sploppert Loc: Rochester, NY

I have shot over 3800 weddings since I started in the business in 1976 and have never had a need for more that just myself and an assistant to help with lighting equipment to get the job done.

Dun1 Loc: Atlanta, GA

When Sports Illustrated actually had photographers on their staff, they fired or terminated their relationship with their staff photographers. The dozen photographers shot and uploaded some 10,000 images an hour to SI/Time Hqs, to be edited.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Yep, and BIF specialists do something similar in the hunt for that "perfect image": wing position, head position, light, background etc etc etc

Osprey/Eagle dives, catches fish, lifts off with fish, loses grip on fish, re-catches fish in mid air - how many different great shots do you have a chance at in that short time length?

Even wedding (which is an event), besides all the standard posed shots there are many opportunities for "moment" shots. Interplay between people, etc. esp during the reception or dinner/dance.
Ring bearer and flower girl look adorable and cute. Take a shot, then he does or says something to his sister/flower girl and she dumps a basket of flower petals on his head. Set piece perfectionists will miss that. During the dance what chance is it that a second earlier or later wouldn't have been a better image.
You don't have to use a 1DxII on fast burst for everything, but sometimes short bursts will give you a much better image than the one carefully setup image. Set it all up and get everything right, then take short bursts from just before to just after what you judge to be "the moment". With digital this is easy, with film it was a pain and expensive. Yes, editing will take longer, but most of that extra time is culling the flops. In Light Room you can do that fast, I know one BIF photog who culled through just over 1000 shots in an hour just to prove he could do it. Heck, hire a kid computer geek to do the first cull - out of focus, photobombed etc. A kid would work cheap, junk food, a few bucks and some photo lessons.

sploppert Loc: Rochester, NY

What you are missing is a wedding photographer is limited to how fast his lights will recycle. most take at least 2 seconds to do that. Shoot sooner and your second shot is under exposed.Therefore We have to know what and when to expect the action to happen. I don't know any reception hall that has the lights bright enough to blase away to your hearts content and I have shoot all over the USA and Europe. If fact the house or the DJ will turn the lights down so low that you have to zone focus. Do you auto shooters even know what I mean by zone focus? You can not shoot burst mode without constant lighting conditions. Assist a pro wedding photographer once to see the conditions we have to work under and the time constraints we have and then tells us how to shoot in burst mode. It's easy to say you should do this and that if you've never done it. Get educated before you offer an intelligent alternative, otherwise your are talking through your ass. By the way a kid does not know what the photographer sees in his minds eye anymore than a camera does. Attitudes like this is why brides get so much garbage to sort through to find 24 or 36 photos for their final album. I personally as well as any other pro photographer only show their best work to the client other wise it would look like we didn't know what we were doing, aka a snap shooter.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

You never do any weddings outdoors in daylight? Or say on a patio with constant lighting? (camera that does good high ISOs)
Yes, I know what zone focusing is and the Zone System too! Gee, I do know some things.
I have done shooting at friends & relatives weddings/receptions - requested to get the casual shots the posed wedding shots left out. Short bursts are a tool, not a religion. The kid or friend doing the preliminary culling doesn't need to see your vision, just out of focus, photo bombs etc. The final cull, plus the careful posed shots are for the photographer or his/her editor (I do know a pro who hates editing but has a good friend who loves it and is very good at it. They work as a team.)
I do have a bit of education in this field - that is why I don't even dream about being a wedding photographer, too much like assembly line work. Standard lighting, poses and shots over and over. If you like/can do it, great for you. But haven't you even thought about getting out of that rut, it can be combined with all the standard set-piece shots so you have both bases covered. Digital with its nearly unlimited shots will let you do that.
When it isn't fun, but work, I don't want to do it. Photography is something I do for fun and enjoyment.
I am not talking through my ass, I am talking with an ass who seemingly won't even consider there may be a different way to do things. Oh, you through in the insult, I gave it back, I don't want it. So stick to your formula, scripted shooting with its few variations. But keep it in the back of your mind - Are there any great shots I missed that are out of my rut?

Almost every wedding album I have ever seen blurs into a stream of sameness - different faces, different locations. Basically special only to the subjects and their families because they are "their wedding". And mostly high quality, just like assembly line products from a company with good quality control.

blackest Loc: Ireland

Is it always the case that there is a delay to recycle? If you are using less than full power then the discharge is smaller, my manual flash has a burst mode. Other flashes have a high speed sync mode where the flash fires a burst as the shutter traverses the sensor. If you care to elaborate i'm certainly willing to listen.

I'm certainly not a pro anything but I do like to learn.

sploppert Loc: Rochester, NY

"Basically special only to the subjects and their families because they are "their wedding". These are the people that are paying for my work. I'm not shooting to sell on the open market I'm shooting for what I'm being paid for. You go shoot for fun I shoot to put food on my table how about you. This post was why do people shoot 1000 pictures when 200 will do. It was asked to wedding photographers not wild life or landscape photographers period. So go out and shoot what you like I don't care. I don't tell you how to shoot so don't tell me how I shoot mine. I shoot for my clients not for you. I have made a nice living doing what I do, I don't tell you how to mop floors the way you do for a living. The difference between me and you as well as people like Monte Zuckor, Don Blair, Clay Blackmore and others that I have studied under is we make photographs not take them. We treat our clients for what they want and not shoot for the sake of piling up pictures. We actually care about what we do and it shows in our work.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

I didn't tell you what to do, I discussed something that might be done differently, as an addition to the regular things.
Actually I have mopped floors as part of a paid job. Why do you feel the need to insult, first the talking out my ass and now the snide remark about mopping floors. Hey it is honest labor that needs to be done, just like my lawn guy and my pool guy or the appliance repairman we use. All out there hustling for their families. Just like wedding photographers, many probably dreaming about being the next Ansel Adams.

