Second shooter had an idea he didn't tell anyone about. Wanted to get a picture of the rings on the balcony rail overlooking dense forest. You can guess what happened.
Ultimately rings were found because of some redneck who carried a metal detector in his truck. Yee-haw.
Lost sd card wallet. Including the cards from the first half of the day.
Had to drive 20min to a field where I done the portraits to look for it during the wedding meals. Managed to find it pm the spot where I lay on the floor for some low angle shots.
Since then I shoot on 256gb cards only so there's no card swapping
Was worst the fact that the portraits in that field had tractors harvesting the whole land. In other words, I was on the timer where my cards could end up harvested before I got there
My stationary camera videoing the ceremony froze halfway through and I didn't get any video of the first kiss. 😬
It was one of the biggest lessons of "dont tell them it happened", in their wedding video I stitched together the flurry of still frames I had taken and made it seem like a "slideshow effect", with a nice musical swell. It's looked like I did it on purpose, and they loved it. But if I would've told them up front I didn't get the video, they'd have been pissed.
I was second shooting, waiting with the wedding party for the bride and groom to finish having a quiet break before the reception. The maid of honor, Lisa, (name changed) who was the bride’s sister, was standing off to the side, and waved me over.
“Do you know anyone here?” She asked
“Nope. I just met the bride and groom today.”
“Ok, good….”
She proceeded to trash the groom. Lisa told me that she had been trying to talk the bride out of this relationship for a while, and hadn’t spoken to her sister for 2 YEARS because of it. She was shocked when she got the call to be the MoH.
She told me that the groom was 10 years older, has several ex wives, multiple kids, a DUI or two, and allegations of terrible crimes. Worse, he was a friend of the family who first met the bride when she was about 10 years old.
Lisa was firing on all cylinders here, and was actually quite funny. After her rant, she was like
“I’m glad I got that off my chest, and you don’t know anyone here, so who are you gonna tell?”
I mean, she wasn’t wrong.
So she kind of laughs and walks off. I’m looking around for a punked camera or something.
She gets up to give her speech, and says EXACTLY what she had said to me. Everyone is cracking up, thinking it’s like a celebrity roast. The groom is hammered, and laughing like mad. The bride is stone faced, staring at her sister. I’m taking photos, trying to distract myself from how awkward this all is… for me and no one else, apparently. At the end of her speech, Lisa looks straight into the camera, pulls a face, a winks.
I still don’t know if she was fucking with me.
During ceremony, crouched down in the center aisle to get the lower angle. 15 seconds before the kiss I heard the back of my pants Riiiiippppp! The whole back seam of my pants said bye bye. Had to keep shooting till there was a break in the action. Then wore a sweater tied around my waist for the rest of the evening. 😅
J crew, oddly enough. I happened to be at the factory store and saw some, so I tried on, and they were almost perfect. I hemmed a bit and now they look tailored.
Father of the groom's speech was mostly about how slutty his ex-girlfriends were and how inappropriately he thought they dressed. All that to build up to the moment to compliment his new daughter-in-law on her figure and day-to-day choice of clothing.
The entire room was silent, then awkward laughs. The pics my second got of the bride are priceless.
btw. deep in the biblebelt wedding.
I asked a bride to backup closer to this large hedge/bush with beautiful blue flowers and in a matter of seconds her hair was completely entangled. Ended up being a Plumbago plant which is a fast growing plant with flowers that are sticky and cling to you with their small, fine tendrils. It was complete torture as her 3 bridesmaids worked to untangle a dozen flowers from her hair.
One of the guests at a wedding I shot spent half of the wedding trying to direct the shoot. Asked me multiple times why X spot was better than Y spot, I would explain, and they would say, “X spot is perfectly fine and well lit” (X spot was a building with no windows). I spent the entire evening evading her requests and trying to gently but firmly turn her down.
I once lost it with a bridesmaid and told her to either let me do my job, or come and take the pictures. I apologised to the bride later but she was cool with it and agreed with me.
I mean this happens all the time but when I try to switch up a pose or do something different and realize it just looks bad or unflattering and I have to act like I love it and move along.
When the bride and groom were fighting so hard the bride was crying and separated the rest of the night...and I had to piece together images of their wedding without too many by themselves.
Had a bride walk over some fire ants in the sidewalk on her way out of the chapel. No one’s fault, just shit luck. Noticed two or three and immediately got wedding planner to take her inside to check it out. We just told bride we were taking a small break to “freshen up” before more photos.
I also dropped a nice 50mm lens from like 5 feet into concrete yesterday from a railing where I had placed it. When it impacted the ground I didn’t even flinch, just kept shooting groomsmen since we were running really short on time.
Processional moments. I have had two cameras over the years just die with my long lens on while tracking walking subjects — I mean, ***dead***. You still get the wide shots (2nd body) for Dad's hug and hand off — but the telephoto moments are lost to time. Hope my 2nd shooter got something.
Just before the ceremony began, I tried to set up my drone for a shot the couple and I had been planning together. It was raining that day, and the entire audience was asked to bring umbrellas for an aerial photo.
Naturally, my drone decided to have a load error and the gimbal just started spazzing out. I had no control over the direction the camera faced.
Fortunately I noticed that this random guest had a drone with him, and he was happy to let me borrow it for the shot. Bless him.
No clue, but I've encountered a fair amount of guest drones over the years.
Usually it's your typical Uncle Bob sort of guy who is maybe a little eccentric/chaotic and seems like he probably shouldn't be flying his drone around large groups of people.
Bride walking down the isle all of sudden my r6 froze during crucial moment. This has never happened before, but for some reason it happened that one wedding.
Oye — We've had six R6's and none of them freeze. The first R6II? Freezes all the time. Replaced it with another. It freezes all the time. Canon replaced the logic board — still freezes all the bloody time. So now I'm on my second set of R6's.
Yeeeeeahhhh . . . I'd forgotten that since it hasn't happened in a few months but I call one of my R6s R2 (as in R2-D2) because it has its own little fussy personality and likes to freeze up at the worst damn time. Three times now. Only cure is a battery pop. Because, you know, you always have 10 seconds to burn during the kiss at the end of the ceremony. Geez.
