While the bride and groom were dancing...

while everyone is focused on the B&G for the 1st few dances, often there are lots of fun / emotional / crazy / photographically interesting things taking place nearby

Often there are but as the paid wedding shooter one question you have to ask continually at an event is Will the person who hired me buy copies of this image for any of the albums I contracted to sell? The cutest shot in the world of some adorable kid dancing on dad's shoes means nothing if the kid is no one to the bride (or her mom) and the dad is a some remote business associate of the bride's dad who no one really cares about. Sounds lousy I know, but that's the money end of this gig. YMMV

Henry Posner
B&H Photo-Video

True enough, Henry. That's one of the reasons I decided to put the thread in the "No Words" forum instead of in this forum. In addition, there are enough good photographers on photo.net who have attended weddings as non-working guests, or as "Uncle Bob, the family photographer" that we should be able to pull in a few fun images.

Cheers,

Tom M

Henry,

I think there is value to those shots. They often make amazing portfolio pieces. From personal experience, as a bride an image of a little girl asleep in a chair is the image that made me select our wedding photographer. the other key is to get to know the guests and relationships with the bride. At one wedding I was at, one little girl had just had cancer go into remission. No she wasn't the flower girl but they adored those shots. At another one the aunt had just had a heart transplant. By listening to what people around me said I picked up on these things and got those shots. But before you get those shots DO get the important ones of the bride and groom, and if you have a second shooter have them get those great reaction shots of guests, etc. also don't get sucked into the cuteness vortex and give the client 40 shots of the cute kid unless they specifically told you they adore that kid.

I think there is value to those shots. They often make amazing portfolio pieces.

I agree and I shoot them more often than not too, if only for personal satisfaction. It's easier nowadays when we're not counting every frame on every roll, of course, but in the end IMO a wedding shooter has to keep his or her eye on the proverbial ball and that means knowing what will sell. YMMV
Personal opinion
- Henry

"... I agree and I shoot them more often than not too, if only for personal satisfaction...."

There must be fewer of us than I thought that do this because, even over on the "No Words" forum, there have been a grand total of only two contributions since I started the thread.

:-(

Tom M

Hey, Tom--I've found that people stick pretty much to certain things--don't know if it is just habit, but I guess I'm not really surprised at the response over in the No Words forum. It would have been fine, actually in the Wedding Forum--I would have allowed it this once. Particularly if there was discussion about how to get those reaction type shots.

However, I will keep this in mind (reaction shots) for a Wedding Photo of the Week thread--maybe even next week! :^)

In the meantime, don't give up on the thread yet...

Hi Nadine - Thanks for the comment. From our off-line discussion, I know you would have allowed it, and I thank you for that, but when it came to the point of actually starting the thread, I didn't want to set a bad precedent on the forum, thinking that there would be little discussion (eg, technique), only a bunch of cute / emotional / silly shots.

My problem is that I've got too many non-B&G shots that fit into this category. For example, when I was doing wedding work, I took way too many shots of obviously drunk relatives who would stand in front of me until I took their picture. For fun, knowing that such a shot would be embarrassing and useless, sometimes I would simply press the "test flash" button and they would think I had taken their picture. How's that for "advanced wedding technique"? :-)

Cheers,

Tom M

Tom,
I have used your advanced technique since quitting film.
What do you do when the drunk relative asks to see it?

I tend to shoot the shot of the drunk relative so I can show it to them when they do ask, and then later in post when things get chucked, so does that image along with a bunch of others, so it's not just like that's the only shot that's missing. Otherwise they'd have 500+ dance floor shots, which would be insane. I'd only delete it on site if I for some odd reason am running really low on memory space (which would be strange with as many cards as I bring).