24-200mm f6.3 Z for an acquaintances wedding outdoirs

camerosity wrote:

toomanycanons wrote:

With all respect to the replies on this thread on how to fine tune your very first wedding shoot (an ultimate learning experience if there ever was one), just show up with your camera and 24-200 and let 'er rip

You'll learn what works, what doesn't, what about the entire experience you never expected, what wandering around with your camera in your hand for 10 hours or more is really like

Afterwards...I mean after you then spend the hours collating/processing/submitting your work to your friend whose expectations may or may not be met...afterwards you'll know a heckuva lot more about what it takes to shoot a wedding from experience

Oh that's really awful advice. I'm going to say Absolutely Nope! Afterwards is too late.

You may want to lighten up. I believe toomanycanons is only half joking. On the other hand the bride who has asked the OP to take the pics of the wedding for free is not expecting a top of the line service. In fact the bride is just an acquaintance of the OP (as per the original post). There are not going to be any guarantees - the OP is providing service on a best effort basis. So it is a perfect time for using this wedding as a learning experience.

The service is provided for free. The OP did not go about offering the free service. Instead the free service was requested from the OP. If this gig is not taken as a learning experience opportunity, when exactly would the OP find a job where he/she will be able to experiment/learn? On a paid job???

OP, talk with the bride and groom (we always asked the bride to go over our list of suggested pics and line out the ones she didn't want/need) and feel them out for how they see the photography. We did more traditional posed photos and did very well by them. Other photographers show up and "wing it" and do more documentary style photos, and I've seen them perched way up on a second floor deck shooting down at the event and ceremony surveillance camera style. Ugh, no thanks. When I saw that I sprung in to action and got the photos and I wasn't even the paid photographer, just a close friend of the groom. The bride later told me my photos were her favorite, and had one of her and my friend walking down the aisle arm in arm framed on her bedside table. I was honored.