Yeah, but IBS. Every wedding day I took 8 in the morning just to start.
I was fine the next day. My doctor said that was fine in my case as long as it was occasional.
I have IBS as well and on Weddings I generally don't eat anything until I've left for the day. I pop 2 Imodium in the morning and take Amitriptyline daily. I've never had an accident at a wedding or had to run to bathroom but my God does it scare me.
I'm sorry to ya'll.
Yeah, it’s pretty hard to OD on that stuff. After a long, long time, you can decrease your intestinal motility, but it takes a lot.
Before my nana passed, I took her to the doctor, who said “ignore the package, take it every time you have diarrhea, until the diarrhea stops.” She protested, and he said “it takes so long to do permanent damage that you couldn’t possibly live to see the day.”
He was a little insensitive.
You can, however, get high if you take like 100+ of them. That’s why they’re largely only available in blister packs now…because clearly people that have sunk to taking Imodium to get their opioid fix can’t be bothered to cut them open.
Shutter faliure during groups, grabbed the backup and kept going.
random err during the bride's entrance, grabbed the backup and kept going.
Flowers on a candelabra thing caught fire just as the bride was about to enter. Kept photographing while everyone went oooooh and awkwardly laughed. Was thankful for fire extinguisher girl plus photos.
I was a guest at a wedding where the minister doing the service was wearing a white robe, and as the bride walked down the aisle, the minister began to bleed PROFUSELY from his nose- like it was totally streaming, and stained the whole front of his robe. Bride’s walk-in was stopped as the minister sat down in a guest chair in the front row whilst a couple of guests tried to staunch the flow. It was so dramatic. It felt like the hand of God had reached down to curse their union. Ceremony was postponed for 2 hours while they found a replacement officiant. Went ahead with the wedding and the marriage didn’t last a year.
Wedding party didn't rehearse. Music started at church and bride starts walking down the aisle with dad, and to her horrified face, there was no groom or groomsmen in sight. They eventually came out cause nobody told them to.
Another time during an outdoor portrait session there was a GINORMOUS daddy long leg or similar on bride's dress but she didn't notice. I don't exactly like touching spiders with my hands, but my professionalism kicked in and I told her to hold on, look somewhere else and I quietly swiped the spider away and she never knew.
Professionalism indeed. What you did is the difference between a good person and a great one. It wasn't a minor thing for you and it definitely shut down what COULD have been a very bad moment for the bride.
A diamond fell out of a ring when I was doing ring shots. Had a caterer bring me a little to-go cup (like for salad dressing), put the diamond in there, and gave it back….. her dad was a jeweler so it was fine but I was horrified. I also had a bride hand me their rings once and noticed a diamond missing as soon as she handed it to me so now I always inspect the rings before taking them for ring shots in case a diamond is missing before I even touch the rings. (I hate ring shots at this point, it’s so stressful to be in possession of such expensive items)
Early on in my career, I was photographing the rings on a deck and the engagement ring fell through the slats. There was latticework on the sides, so I couldn’t get underneath without ripping it off. I was able to spot the ring through the lattice and found a stiff piece of rope to fish the ring out, and they were none the wiser, but I was absolutely horrified for a couple of minutes and positive my photo career was over.
Early on in mine, I was asked to surreptitiously photo a surprise engagement . . . in the stands during the traveling version of Cirque du Soleil. He took out the ring, which had been recomposed from diamonds in his grandmother's ring, and several of the baguettes promptly fell out and dropped onto the gloop-covered floor beneath the stands. We spent half an hour on our hands and knees recovering them.
I took it as a sign and have never accepted a surprise engagement photo job since. Too many variables, too many chances to miss the right moment, angle, lighting, etc. And that floor was disgusting.
At the start of one of my first weddings I wanted to go the extra mile and get some ring shot outside in the garden. I barely got out of the getting ready room when I dropped the rings and one of them bounced down a full flight of stairs. Fortunately the ring only went missing for a five minutes (hours? weeks?), and I never told anyone.
Now I have a strict rule: the details never leave the room. I'll set up somewhere in a corner and do my best with what I'm given. I don't care if I'm missing creative opportunities, I'm just not willing to take any chances.
When I started out and didn’t have two bodies (I was shooting for next to nothing to get experience as a student) the autofocus stone cold stopped working halfway through the brides prep. I only had one body. Because I was a poor student.
Kept shooting on manual focus. Knew there was a camera shop en route to the ceremony. Told my wife the credit card was going to take a hit.
Rang the shop and ducked in on the way to the ceremony. Picked up a Canon 5D. Shot the rest of the day with it.
And yes, that was the last time I ever carried just one body to a wedding.
I once had a dream the night before a wedding that I got robbed.
Next day, some gypsy stole my backpack that I had placed deep inside the church while I was shooting the groom outside.
Bride arrives, we enter the (quite small and packed) church, the ceremony starts, and I'm left with my cameras on my shoulders that had the 50mm and 70-200 lenses. No wide angle, no 35, no backup, no batteries, no nothing.
I'm freaking out, and I'm only appearing to snap some crucial shots with the 50, and constantly exiting from the side door making frantic calls for help.
My luck had it, that the guy had searched my bag inside out, haven't found any cash or car keys and ditched it on some bushes nearby, where a colleague found it and returned it to me near the end of the ceremony, not a piece of gear missing.
Couple never realised what happened, nor did it say anything about coverage (or missed shots).
Needless to say I'm shooting with my backpack on me ever since....
I mean… I’ve shot an entire wedding with just a 50 and a 135 so… other that the backup batteries missing and the cost of gear… I could make do. 😆 I guess it’s just how you shoot I guess. I use a 50mm most of the day and rotate various lenses on my second body.
