My first wedding shoot

Indian weddings are usually loud and dare I say even obnoxious at times. I would have probably refused to cover such a wedding. While some like the idea of wedding being a mass congregation event, I like it to be a quite and private affair. So when I got a mail from a friend, whose sister was getting married soon, and had seen my pictures online, asking me if I could cover her wedding with a photojournalistic approach, rather than the traditional approach where the bride and groom are made to sit on a stage and people are herded up and down the stage for group pictures, I said yes.

This being my first wedding shoot I read up a bit looking for a few pointers on what to shoot and what not to. I used my 70-200mm f2.8L IS mostly, but also made use of the wide angle lens a few times.

The shoot was a 2 day affair. The first day everyone just hung around and chilled. It made my job easier since I had friends there so we chatted in between shots. The weather in general was beautiful, and the venue, a resort, was perfect for a small private wedding. The girls got mehendi on their hands while the guys walked around with beer in their hands, and later in the evening there was an impromptu ‘screw the bulb turn the knob’ dance lessons for their european friends.

Day 2 was more of the same. But on this day the whole place was decorated with lights and flowers for the main wedding ceremony. There were a couple of small rituals with the bride and the groom, before the actual wedding ceremony. My camera was doing great till then, but went kaput on me during the middle of the wedding ceremony. Luckily, a friend had a DSLR, so we managed a few pics during that period. But my plans for doing family portraits with strobes went to the bin, or so I thought. After dinner, when people had settled down a bit, we decided to give the portrait shoot a go. With the help of friends, I managed to get a lighting setup working with gear from all makes – Nikon D40, Cactus V4 triggers & receivers, Vivitar 285hv flash and a Canon 430EXII speedlite. And it worked!!

Pictures:

For more pictures, see here

Note: Please do not copy or reproduce these pictures without permission.