I was shooting at a high profile wedding a few weeks ago. For me, a high profile wedding is an event where I just know that the budget is well above average. At any rate, the ceremony had finished and all of the traditional family portraits had been taken in a very timely manner and now I had a few minutes alone with my couple to create one of my cinematic moments. In fact, the bride had actually been thinking of a specific image that she wanted me to create for her.
At this point, I need to jump back in time for a second. I had recently bought a new piece of camera equipment to solve a problem I had been having. During the traditional bouquet and garter toss I like to fire off a ton of shots to track the object flying through the air and then as some lucky participant catches the item. The problem I was having was that my flash was not recharging fast enough for me. So I finally broke down and bought a large external battery to attach to the flash to resolve the problem. The battery has a camera strap on it and I wear it over my shoulder, but since I wear a jacket to my weddings you can’t really see it.
Ok, back to the story. So the three of us are setting up this shot, and both sides of the family are still there and watching me. I have placed my bride and groom in the sceen, and I am behind my camera composing. My camera is on a tri-pod to minimize camera shake and to get the exact composition that I want. And remember the battery that is slung over my shoulder…. with a cable that is attached to my flash…. which is attached to my camera? As I am looking through my camera, I decide that I am not really happy with the way I have placed my bride and groom in the image, and instead of yelling through the church to tell them what I want, I have to go over there and place them in the correct position.
I was not more that 8 to 10 feet away from my camera when I stopped dead in my tracks. I had been waking briskly, and I felt the large tug on my shoulder, and suddenly everything was moving in super slow motion. I turned to see the cable fully stretched and pulling the tripod and camera over. I froze. Everything was being pulled over, and it was taking forever. Everyone was watching. I couldn’t speak. All I could do was just watch as my camera came crashing down. But it took forever! I just wanted it to be over.
I saw my camera bounce.
Cameras today are made of hard plastic, as opposed to older models that were made of metal. The flash hit the ground first, which shattered. The connection between the flash and the camera body had so much force applied to it that it ripped the flash right off of the camera body leaving four screws protruding out of the top of the camera.
The lens hit next, and plastic was in the air. The connection between the camera body and lens had some damage. The lens itself could no longer zoom in and out, and I wasn’t really sure if it could even focus properly anymore.
It was over. The camera had stopped moving. I took a deep breath, collected my broken pieces of equipment and didn’t say a word. I then noticed how quiet it was. Now I wasn’t sure if it was quiet because I was still in the church, or because everyone had just gasped out every last bit of air in their lungs, but I wasn’t going to look up to find out.
I picked up my camera and all of the little pieces of plastic that I could find back to my camera bag and found places to shove it all in there. Then, without missing a beat or looking up, I pulled out my extra camera body, lens, and flash and began assembling. My backup camera was up and running in less than 60 seconds after my first camera hit the floor.
Needless to say, I got the shot.
Aric
Houston Wedding Photographer
Contact Solaris Studios and book your wedding photographer today!
P.S. I just got my camera back from the shop today, and I am a happy man.
Sorry, comments are now closed.