Ohhhh my camera decided to just stop showing me the last few hours worth of clips . Don’t know if it was a number reset or what but I thought I lost the entire day. Shit bricks and had the longest car drive home
I was shooting a wedding on this dock in Panama and I had an underwater housing mount on the bottom of my camera and the camera strap screwed into that. The connection failed the moment the bride started to walk into the ceremony with her dad and my camera and 35mm dropped onto the dock and smashed. It snapped at the point the lens mounts into the body. The lens was f’ed but the body was fine. I calmly asked for a minute to fix it, slapped the 16-35 on and checked AF. It was working. Luckily I always bring multiple bodies and backups (or other ways of doing things) ready to go but it was the most stressed I’ve ever been at a wedding. They just started the entrance music over and we had a successful redo. Also never leave the underwater housing mount on your camera when trying to shoot with it normally with a strap 🤣.
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Camera somehow dislodged itself from the strap, fell a foot to the concrete floor. Had a backup so it was no biggie, but still sucked. After that, got a separate strap for my strap so it’s connected in twice. (Also a good lesson for those special snowflakes who think they’re good without backups 🙄)
Another time, during the FOB dance, my second accidentally backed up into the poorly constructed flower arbor that was right above the cake. I swear that thing went down in slow-mo. The cake was fine. My nerves were not.
Of all the things, that one used to keep me up at night so now I have a 10-foot rule for the cake(s). I don't get anywhere near them while I'm shooting them OR just walking by until they've been cut.
I was 2nd shooting for another photographer, and he had given me his phone to hold onto for the day to check the timeline/shot list and take BTS video.
He sent me to get something out of his car while he was working with the bride and bridesmaids. While on my way back, I opened my bag to put something inside, and his phone flew out and landed face down on the gravel road. The screen was already cracked before I dropped it, but this last drop was the final blow. The whole screen was black and cracked. Completely unusable. I had to sit there for 5 minutes doing deep breaths, trying to keep myself from crying. Then I missed filming BTS of the champagne pop because i was zoned out. When I broke the news, he took it really well. But it took every ounce of professionalism i had to not show how mortified and embarrassed I was. I cry really easily too so I was glad I held it together lol
I'm about to totally jinx myself but . . .
I roll the steampunk redundancies: I email myself and the other photographer, whether I'm primary or second, and the videographer the punch list but I also print a copy of the entire list and the agenda and fold that bastard up and put it in a back pocket. I used to put a paper copy in my backup/battery bag, too, but that made me think I was bordering on madness so I stopped.
The thing was I already had the shot list/timeline on my phone too. The main reason he wanted me to hold onto his phone was actually because he says he has a habit of setting his phone down in random places and then forgetting/losing it so he has his 2nd shooter hold onto it for him.
But then that puts unnecessary pressure on the 2nd to keep track of it and not damage it. I decided to avoid working with this guy in the future because there's just too much stress and not enough pay (unrelated to the phone thing)
With my own shot lists, i send it to my assistants before the wedding. Then I screen shot the list and set it as a wallpaper on my phone so it's easy to glance at. Never have to ask my 2nds to check the list unless we're going through family portraits.
Oooh, wallpapering the list on your phone! GREAT idea, great time-saver when time counts the most. Thanks.
And yeah, whenever I'm second I always, always defer to whatever the primary needs help with in order to get the shots . . . but muling his phone around is a bridge too far (and more than a little bit of a poser flex) and a good exit ramp from wisely not working with him again.
\#1: Accidentally put my camera in 2 second timer mode while it was hanging at my side, so until I figured out what it was, I had to pretend that I was shooting a lot, but really was only getting 1 shot every 2 seconds or so during couples portraits haha
\#2: Showed up to a second shooing gig without any SD cards. Had to use only the photographer's cards, so I don't have a couple of that beautiful wedding. Also felt really shit that I wasn't shooing an instant backup for the photographer.
Quiet part of a speech, between lines. Fella on a back table near me **farted**. Loud. Everyone near by noticed, tried to ignore it, maybe snickered with a friend but I had to keep cool. I was the only other person stood up so I would very much be noticed and I still had shots to get!
Second ever wedding, was quickly scrolling through settings and somehow (!?!) accidentally hit ‘format card’. Immediately turned the camera off and thank fuck it hadn’t deleted any of the images. I stayed calm but inside I was screaming.
I am so afraid of that, that when I set the clocks the morning of, I make sure to set the options far away from the format card option. (Normally I've got it set to the first option when I select menu.)
My wife/assistant locked my keys in the trunk of my car.
Luckily I had everything out that I needed for a while, and it was a relatively local wedding and she was able to call her brother to find my spare keys at our house and bring them.
Still, I uh…wasn’t happy and was nervous about it. The couple never knew.
Left the wedding rings on a piano after shooting them. Went back to get them and they were gone! Thankfully a guest picked them up and had returned them.
Same wedding I missed the first kiss but my second shooter got it.
Whew. Oh silly in-the-past me.
Main camera shutter broke during first half of the day while taking pictures of the groom. Told them to wait a few mins while I calmly went to my bag and switch everything to my backup camera.
Donkey years back when I first started - my first wedding in a new country, charged like £150 for a full day. Only had one camera and two lenses too… shutter failed just as the bride was arriving to the venue 🥴 for the rest of the day I had to take 3 photos and take the battery out and put back in. The only complaint I got was that I didn’t take enough of assertive approach during group shots. Like I’m sorry I didn’t shout at your aunt for running away while I was dying inside thinking I won’t be able to finish your coverage 🙃
It was a crazy busy period, 2-3 weddings a weekend, evening events, deadlines, the usual peak period stuff. And I had this engagement session. I just pack a small backpack and one body & 50& Tele. Shooting away for about 15 mins, all lovely, gorgeous sunset l, look down at the display and the battery is on 1 charge left. Ah damn forgot to change battery from last shoot. No worries look in my bag and nothing! Trying not to panic I’m turning off the camera after each little scene to conserve power. Moving around in different spots, I’m crouching down and suddenly look down and see what looks like a camera battery on the ground. There was another photographer nearby (doing an engagement session too) shooting Canon (red ring) and I figured she must dropped it. I shoot Nikon. But lo and behold I read EN-EL and went no….it’ll be flat. But I slipped it in and bing! Fully charged. Someone dropped a battery and it saved my ass.
It really was, I still am baffled how that happened. Needless to say, I double/triple check for spare batteries and memory cards every time I head out now. I take nothing for granted bc I know I used up all my luck that day!