Odd jobs and helping around my Grandparent's farm.
Clerk and general whatever needed doing for a super market (while in college).
Regular Army 2+ year vacation in beautiful South East Asia aka Vietnam.
More clerking and doing whatever needed doing at the super market when I came back to college and graduate school plus my first three years teaching (needed weekend and summer income for my family)
34 years in Jr and Sr High classrooms teaching 7 different subjects but mostly history, geography and government.
A few years of armed alarm response security guard on weekends and summers and about 10 years on weekends and summers helping out a friend who owned 3 gun shops and an auction business.

You say you are a professional and I will accept that. And probably very good at it. But like other things Wedding Photography is often a script driven formula based thing. I and others simply discussed some different things that could be done that could involve burst shooting and thus a very large volume of shots produced. My own wedding album is a set of beautiful posed shots, the closest thing to life and action is the walk down the aisle. Just like a few million other wedding albums. A good friend (actually my wife and I were married in her garden years ago.) got remarried in 2015, she asked several of us with photography as a hobby to bring our cameras and shoot pictures of all the things the wedding photographer would miss. A large Persian wedding/excuse for a party with lots of the guests switching back and forth to cooking serving, music etc. Many friends and relatives from two continents. When it was over they had the regular photos plus about 3000 frames from the friends doing the casual shots. My daughter did the dancing, Persians really know how to throw a wedding dance, but no one is even going to think about posing so Jasmine did over a 1000 shots* in four hours, every dancer, dance line or couple got a burst of 3-5 frames knowing that most would be culls due to over 100 people dancing on the patio at the same time. Sort of a creative riot set to music.

* I don't think she has ever shot a frame of film, she learned on digital and was taught by the members of the UCLA photo club while in Pre-Med. Only female in the club, lots of geeks and nerds willing to teach her. And a couple of them were Art/Photography majors who also worked at it on the side to help pay for school. She photographs and takes part in Anime, Cosplay, Steam Punk events etc. It is almost like being a sports photographer and a player at the same time. She alternates between posed shots and action from inside the action while I wonder around and do set piece shots and casual portraits of the participants.
The closest I come to her mixed style is at Civil War Reenactments when I go from set piece shots of the participants in their uniforms posing to the action shots of the battles etc. I do a lot of flowers, including focus stacks and macro both of which I am presently learning, but mostly birds and insects. I have mostly live, moving subjects and can set things up but then because of all the movement in unpredictable directions and speeds I use bursts a lot. Hummingbirds, Egrets, Finches etc don't take direction well or cooperate with the poses. Ducks almost do, a bag of corn, bird seed or bread and they will hang around until you run out. So set it up, try to time it and shoot, then let the burst run a second or so as insurance.

I understand you have done well at your profession and with your style. Hope it continues for as long as you want it to. I have read articles about people now using 4K video cameras and pulling all of the stills out of the video. Makes burst shooting look static and set piece.

sploppert Loc: Rochester, NY

Ansel Adams was not a wedding photographer. LOL I'm not putting any one down for doing what they love or how they do it. I shoot weddings because I love doing them and I get the benefit of working with new people from all over the world and different customs. My personal favorite weddings are Asian. There is so much ceremony it takes my breath away. The Bride will where 3 different gowns during the day. You say a wedding is a wedding. This is a true statement but so is baseball, 3 strikes 3 outs and 9 innings. Foot ball and basketball have four quarters, do you say they are predictable. A wedding is only predictable and boring if you let it be. Yes all weddings are the same but each and every one is different and people come to me to shoot it and give me their hard earned money for me to do it. In my city there are at least 400 photographers that shoot weddings. Some are very good and others should be paying the bride and groom to let them shoot the wedding. I'm busy enough that I have to turn weddings away. I could take on more and hire more photographers to work for me but I don't want the my quality or reputation to suffer. Once again the original post was geared to wedding photographers but seems that every one with a camera wants to put their 2 cents in even if it doesn't have anything to do with the question or subject.

insman1132 Loc: Southwest Florida

I think a lot of us are doing what we would have done back in the days of film if we had unlimited resources at that time. With digital we don't need those unlimited resources, allowing us to experiment more with a subject than we could afford to do back then, but would have loved to do. Just one of the "better" things about digital!

Marionsho Loc: Kansas

.......even if it doesn't have anything to do with the question or subject.[/quote]
So you're saying..... "MARK THIS DAY ON THE CALENDAR"!!!!!!
Marion

sploppert Loc: Rochester, NY

Why would you MARK THIS DAY ON THE CALENDAR ?

Marionsho Loc: Kansas

Jus' might be the first time we got off topic on the Hog.

sploppert Loc: Rochester, NY

:-)

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

Yeah that's exactly why someone as you describe would be a total disaster as a sports shooter! (there are many sport shooters that do weddings too, btw.)!