Paul Lester Photo

Way back in the day, say around 1982, I spent some time as a wedding photographer. Mind you, I was only 20 at the time, had just picked up a camera only a few years before, and decided to give it a go. I found a niche market, AKA, cheap photography. and set about doing weddings. My clients were the “something for nothing” crowd. LOL. They wanted a complete wedding shoot for about $300. What did they get? Honestly, not a whole lot. I’d shoot several rolls of film, have them developed at a local drugstore, and give them the prints and the negatives. Quite a business model, no? At any rate, I made enough money to keep me buying camera gear, so it worked.

What I did learn out of that experience was that I didn’t really care for wedding photography. There was always too much drama going on. Everyone wanted to be a director and to tell you what to do. Hmmmmpf! At that time, if I remember correctly, most weddings were shot traditionally. That is, there were certain posed photographs that you had to have: Bride and Groom, Bridesmaids, Groomsmen, parents, grandparents, etc, etc, etc. Then, photos of the ceremony, and a few snaps of the reception, the bible, rings, etc. Mostly every wedding looked the same, save for the faces.

Later, there would be a trending towards photojournalism style weddings, which I find very much to my liking. That is, documenting the ‘story’ of the wedding day where most of the photos are candid and it’s almost like street shooting. You are looking for interesting interactions, unguarded moments, and the happenings of the day.

In preparing for this wedding, which I tried to get out of shooting and just be a participant, but my son was having none of that, I started looking at lists of “must have” wedding shots and soon became quite bored with it. Of course, i will take the standard group photos, but for the most part, will be the “reporter in the field”, doing my street shooting thing.

Today I’m waiting for the arrival of a rental Nikon D90, from LensRentals.com to use as a back up. I’ll be taking the D300, M9, D90, and Mamiya 645e with me. Why the D90? I wanted to try it and it has the same processing engine and sensor as the D300, but less expensive to rent.

Yes, I’ll be shooting a bit of medium format film. Also, carrying along lots of batteries, a couple of SB-600 flashes, stands, umbrellas, diffusers. Who knows what I’ll need and I’m driving. If I were flying, it would be a completely different story.

I hope to take everything in available light. Tomorrow night I hope to see the venue during rehearsal so I can get an idea of where the sun will be and where they will be entering, etc. Yes. I have a compass!

The wedding will be held on Saturday at 11:00 AM outside. The forecast for Saturday? Near 100! Hmmmmm. I might need to put a little extra powder in my skivvies. The reception, however, will be inside!