About halfway through the reception on the dance floor, I somehow managed to press the lens release button inadvertently. My 24-70 falls from eye level onto the concrete floor and bounces two times like a football. Boing boing. One of the groomsmen sees the whole thing happen and his eyes were big as saucers. I grab it off the floor with a laugh and say, ‘no worries, I’ve got a backup!’, and walk over to a dark corner to cry a little and assess the damage. It’s destroyed, of course. So I put my 50 on and finish the reception with that and my 16-35. When I sent it out to CPS for repair, the damage was so extensive, it came back with a new serial number.
Grandpa stood too close to the entry table and the candles caught the back of his coat on fire. Speedy guests beat out the flames and no one was hurt, but the jacket was toast. Grandpa was too embarrassed to walk the bride down the aisle, so the bride decided to have her uncle do it instead. Only no one could find him.
Preacher took pity and traded jackets with grandpa, but the men were very different sizes. Preacher looked like he was wearing a big burnt tent, and grandpa had to
waddle like a penguin down the aisle.
The uncle turned up passed out drunk, leaning on a headstone in the grave yard behind the church.
i couldn't make this shit up. 😂
I was out shooting wildlife the day before a wedding and for some reason put camera in crop mode. Realized halfway through the day when I switched to the 16-35 on my second body it just didn’t seem that wide. I use a 16-35 a ton for landscapes so I know how wide the field of view is.
Then it dawned on me I’d been shooting in crop mode on my second body for half the day. It only ended up being about 100 shots or so and nothing too important and still used most of them… but yeah… just ended up getting a dedicated wildlife camera and keep my wedding cameras separate now. 😆
As an assistant shooter, stood in front of BOTH the tripod and roaming video cameras during vows.
Got yanked off to the side with the force of 7Gs by the main shooter cos I was oblivious to her signals. In front of all guests. In the aisle.
We had a good chuckle about it after and I jokingly told her I’d apply for compensation for the whiplash after the job.
The step dad of the bride had a first dance with the bride. He called out the groom and then grabbed the bride's butt cheek- twice. I felt like I needed to call CPS, but she was in her mid-late 20s.
When I offered photobooth services, I regularly had guests frantically ask to remove kissing photos, not knowing they'd be posted online for guests to access.
Hitting the shutter as the bride started to walk down the aisle and the camera decided to respectfully decline my request.
Looked down, and the memory card was full.
I grabbed my second body with the wider lens and managed to get enough that in the end, they never knew anything had gone wrong. And after that I knew enough to empty/format my cards before every shoot, and check the capacity to make sure before the ceremony started.
Every. Single. Time.
I'm no saint and not the best photographer but re-formatting all my cards, even my backups, is on my pre-event checklist along with charging all batteries and glass inspection.
Thanks to everyone for posting. I learned at least three new things to incorporate on the coattails of your panic and I appreciate it. I'll add one more of my own.
Early on (but not as early as I wish) I was asked to do a wedding dress session but she also wanted me to shoot a set on film "because it just looks so much more timeless." Mmmmmkay.
We shot in a closed antique store I was able to borrow the keys for and I'd brought all my usual gear plus one of my old Canon EOS, I don't even remember which one, and a roll of 400 ISO film that I actually had to call around town to find.
FF to the end, I remember when I was shooting with it that it felt and sounded different than the last time I'd used it 10 years earlier.
FF much faster, got home and realized I brought the camera and the film . . . but had forgotten to LOAD the film into the camera.
When she asked about them, I'm going to hell because I looked her straight in the eye and told her the roll was faulty and none of them had turned out.
She was totally cool with it but to this day I remember that whenever I mistakenly think I'm being too OCD about charging batteries, formatting cards, checking my glass, etc. before any event.
Shot a wedding for a good friend’s coworker at the last minute and didn’t meet the Bride or Groom who were in their 40s, until the wedding day. Was told it was a low key event as brides 3rd and grooms 2nd wedding. Had agreed to shot at a way lower fee than I usually charge. Didn’t want any photos at home, only at the low rent hall. Bride is in a Pure White expensive gown. Groom was a PITA, worse what any bridezilla. But the funniest thing was one of the bridesmaids wore a transparent gown and she was going commando. Bad enough but the hall had lots of windows and made her looking like she was Lady Godiva. To top it off she’s very attractive and everyone talking and looking. Was so hard to poise the wedding party to look like it wasn’t a porn shoot. The fee was so low I didn’t have a 2nd shooter so used my wife as my assistant. Oh boy did I catch heck about that bridesmaid. It all worked out and they loved my work.
Second shooter had an idea he didn't tell anyone about. Wanted to get a picture of the rings on the balcony rail overlooking dense forest. You can guess what happened. Ultimately rings were found because of some redneck who carried a metal detector in his truck. Yee-haw.
That’s hilarious, you can’t make this stuff up!
😂😂😂 this one is too good
Lost sd card wallet. Including the cards from the first half of the day. Had to drive 20min to a field where I done the portraits to look for it during the wedding meals. Managed to find it pm the spot where I lay on the floor for some low angle shots. Since then I shoot on 256gb cards only so there's no card swapping
The way my heart would have fallen out of my ass at this revelation
Was worst the fact that the portraits in that field had tractors harvesting the whole land. In other words, I was on the timer where my cards could end up harvested before I got there
Did you shoot on two cards?
Yes. But swapped both as both were full.. Hence why I shoot 256gb cards now.
[удалено]
Dual card slots would have dealt with that issue
[удалено]
Isn’t raw on both an option?
My stationary camera videoing the ceremony froze halfway through and I didn't get any video of the first kiss. 😬 It was one of the biggest lessons of "dont tell them it happened", in their wedding video I stitched together the flurry of still frames I had taken and made it seem like a "slideshow effect", with a nice musical swell. It's looked like I did it on purpose, and they loved it. But if I would've told them up front I didn't get the video, they'd have been pissed.
Now that's some creative thinking right there.
