At noon last Saturday I received a frantic call from my friend Jo, who said, “I really think I need your help. The wedding ceremony I am photographing will be spread out over a really large area and the bride expects me to get pictures at two different locations. I can’t be in both places at the same time. I need you to come.”
I countered with, “Can’t you just run?” to which she said, “No!”
I closed my shop, drove home, got my camera and by 2 p.m. I was arriving at scenic Grandview Acres.
Grandview Acres is located in the picturesque Knutsford area that is a short drive south of the City of Kamloops. Their website says, “The Knutsford area has deep roots in the cattle ranching industry dating back to the early 1850s. Part of the old Brigade Trail between Kamloops and Hope was established by the Hudson’s Bay Company for the fur trade to carry the year’s trade south. Homesteaders have been operating their ranches and moving cattle throughout the area since the late 1800s.”
It is a great place for a wedding. Nevertheless, Jo was right. The wedding was really spread out. The wedding couple wanted the usual photos of the bridesmaids and bride coming out of a large building and walking across the mowed meadow. However, moments before the first of four groomsmen started from the same location, the groom and his parents started walking from a small building up on the hill (a good five plus minutes uphill sprint away). They wanted photos of the groom and his parents as they walked through a wrought iron gateway to the ceremony location.
I think I could have easily made that run when I was in my 20s, but it was a hot, mid-30 C cloudless day, and that uphill jaunt was a chore.
Jo had never been to Grandview Acres and had no idea how big that place is. Of course the wedding couple would want those shots, it’s a beautiful place and there has to be good photos of both the bride and the groom in their grand entrance.
I like watching other photographers at work, and after the ceremony I had the time lean against a beautifully restored horse carriage and watch Jo.
Jo is energetic and moved the bridal party several times as she creatively posed each member of the bridal party, changing locations and backgrounds to fit each person. Her shooting positions were rarely at eye level and often she would place the camera at ground level. The Nikon DSLR she uses has an articulating LCD screen that is touch focus, touch metering, and touch shutter release.
I showed up with a 24-120mm lens. I like that versatile lens for events like weddings, not only can I shoot wide, but when I need portraiture the long 120mm focal length is perfect.
Jo is not even “sort of content” with one lens. She was constantly changing lenses. There were the long shots with a 70-200mm. Then more intimate images with a 24-70mm. She would move in close, or back off for extreme wide photos with a 14-24mm, and then move in with an ever so sharp 35mm (gosh the background becomes smooth with that lens).
I was there to help with photos of the wedding ceremony, then afterwards that there wasn’t really anything for me to do. I hung around and looked for interesting shadows and light coming from the afternoon sun to use in photos, and talked with people from the wedding party as I waited for the reception to start. They told me they would make their entrance by dancing around their guests tables and that there would be confetti blasters when the newlyweds came in, and I thought it would be fun to photograph that.
The reception started, and then there would be photos of the head table, speakers, the newlyweds kissing when someone clinked their glass, more dancing and finally the cake cutting all easy for a practiced photographer like Jo to cover, so I said my goodbyes and headed home.
Stay safe and be creative. These are my thoughts for this week.
Contact me at www.enmanscamera.com or emcam@telus.net.
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