[str8talk83]

Someone above said something about being cought up on the gear. On the contrary, I don't like being cought up on the gear and I realised long time ago that being cought up on the gear is one of the shortest way to be unsuccessful. Sure, knowledge and experience will help you to go through, but on the long term, using the right tool for the job will help you grow and improve your business. I'm the kind of guy that will not go and shoot for a client with gear that I know is not ideal for that job. Helping a friend or a member of my family by shooting their events is one thing, but shooting for clients is another thing. I guess it depends on what you want: either you invest more money and make your life easier on the long term, either you save some money and work a little harder at every wedding to get the job done.

I think this pretty much sums it up. I do paid work on occasion, and I tried shooting a wedding once solo. I was pleased overall for the price I charged, but it was definitely a challenge. It was a long time ago and I had a pair of Canon 40D cameras. I used my 17-55mm f/2.8 on one and I rented a 70-200 f/2.8 to use on the other. I also had a 50 1.8 prime that I used for detail shots. I lit the reception area with bounced flash to keep my ISO down and shot ambient for the ceremony.

I have totally different gear at this point, but haven't had an interest in shooting weddings for the following reasons.
-It is very challenging to shoot weddings since I'm inexperienced at this particular type of shooting
-I have (what I consider) minimal gear for wedding shooting and it is a hassle to rent additional gear
-I have my own personal standards for images and I wouldn't be content with mediocre results, even if my clients had low standards and were satisfied.

I would probably shoot a wedding as a favor to a close personal friend or relative, but only if it was outdoors or in a well lit venue with easy flash options available if needed. I find portrait shooting much more enjoyable and "doable" for me with my gear and experience. I had an experience early in my photographic career where I was a second shooter for a local professional photographer looking for an assistant. I was hoping to get experience shooting with a pro so I could get into more paid work. I was shocked to see how terrible the pro's images were and how satisfied the clients were with his mediocre work. He didn't have high end clientele, but I decided at that moment that I would do my best to never produce that kind of work and be one of those "cheap" photographers.

[beholder3]

Here is a pro Pentaxian doing portraits:
Portraits in Farbe - Falk Fotografie
Portraits in Schwarz/Weiss - Falk Fotografie
and weddings:
Hochzeitsfotograf Frankfurt am Main Wiesbaden Hanau Bad Homburg Hessen

I usually do not see anything significantly better, regardless of brand of toys used.

[Dan Rentea]

Here is a pro Pentaxian doing portraits:
Portraits in Farbe - Falk Fotografie
Portraits in Schwarz/Weiss - Falk Fotografie
and weddings:
Hochzeitsfotograf Frankfurt am Main Wiesbaden Hanau Bad Homburg Hessen

I usually do not see anything significantly better, regardless of brand of toys used.

Here is a pro romanian wedding photographer shooting with Nikon.

Fotograf profesionist de nunta | Marian Sterea

Again, I'm not saying that you can't shoot weddings with Pentax. I just said that there are cameras more suited for this type of photography. Pentax shines in other areas, such landscape.

[clackers]

Here is a pro romanian wedding photographer shooting with Nikon.

Fotograf profesionist de nunta | Marian Sterea

Again, I'm not saying that you can't shoot weddings with Pentax. I just said that there are cameras more suited for this type of photography. Pentax shines in other areas, such landscape.

I dunno. For wedding photographers who use primes to get looks a set of mundane f2.8 zooms can't do, in the Canikon world they're almost never image stablilized.

Look at the shotlist in a contract - almost everything can be done with a medium format film camera on a tripod, and was. A DSLR from every manufacturer can cope ... and Jerry Ghionis has shot one on an iPhone!

A K-1 or 645Z makes for a superb commercial camera.

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Last edited by clackers; 05-09-2018 at 04:14 PM.

[surfar]

and Jerry Ghionis has shot one on an iPhone!

He surely isnt the only one to use an Iphone!@ a wedding,i thought some others may have done that?

[clackers]

He surely isnt the only one to use an Iphone!@ a wedding,i thought some others may have done that?

Sure, but I use him as an example because by awards won he's possibly the best wedding photographer in the world.

And he's Australian.

[surfar]

And he's Australian.

So hes from NSW then!

[clackers]

So hes from NSW then!

Actually, he's from Melbourne, of Greek heritage, but I'm sure you'll forgive him for that, Surfar!

[surfar]

he's from Melbourne

The highest concentration of Greek(and heritage) people outside of Athens!...ha ha and great people too.Played Soccah with and against many.

But being Greek heritage,how come he doesnt shoot Olympus,instead of iPhone?

[clackers]

But being Greek heritage,how come he doesnt shoot Olympus,instead of iPhone?

Boom tsh!

Of course, to get back to Dan's point, Ghionis illustrates this perfectly.

They don't care about the gear, unlike us hobbyists they care about how to support themselves and their family.