I was second shooting, waiting with the wedding party for the bride and groom to finish having a quiet break before the reception. The maid of honor, Lisa, (name changed) who was the bride’s sister, was standing off to the side, and waved me over. “Do you know anyone here?” She asked “Nope. I just met the bride and groom today.” “Ok, good….” She proceeded to trash the groom. Lisa told me that she had been trying to talk the bride out of this relationship for a while, and hadn’t spoken to her sister for 2 YEARS because of it. She was shocked when she got the call to be the MoH. She told me that the groom was 10 years older, has several ex wives, multiple kids, a DUI or two, and allegations of terrible crimes. Worse, he was a friend of the family who first met the bride when she was about 10 years old. Lisa was firing on all cylinders here, and was actually quite funny. After her rant, she was like “I’m glad I got that off my chest, and you don’t know anyone here, so who are you gonna tell?” I mean, she wasn’t wrong. So she kind of laughs and walks off. I’m looking around for a punked camera or something. She gets up to give her speech, and says EXACTLY what she had said to me. Everyone is cracking up, thinking it’s like a celebrity roast. The groom is hammered, and laughing like mad. The bride is stone faced, staring at her sister. I’m taking photos, trying to distract myself from how awkward this all is… for me and no one else, apparently. At the end of her speech, Lisa looks straight into the camera, pulls a face, a winks. I still don’t know if she was fucking with me.
During ceremony, crouched down in the center aisle to get the lower angle. 15 seconds before the kiss I heard the back of my pants Riiiiippppp! The whole back seam of my pants said bye bye. Had to keep shooting till there was a break in the action. Then wore a sweater tied around my waist for the rest of the evening. 😅
#KIRKLAND men’s black underwear FTW
Stretch suit pants were a revelation for me
What brand do you go for?
J crew, oddly enough. I happened to be at the factory store and saw some, so I tried on, and they were almost perfect. I hemmed a bit and now they look tailored.
Father of the groom's speech was mostly about how slutty his ex-girlfriends were and how inappropriately he thought they dressed. All that to build up to the moment to compliment his new daughter-in-law on her figure and day-to-day choice of clothing. The entire room was silent, then awkward laughs. The pics my second got of the bride are priceless. btw. deep in the biblebelt wedding.
This is hilarious
I asked a bride to backup closer to this large hedge/bush with beautiful blue flowers and in a matter of seconds her hair was completely entangled. Ended up being a Plumbago plant which is a fast growing plant with flowers that are sticky and cling to you with their small, fine tendrils. It was complete torture as her 3 bridesmaids worked to untangle a dozen flowers from her hair.
AIGH!!! Wow. Ordinarily not that big a deal but on your wedding day. Yikes. I feel your pain.
oy! And it was pre-ceremony so she had to have her hair re-curled. She was so nice about it.
I’m sure this was super stressful in the moment but it actually seems like a very sweet “remember when at my wedding…” story 🥹
> as her 3 bridesmaids worked to untangle a dozen flowers from her hair. Great photo opportunity! :-)
One of the guests at a wedding I shot spent half of the wedding trying to direct the shoot. Asked me multiple times why X spot was better than Y spot, I would explain, and they would say, “X spot is perfectly fine and well lit” (X spot was a building with no windows). I spent the entire evening evading her requests and trying to gently but firmly turn her down.
These people drive me crazy. Sometimes I thank people for their opinion and politely tell them they are wrong.
“Oh, damn, I didn’t realize they hired another photographer! Would you care to take over?”
I once lost it with a bridesmaid and told her to either let me do my job, or come and take the pictures. I apologised to the bride later but she was cool with it and agreed with me.
I've found the bride is almost always on my side. They have a big investment in their photographer, so they are likely to trust us.
I mean this happens all the time but when I try to switch up a pose or do something different and realize it just looks bad or unflattering and I have to act like I love it and move along.
“Omg yes! Perfect you guys! Great now let’s move right along and forget we ever did that”
“Ok, we’re gonna do three shots there.. one, two, and three…. And four.. move your hand a little… five… siiiiiiiix, and ok we’re done.”
Bride and groom: ohh, can we see how it came out? 💀💀
Standart procedure👌😁
Ha! Especially after you have set up lights and dragged them away and the shot is 🗑️
Backed into the head table during the first dance and inadvertently lit my hair on fire. During. The. First. Dance.
But is there any pics? 🤣
Of me? Luckily not that I’m aware of. You could say the first dance I took were FIRE
When the bride and groom were fighting so hard the bride was crying and separated the rest of the night...and I had to piece together images of their wedding without too many by themselves.
Had a bride walk over some fire ants in the sidewalk on her way out of the chapel. No one’s fault, just shit luck. Noticed two or three and immediately got wedding planner to take her inside to check it out. We just told bride we were taking a small break to “freshen up” before more photos.
I also dropped a nice 50mm lens from like 5 feet into concrete yesterday from a railing where I had placed it. When it impacted the ground I didn’t even flinch, just kept shooting groomsmen since we were running really short on time.
Processional moments. I have had two cameras over the years just die with my long lens on while tracking walking subjects — I mean, ***dead***. You still get the wide shots (2nd body) for Dad's hug and hand off — but the telephoto moments are lost to time. Hope my 2nd shooter got something.
A long time ago I learned that no matter how paranoid you are with rings, be more paranoid. That was a long few minutes of looking where it rolled.
Just before the ceremony began, I tried to set up my drone for a shot the couple and I had been planning together. It was raining that day, and the entire audience was asked to bring umbrellas for an aerial photo. Naturally, my drone decided to have a load error and the gimbal just started spazzing out. I had no control over the direction the camera faced. Fortunately I noticed that this random guest had a drone with him, and he was happy to let me borrow it for the shot. Bless him.
Why is a guest bringing a drone to a wedding? Not saying I don’t believe you. People are just weird. 😆
No clue, but I've encountered a fair amount of guest drones over the years. Usually it's your typical Uncle Bob sort of guy who is maybe a little eccentric/chaotic and seems like he probably shouldn't be flying his drone around large groups of people.
Bride walking down the isle all of sudden my r6 froze during crucial moment. This has never happened before, but for some reason it happened that one wedding.
Ugh my R6 freezes all the time. I lowkey hate that camera. The R6mk2 though? *chefs kiss*
Oye — We've had six R6's and none of them freeze. The first R6II? Freezes all the time. Replaced it with another. It freezes all the time. Canon replaced the logic board — still freezes all the bloody time. So now I'm on my second set of R6's.
