal for outdoor photography.
Many of the shots by the lake were taken from my small stepladder as per my post on using a ladder in wedding photography.


my email contact is geoff@geoffthompson.com.au