If a stunt like shooting on an iPhone will bring in income, they do it. It's purely business.

He switched from Canon to Nikon (or was it vice versa?), pretty much because he could get sponsorship.

[surfar]

pretty much because he could get sponsorship.

Go where the $ are if thats your motivation,its pretty amazing what Pros use.A friend who is a staff Tog on a regional newspaper takes a basic compact OS.Another friend shot a 5D for 12 years and when it expired last year,she updated to the first version 6D.She said its good enough for what she makes money from.
Its the enthusiast market that is obsessed with gear.

[Dan Rentea]

Its the enthusiast market that is obsessed with gear.

Yet, I haven't seen:
- pro sport photographers shooting with D500/7D Mark II at big sports events
- pro wedding photographers shooting weddings with D610/6D
- pro wildlife photographers shooting with D750/5D Mark III

Sure, there are some international known photographers (Zack Arias as an example) who are recieving big bucks by promoting a certain brand, Fuji in this case.

I follow lots of known international photographers and all of them (except the ones getting paid to shoot with a specific camera) are using top of the line gear. I wonder why?! They must be stupid by not trying to save some bucks, right?

Sure, you can get good results with any camera. 300mm + thread is an example. That doesn't mean that K1 is an action camera.

[surfar]

Yet, I haven't seen:
- pro sport photographers shooting with D500/7D Mark II at big sports events
- pro wedding photographers shooting weddings with D610/6D
- pro wildlife photographers shooting with D750/5D Mark III

Havent you?

[clackers]

Yet, I haven't seen:
- pro sport photographers shooting with D500/7D Mark II at big sports events
- pro wedding photographers shooting weddings with D610/6D
- pro wildlife photographers shooting with D750/5D Mark III

There are so few pro sport and wildlife photographers left, I believe you, Dan (National Geographic magazine is a shell of itself, Sports Illustrated sacked its entire staff). A lot of them haven't paid for their own gear, they're like Ghionis, or the agency's provided them. IIRC, for the Sochi winter Olympics, Getty gave each employee/contractor three bodies and the Holy Trinity of f2.8 zooms, along with Ethernet networking to get the shots back live to the subedtiors.

But they are outnumbered by wedding photographers, and so many I run into in workshops shoot with all sorts of stuff - heaps of 5D Mk IIIs and even a couple of Mk IIs.

I know a fashion/editorial/products guy (F-stopper tog of the month or some such) who does most of his stuff with 5D Mk II and humble 50mm f1.4 ... often leaving his 70-200 in the bag.

In between real specialist gear - I'm talking tilt shift for architecture, bellows macro setups for insects, motorized trackers for astro, underwater housings costing thousands - quite conventional equipment is used for most of the world's commercial photography.

[Dan Rentea]

There are so few pro sport and wildlife photographers left, I believe you, Dan (National Geographic magazine is a shell of itself, Sports Illustrated sacked its entire staff). A lot of them haven't paid for their own gear, they're like Ghionis, or the agency's provided them. IIRC, for the Sochi winter Olympics, Getty gave each employee/contractor three bodies and the Holy Trinity of f2.8 zooms, along with Ethernet networking to get the shots back live to the subedtiors.

Do you think that I gave the sports photographers as an example by accident? Those agencies (like any company) are after profit and in order to stay in business and grow their business, they invest in the best gear available. I mean, I went recently on 2 trips:
- one to Milano to see the world skating championship
- one to Monte Carlo to see the tennis Master

I haven't seen a single 1Dx there as the main camera. All of the Pros were using 1Dx Mark II or D5. So, the agencies invested in the best tools available for their photographers. Same in every area of photography. Yes, people shoot weddings with all sort of gear, starting from K3 to Phase One. But if you want the best posible results, you invest some money in proper gear for the job you do. My business models are photographers like Karl Taylor. There were some haters who were accusing him that he gets great results because he is using Hasselblad and Broncolor lights. In response to that he organised a product shoot were he used a DRLS instead of Hasselblad and Ikea lamps (10$ cost a lamp) to illuminate the product. The result was as you can imagine, very good, proving that knowledge and experience are very important. But, at the end he also said that he can get the job done with any gear he has available, but as a professional photographer he wants the best tools for the type of photography that he does. This is the mentality that works for me.

If someone is asking me if Pentax K1 is good for weddings, I will always say the same: you can shoot weddings with any full frame camera released in the last 4-6 years, but if you want to have the best posible results, K1 is not among the best cameras for weddings, no matter how good the image quality is (and is realy good). The af is a little slow to focus (despite the fact that is accurate), the flash system is way behind competition, the clearing buffer is slow. And when you start a business as a wedding photographer, you have to look at a few things like:

- flash system
- lenses available (no fast primes available for Pentax, other than legacy lenses which are slow to focus and not so sharp wide open)
- support (if you broke your main lens or one camera one day before an event, you can't go only with the back-up camera so you need to go to the nearest store and rent one)