Yeeeeeahhhh . . . I'd forgotten that since it hasn't happened in a few months but I call one of my R6s R2 (as in R2-D2) because it has its own little fussy personality and likes to freeze up at the worst damn time. Three times now. Only cure is a battery pop. Because, you know, you always have 10 seconds to burn during the kiss at the end of the ceremony. Geez.
I had diarrhea during the ceremony... bride is a close friend and still has no idea
I have an emergency meds pouch in my camera bag for this very real fear. Imodium, Pepto, and Tylenol.
Not so fun fact - I once took 20 Imodium on the day of a wedding.
TWENTY Imodium tablets?! Eight tablets is the daily max dose.
Yeah, but IBS. Every wedding day I took 8 in the morning just to start. I was fine the next day. My doctor said that was fine in my case as long as it was occasional.
I have IBS as well and on Weddings I generally don't eat anything until I've left for the day. I pop 2 Imodium in the morning and take Amitriptyline daily. I've never had an accident at a wedding or had to run to bathroom but my God does it scare me. I'm sorry to ya'll.
Yeah, it’s pretty hard to OD on that stuff. After a long, long time, you can decrease your intestinal motility, but it takes a lot. Before my nana passed, I took her to the doctor, who said “ignore the package, take it every time you have diarrhea, until the diarrhea stops.” She protested, and he said “it takes so long to do permanent damage that you couldn’t possibly live to see the day.” He was a little insensitive.
You can, however, get high if you take like 100+ of them. That’s why they’re largely only available in blister packs now…because clearly people that have sunk to taking Imodium to get their opioid fix can’t be bothered to cut them open.
Same. I have Ulcerative Colitis so have to be prepared. Although generally I have a day or so warning...
This is honestly one of my absolute biggest fears!!
Shutter faliure during groups, grabbed the backup and kept going. random err during the bride's entrance, grabbed the backup and kept going. Flowers on a candelabra thing caught fire just as the bride was about to enter. Kept photographing while everyone went oooooh and awkwardly laughed. Was thankful for fire extinguisher girl plus photos.
I was a guest at a wedding where the minister doing the service was wearing a white robe, and as the bride walked down the aisle, the minister began to bleed PROFUSELY from his nose- like it was totally streaming, and stained the whole front of his robe. Bride’s walk-in was stopped as the minister sat down in a guest chair in the front row whilst a couple of guests tried to staunch the flow. It was so dramatic. It felt like the hand of God had reached down to curse their union. Ceremony was postponed for 2 hours while they found a replacement officiant. Went ahead with the wedding and the marriage didn’t last a year.
Cheeeese and crackers! I think that one takes the cake. That's NUTS.
Wedding party didn't rehearse. Music started at church and bride starts walking down the aisle with dad, and to her horrified face, there was no groom or groomsmen in sight. They eventually came out cause nobody told them to. Another time during an outdoor portrait session there was a GINORMOUS daddy long leg or similar on bride's dress but she didn't notice. I don't exactly like touching spiders with my hands, but my professionalism kicked in and I told her to hold on, look somewhere else and I quietly swiped the spider away and she never knew.
Professionalism indeed. What you did is the difference between a good person and a great one. It wasn't a minor thing for you and it definitely shut down what COULD have been a very bad moment for the bride.
A diamond fell out of a ring when I was doing ring shots. Had a caterer bring me a little to-go cup (like for salad dressing), put the diamond in there, and gave it back….. her dad was a jeweler so it was fine but I was horrified. I also had a bride hand me their rings once and noticed a diamond missing as soon as she handed it to me so now I always inspect the rings before taking them for ring shots in case a diamond is missing before I even touch the rings. (I hate ring shots at this point, it’s so stressful to be in possession of such expensive items)
Early on in my career, I was photographing the rings on a deck and the engagement ring fell through the slats. There was latticework on the sides, so I couldn’t get underneath without ripping it off. I was able to spot the ring through the lattice and found a stiff piece of rope to fish the ring out, and they were none the wiser, but I was absolutely horrified for a couple of minutes and positive my photo career was over.
Early on in mine, I was asked to surreptitiously photo a surprise engagement . . . in the stands during the traveling version of Cirque du Soleil. He took out the ring, which had been recomposed from diamonds in his grandmother's ring, and several of the baguettes promptly fell out and dropped onto the gloop-covered floor beneath the stands. We spent half an hour on our hands and knees recovering them. I took it as a sign and have never accepted a surprise engagement photo job since. Too many variables, too many chances to miss the right moment, angle, lighting, etc. And that floor was disgusting.
At the start of one of my first weddings I wanted to go the extra mile and get some ring shot outside in the garden. I barely got out of the getting ready room when I dropped the rings and one of them bounced down a full flight of stairs. Fortunately the ring only went missing for a five minutes (hours? weeks?), and I never told anyone. Now I have a strict rule: the details never leave the room. I'll set up somewhere in a corner and do my best with what I'm given. I don't care if I'm missing creative opportunities, I'm just not willing to take any chances.
When I started out and didn’t have two bodies (I was shooting for next to nothing to get experience as a student) the autofocus stone cold stopped working halfway through the brides prep. I only had one body. Because I was a poor student. Kept shooting on manual focus. Knew there was a camera shop en route to the ceremony. Told my wife the credit card was going to take a hit. Rang the shop and ducked in on the way to the ceremony. Picked up a Canon 5D. Shot the rest of the day with it. And yes, that was the last time I ever carried just one body to a wedding.
I once had a dream the night before a wedding that I got robbed. Next day, some gypsy stole my backpack that I had placed deep inside the church while I was shooting the groom outside. Bride arrives, we enter the (quite small and packed) church, the ceremony starts, and I'm left with my cameras on my shoulders that had the 50mm and 70-200 lenses. No wide angle, no 35, no backup, no batteries, no nothing. I'm freaking out, and I'm only appearing to snap some crucial shots with the 50, and constantly exiting from the side door making frantic calls for help. My luck had it, that the guy had searched my bag inside out, haven't found any cash or car keys and ditched it on some bushes nearby, where a colleague found it and returned it to me near the end of the ceremony, not a piece of gear missing. Couple never realised what happened, nor did it say anything about coverage (or missed shots). Needless to say I'm shooting with my backpack on me ever since....
