skidooman Loc: Minnesota

One from this past summer. I placed one of my cameras on a ledge behind the alter with a fish eye lens and triggered it with my wireless remote. A little something different.

(Download)

Weddingguy Loc: British Columbia - Canada

Nice idea and nice results!

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

I like it. Another reason in my list of "why I need to get a fisheye lens"

I know they are limited in their use, but finding something unique to offer people can be worth it. It is just writing that check for new equipment that is so difficult for a cheapskate like me.

skidooman Loc: Minnesota

Coming from you that's quite a compliment, thanks.

skidooman Loc: Minnesota

Thank you sir. I could use the fisheye more often, that is certain. My wallet creaks loudly when I open it also :)

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

I've been on sort of a spending spree lately, but none of it for myself. As a big thank you to a few of our more regular apprentice shooters. (unpaid 3rd shooters/assistants/gophers) I try to do nice things for them at Christmas time. I've been buying some used and refurb equipment for them. It helps at tax time, but the reality is that when I decide that I want something for myself, I often find that my wallet has nothing but dust and a couple of moths in it.

juicesqueezer Loc: Okeechobee, Florida

Thanks for the tip! Great idea and it offers a different perspective for the wedding party!

skidooman Loc: Minnesota

Your welcome and thanks, the couple liked it also.

Beercat Loc: Central Coast of California

I always place 2 GoPros from the reverse angle for video purposes. I pre-set the view to thread the angle between the officiate and the bride/groom. Each camera sees a different view and usually, as an example, get the side view of the officiate, groom, bride from the waist up slightly turned and the icing is I normally get the bride/groom parents on the front row in the back ground. I've purchased many mounting brackets/mini tripods for GoPros, usually I can get the cameras placed in the correct place to give me a wonderful vantage point. If I can hide them in floral I will.

You could program the GoPro to trigger remotely for stills with your PDA. I love GoPros, they are cheap and give a good exposer.

Hint: If using a GoPro set the metering to center as this will give the best exposer on the bride and groom.

One last thing. Many churches do not allow video/stills to be taken from the platform during the ceremony but I've never been denied access to hide a camera or in my case 2 cameras prior to the start of the ceremony. Always ask permission of the officiate and/or facility coordinator, they love it when you ask and give that reverence, you might be surprised when you approach the situation like this on how they respond. I have found I get more grace when I approach with this attitude.

skidooman Loc: Minnesota

Couldn't agree more. In this case asking permission is far better than asking for forgiveness. It has always worked for me.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

I've been tempted to add video, but the few times I did, I was driven up a tree by how long Post takes. I think I may be too old, or too picky, but I think the little bit of video I edited, took 3x the time I spend doing still for the whole wedding.

I would love to do it, just because I've had some horrible experiences working with local videographers. Actually, it's bad enough that there are 2 here in town, that if the couple books them, we actually refund the deposit, as we won't work with them. Always jumping in the shots, blasting their video lights and ruining our shots... Grrrr.

Actually had purchased a few higher end video cameras, but they've been sitting, gathering dust for about 2 years.

Maybe I'll try it again sometime? (and pay someone else to edit)

Beercat Loc: Central Coast of California

FYI, it takes 60+ hours of edit time for the videos we shoot. Of course we use 7 cameras :shock:

We started doing photography to get more business. When we only shot video we would get clients who already blew their wad on other vendors including a big chunk for the photographer, they then wanted us but also would ask for a huge discount because they already blew their wad. My point is the photographer still gets the lions share of the video/photo budget even though we typically do much more work with video, thus we now offer combos. My point is the money is currently in the photography. Most photographers who try video have a different take on it once they try to do it.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

Actually, for a year before I started apprenticing with James Hodge (my late GREAT mentor, then father-in-law... I still miss him) I worked for a TV station, I did master control, Telcine (editing), sound, and camera. Also freelanced doing commercials and weddings on the side. It was only a few years ago that I thought I'd try to add some video. Editing now, is a far cry from 1982, when it was basically multiple videotape recorders, adding transitions/wipes, and cutting from one scene to the other. I was actually fairly quick in those days. I'm thinking 60 hours of video editing would make my head explode now. My hat is off to you. I'll stick with stills, and if I ever get in a bind where I find myself doing video, I may end up hiring someone from outside to do the "fun, editing" stuff.