I think I'm pretty much good to go for the wedding I'm shooting on Saturday -

practiced with flash a bit
visited church and photo locations
lens lineup is good, with backups (renting a 24-70 from lensrentals.com)
bodies are set (5d w/40d backup)
played a bit with the big reflector a bit, enough to be comfortable whipping it out if needed
extra cards here

Wish me luck!

luck!

You'll kill it

Got my final check tonight, should be pretty good. The couple seems pretty low-key still and although I see some stress they still seem pretty laid back.

Now I get to worry about stuff like which bags/cases to bring, what to wear, etc, etc, etc.

I'll be in Appleton this weekend, and at Brewer's stadium on Friday. I'll be thinking of you slaving away at the wedding.

Good luck!

I'm interested to see the comparison between the 24-70 and the 28-75, the rental should be here today.

24-70 is here, super heavy!

Good luck Captain chicken.

Watch for ponds, pools, and fountains.

Good luck !!

Originally Posted by tbert

Watch for ponds, pools, and fountains.

Hehe, yeah. None of those at the church, but there are some where we're shooting inbetween.

So I've shot twice this week at the botanical garden where the pics inbetween will be, and I've gotten my gear semi-ready, surprisingly I thought I'd be insanely nervous by now, but it doesn't seem to be the case.

Pool on when I pooh my pants?

Good luck !

Originally Posted by thechickencow

Pool on when I pooh my pants?

right after you fall in the fountain?

good luck though!

Enjoy!

I need to start shooting, I'm getting antsy.

Good luck! I'm sure you'll do fine.

Originally Posted by thechickencow

I need to start shooting, I'm getting antsy.

You'll settle down once you get started. I always get antsy when I'm laying out my gear and getting it packed up.

And I'm home!

Long day, I'm tired, but it was not bad. I'm uploading the pics now which I think will be fine, I didn't really have any issues come up, shot a ton (more than I'd expected by about 16gb!), and felt pretty at home doing it once I started.

More comments on gear/lenses and my impressions later on.

looking forward to it!!

I'm working at my real job today, and while the wedding was tiring and a lot of work, I sure prefer it to this!

Overall, I used the 5d and 24-70L probably 90% of the day. I had a lot of other lens options available but I kind of kept in mind the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) mentality for this since it was my first and I know I can get great results with the combo. I used my 40d only a little bit, and pretty much just carried the one camera with me all day - knowing I'd be up moving all day I made the decision to try to travel light, find a place to dump gear off everywhere, and go from there. I didn't use a camera strap because I don't really like them, which meant my arms were actually starting to get a bit tired by the end of the night - I'm not used to a lens/body combo as heavy as the 24-70 and 5d, most of my lenses are probably 1/2 the weight.

I shot somewhere around a total of 34-35gb, all RAW, and probably quite a bit of junk. Each pose/shot was 3-4 exposures to make sure I didn't get people blinking or whatever. I'm excited to take a look at them but with having to come to work today I haven't had much time to take a look at them.

When I do my next wedding, I'm going to wear more comfortable shoes than I did - mine weren't bad but could've been better. Also it was hot as hell in the ceremony, hall, and also the spot we shot inbetween was hot/steamy so that sucked too - the bride/groom only did 2-3 poses then said "screw it" and wanted to get back into the a/c. I was a sweatball all day long.

Overall, I'm hoping to do more of these, the money is good and in general it was hard work, but it was doing something I like so it was fun. Of course I'd rather be backpacking and getting paid to make landscapes, but that just doesn't seem very feasable.

Originally Posted by thechickencow

Of course I'd rather be backpacking and getting paid to make landscapes, but that just doesn't seem very feasable.

that.

Can't wait to see your shots.

I was looking at previews of a few last night - I said to Kris "I think a lot of these my best, but to them they will love them." Just the raw images with no PP from the 5d/24-70 are really nice, and I'll have a lot to work with from there.

My issue is I expect perfection out of every single shot and want my work to be up to the standards of really great photographer's work I've been studying up to the wedding. When I'm delivering a dvd with something like 1k images from my first real wedding gig they probably aren't expecting perfection on every one. I think what I will do though is make some sort of slide show for them of the shots I consider the best if I get time.

Haven't updated here for a while.

Looks like I'm finished with everything - I'd say total shooting time between engagement and wedding day was about 10hrs, total PP time approximately 16hrs (I did it in a lot of small chunks, need to be more disciplined, and I did not keep track of hours very well). Total customer service type time probably about 2 hours, so a total of28hrs. I thought that would be useful for anyone looking to get into this. I've spent probably 2-4 extra hours doing stuff like determining prices, setting up a gallery on the site, etc that I don't really attribute to the wedding itself but more of a business infrastructure thing. (FWIW, I will probably use zenfolio as a host for the gallery stuff if I do this more, but I didn't want to do it for a single wedding).

On the financial side, after purchasing stuff I needed and rentals, so my hourly 'rate' was not quite where I had targeted to be for what I did. I knew with the first wedding I would have to see how long the stuff took and try to back into a number as far as price goes. For me it was a fun thing and I'm looking forward to more. I know the first few are going to be the tough ones to get booked, but once word of mouth builds it'll go quicker. I also now have a bit more shots for a portfolio to share/show what I can do.

I've still got a ton to learn and I'm not 100% happy with everything, but that's part of the learning process. For a first wedding I think it went OK.

nice to see the time broken out Jay. Could any of the PP be automated a bit with presets now that you've done one?

also, link to the gallery?

Originally Posted by jacobsen1

nice to see the time broken out Jay. Could any of the PP be automated a bit with presets now that you've done one?

also, link to the gallery?

Yes, the PP will now be much faster, that was a lot of the time dialing that in. Also I think shooting 'smarter' would mean I could PP even faster. Not what I expected, but I ended up with probably 7-8 presets depending on light I shot in and they range pretty well to cover most light, so I'm now using them for all my shots. Also, flash work was fine, but was a new PP challenge for me as I don't typically shoot much flash. Lots of learning from all of those things.

The gallery is on my site, but I'm not happy as I didn't upload large enough pics so the gallery is grainy on some of them. I need to fix that part before I share it, but if you snoop around you'll find it.

I'd be curious how much time Matt or others spend on their weddings as a breakout. I think a quicker computer and practice could result in probably a 50% reduction in PP time, but maybe i'm over-ambitious.

For what it is worth, the first few weddings I did broke down very similar to what you listed above. I felt like I was PP'ing CONSTANTLY! I was doing them in chunks (after work at night, and on the weekends) and it just never seemed to stop. This past wedding I just did, is flying by in comparison (I almost feel guilty as I feel like I am doing less work, but the shots are better). I finally came up with a PP system that works for me, which significantly decreased my processing time. Also, I have become better at weeding out shots that just don't work, therefore decreasing the actual shots I work on.

Having a quicker computer does also really help. I went from a G4 to a Mac Pro and it really helps. Upgrading finally to CS5 from CS2 contributed a bit to that too.

I also think my system for deciding keeper/trash shots improved and would be much quicker as I do more.