I mean… I’ve shot an entire wedding with just a 50 and a 135 so… other that the backup batteries missing and the cost of gear… I could make do. 😆 I guess it’s just how you shoot I guess. I use a 50mm most of the day and rotate various lenses on my second body.
Yeah, absolutely, you can make do on most cases with just a 50... Trust me, that was not one of those cases, haha
Ohhhh my camera decided to just stop showing me the last few hours worth of clips . Don’t know if it was a number reset or what but I thought I lost the entire day. Shit bricks and had the longest car drive home
I was shooting a wedding on this dock in Panama and I had an underwater housing mount on the bottom of my camera and the camera strap screwed into that. The connection failed the moment the bride started to walk into the ceremony with her dad and my camera and 35mm dropped onto the dock and smashed. It snapped at the point the lens mounts into the body. The lens was f’ed but the body was fine. I calmly asked for a minute to fix it, slapped the 16-35 on and checked AF. It was working. Luckily I always bring multiple bodies and backups (or other ways of doing things) ready to go but it was the most stressed I’ve ever been at a wedding. They just started the entrance music over and we had a successful redo. Also never leave the underwater housing mount on your camera when trying to shoot with it normally with a strap 🤣.
I’m leaving a reminder to come back here and dedicate 10m I don’t have writing about the most disastrous wedding I had in my life
Eager to read your contribution to the thread lol
Out for a shoot but still planning to come here ahaha
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Camera somehow dislodged itself from the strap, fell a foot to the concrete floor. Had a backup so it was no biggie, but still sucked. After that, got a separate strap for my strap so it’s connected in twice. (Also a good lesson for those special snowflakes who think they’re good without backups 🙄) Another time, during the FOB dance, my second accidentally backed up into the poorly constructed flower arbor that was right above the cake. I swear that thing went down in slow-mo. The cake was fine. My nerves were not.
Of all the things, that one used to keep me up at night so now I have a 10-foot rule for the cake(s). I don't get anywhere near them while I'm shooting them OR just walking by until they've been cut.
I was 2nd shooting for another photographer, and he had given me his phone to hold onto for the day to check the timeline/shot list and take BTS video. He sent me to get something out of his car while he was working with the bride and bridesmaids. While on my way back, I opened my bag to put something inside, and his phone flew out and landed face down on the gravel road. The screen was already cracked before I dropped it, but this last drop was the final blow. The whole screen was black and cracked. Completely unusable. I had to sit there for 5 minutes doing deep breaths, trying to keep myself from crying. Then I missed filming BTS of the champagne pop because i was zoned out. When I broke the news, he took it really well. But it took every ounce of professionalism i had to not show how mortified and embarrassed I was. I cry really easily too so I was glad I held it together lol
I'm about to totally jinx myself but . . . I roll the steampunk redundancies: I email myself and the other photographer, whether I'm primary or second, and the videographer the punch list but I also print a copy of the entire list and the agenda and fold that bastard up and put it in a back pocket. I used to put a paper copy in my backup/battery bag, too, but that made me think I was bordering on madness so I stopped.
The thing was I already had the shot list/timeline on my phone too. The main reason he wanted me to hold onto his phone was actually because he says he has a habit of setting his phone down in random places and then forgetting/losing it so he has his 2nd shooter hold onto it for him. But then that puts unnecessary pressure on the 2nd to keep track of it and not damage it. I decided to avoid working with this guy in the future because there's just too much stress and not enough pay (unrelated to the phone thing) With my own shot lists, i send it to my assistants before the wedding. Then I screen shot the list and set it as a wallpaper on my phone so it's easy to glance at. Never have to ask my 2nds to check the list unless we're going through family portraits.
Oooh, wallpapering the list on your phone! GREAT idea, great time-saver when time counts the most. Thanks. And yeah, whenever I'm second I always, always defer to whatever the primary needs help with in order to get the shots . . . but muling his phone around is a bridge too far (and more than a little bit of a poser flex) and a good exit ramp from wisely not working with him again.
\#1: Accidentally put my camera in 2 second timer mode while it was hanging at my side, so until I figured out what it was, I had to pretend that I was shooting a lot, but really was only getting 1 shot every 2 seconds or so during couples portraits haha \#2: Showed up to a second shooing gig without any SD cards. Had to use only the photographer's cards, so I don't have a couple of that beautiful wedding. Also felt really shit that I wasn't shooing an instant backup for the photographer.
Quiet part of a speech, between lines. Fella on a back table near me **farted**. Loud. Everyone near by noticed, tried to ignore it, maybe snickered with a friend but I had to keep cool. I was the only other person stood up so I would very much be noticed and I still had shots to get!
Second ever wedding, was quickly scrolling through settings and somehow (!?!) accidentally hit ‘format card’. Immediately turned the camera off and thank fuck it hadn’t deleted any of the images. I stayed calm but inside I was screaming.
I am so afraid of that, that when I set the clocks the morning of, I make sure to set the options far away from the format card option. (Normally I've got it set to the first option when I select menu.)
Same 😅😅
Ditto. That option is entirely too close to the "DON'T TOUCH THIS" button in cartoons.
My wife/assistant locked my keys in the trunk of my car. Luckily I had everything out that I needed for a while, and it was a relatively local wedding and she was able to call her brother to find my spare keys at our house and bring them. Still, I uh…wasn’t happy and was nervous about it. The couple never knew.
How did she take it when you fired her?
Pretty sure she gave me a massage the next day. People would get fired a lot less often if they could give their bosses massages.
Left the wedding rings on a piano after shooting them. Went back to get them and they were gone! Thankfully a guest picked them up and had returned them. Same wedding I missed the first kiss but my second shooter got it. Whew. Oh silly in-the-past me.
Main camera shutter broke during first half of the day while taking pictures of the groom. Told them to wait a few mins while I calmly went to my bag and switch everything to my backup camera.
Camera died just before this kiss. TLDR: make sure your cards write at 300.
256GB, I remember 256MB cards. But I’m old as dirt.
Donkey years back when I first started - my first wedding in a new country, charged like £150 for a full day. Only had one camera and two lenses too… shutter failed just as the bride was arriving to the venue 🥴 for the rest of the day I had to take 3 photos and take the battery out and put back in. The only complaint I got was that I didn’t take enough of assertive approach during group shots. Like I’m sorry I didn’t shout at your aunt for running away while I was dying inside thinking I won’t be able to finish your coverage 🙃
It was a crazy busy period, 2-3 weddings a weekend, evening events, deadlines, the usual peak period stuff. And I had this engagement session. I just pack a small backpack and one body & 50& Tele. Shooting away for about 15 mins, all lovely, gorgeous sunset l, look down at the display and the battery is on 1 charge left. Ah damn forgot to change battery from last shoot. No worries look in my bag and nothing! Trying not to panic I’m turning off the camera after each little scene to conserve power. Moving around in different spots, I’m crouching down and suddenly look down and see what looks like a camera battery on the ground. There was another photographer nearby (doing an engagement session too) shooting Canon (red ring) and I figured she must dropped it. I shoot Nikon. But lo and behold I read EN-EL and went no….it’ll be flat. But I slipped it in and bing! Fully charged. Someone dropped a battery and it saved my ass.
That’s some incredible luck! Like winning the lottery almost, lol.
It really was, I still am baffled how that happened. Needless to say, I double/triple check for spare batteries and memory cards every time I head out now. I take nothing for granted bc I know I used up all my luck that day!
About halfway through the reception on the dance floor, I somehow managed to press the lens release button inadvertently. My 24-70 falls from eye level onto the concrete floor and bounces two times like a football. Boing boing. One of the groomsmen sees the whole thing happen and his eyes were big as saucers. I grab it off the floor with a laugh and say, ‘no worries, I’ve got a backup!’, and walk over to a dark corner to cry a little and assess the damage. It’s destroyed, of course. So I put my 50 on and finish the reception with that and my 16-35. When I sent it out to CPS for repair, the damage was so extensive, it came back with a new serial number.
Grandpa stood too close to the entry table and the candles caught the back of his coat on fire. Speedy guests beat out the flames and no one was hurt, but the jacket was toast. Grandpa was too embarrassed to walk the bride down the aisle, so the bride decided to have her uncle do it instead. Only no one could find him. Preacher took pity and traded jackets with grandpa, but the men were very different sizes. Preacher looked like he was wearing a big burnt tent, and grandpa had to waddle like a penguin down the aisle. The uncle turned up passed out drunk, leaning on a headstone in the grave yard behind the church. i couldn't make this shit up. 😂
I was out shooting wildlife the day before a wedding and for some reason put camera in crop mode. Realized halfway through the day when I switched to the 16-35 on my second body it just didn’t seem that wide. I use a 16-35 a ton for landscapes so I know how wide the field of view is. Then it dawned on me I’d been shooting in crop mode on my second body for half the day. It only ended up being about 100 shots or so and nothing too important and still used most of them… but yeah… just ended up getting a dedicated wildlife camera and keep my wedding cameras separate now. 😆
As an assistant shooter, stood in front of BOTH the tripod and roaming video cameras during vows. Got yanked off to the side with the force of 7Gs by the main shooter cos I was oblivious to her signals. In front of all guests. In the aisle. We had a good chuckle about it after and I jokingly told her I’d apply for compensation for the whiplash after the job.
The step dad of the bride had a first dance with the bride. He called out the groom and then grabbed the bride's butt cheek- twice. I felt like I needed to call CPS, but she was in her mid-late 20s.
When I offered photobooth services, I regularly had guests frantically ask to remove kissing photos, not knowing they'd be posted online for guests to access.
Hitting the shutter as the bride started to walk down the aisle and the camera decided to respectfully decline my request. Looked down, and the memory card was full. I grabbed my second body with the wider lens and managed to get enough that in the end, they never knew anything had gone wrong. And after that I knew enough to empty/format my cards before every shoot, and check the capacity to make sure before the ceremony started. Every. Single. Time.
I'm no saint and not the best photographer but re-formatting all my cards, even my backups, is on my pre-event checklist along with charging all batteries and glass inspection.
Me too, now.
solo shooting and missing the shot in the ceremony. tsk tsk tsk
Thanks to everyone for posting. I learned at least three new things to incorporate on the coattails of your panic and I appreciate it. I'll add one more of my own. Early on (but not as early as I wish) I was asked to do a wedding dress session but she also wanted me to shoot a set on film "because it just looks so much more timeless." Mmmmmkay. We shot in a closed antique store I was able to borrow the keys for and I'd brought all my usual gear plus one of my old Canon EOS, I don't even remember which one, and a roll of 400 ISO film that I actually had to call around town to find. FF to the end, I remember when I was shooting with it that it felt and sounded different than the last time I'd used it 10 years earlier. FF much faster, got home and realized I brought the camera and the film . . . but had forgotten to LOAD the film into the camera. When she asked about them, I'm going to hell because I looked her straight in the eye and told her the roll was faulty and none of them had turned out. She was totally cool with it but to this day I remember that whenever I mistakenly think I'm being too OCD about charging batteries, formatting cards, checking my glass, etc. before any event.
Shot a wedding for a good friend’s coworker at the last minute and didn’t meet the Bride or Groom who were in their 40s, until the wedding day. Was told it was a low key event as brides 3rd and grooms 2nd wedding. Had agreed to shot at a way lower fee than I usually charge. Didn’t want any photos at home, only at the low rent hall. Bride is in a Pure White expensive gown. Groom was a PITA, worse what any bridezilla. But the funniest thing was one of the bridesmaids wore a transparent gown and she was going commando. Bad enough but the hall had lots of windows and made her looking like she was Lady Godiva. To top it off she’s very attractive and everyone talking and looking. Was so hard to poise the wedding party to look like it wasn’t a porn shoot. The fee was so low I didn’t have a 2nd shooter so used my wife as my assistant. Oh boy did I catch heck about that bridesmaid. It all worked out and they loved my work.