With less than 2 weeks to the wedding date, I was contacted to handle this wonderful occasion! Of course I have none other than my previous couple Winnie and Tom to thank for the referral. But working in a pinch and little time to prep seems to be the usual theme here as one of my previous gigs happened the same way as well. Of course, I'm always ready for the action! The Wedding Photography Contract wasn't even signed until on the day of the wedding! That's how much trust they had in me not to bail on them and of course for me to document their most memorable moments of their once in a life time union!
What can I say? We got lucky, or I got lucky, why? On this beautiful mid August Summer of 2015 the skies were grey and overcast, rain as soon on the way! The heatwave and smoke from the 200+ forest fires in British Columbia had just crept by this beautiful city of Vancouver. What more is there to ask? Normally, everyone would prey for a nice sunny day, but let me tell you, overcast skies is what I love! Especially for outdoor shoots! Forget the reflectors and soft boxes cause that ain't necessary anymore as you can see the outdoor lighting in the pictures is pleasing on both the bride and groom! My assistant ended up standing around watching my gear instead of having to move around assisting me with lighting. I prefer natural lighting when it comes to outdoor work.
The ceremony was at the 1906 heritage site of the Pioneer Church at the updated South Arm Community Church building next door. The Wedding Party consisted of a large crew of 18! YES, the largest wedding ensemble yet to grace the halls of South Arm Community Church! Two white limos chauffeured the crew to and from our destinations. After the wondrous ceremony we had a nice little shoot at another popular heritage site in Richmond, the Minoru Chapel. I had previously done a wedding for couples Bryan and Eva there as well. Oh it was a busy day! There was already 2 other wedding parties on location, a ceremony, Batman and many bunnies! YES I DID SAY BATMAN! Batman(vintage) was the GROOM and he was getting married! Of course I got shots of their joyous occasion as well! Technically, this is my first time shooting two simultaneous weddings at once. ;) You gotta see the pics! After our afternoon shoot, we proceeded to our reception at the Ukrainian Hall of Ivan Franko for an eventful alcoholic salsa night to finish the day off!
Gear:
Previously I had tested the the new Fuji X-T1 with the Fuji XF 55-200 f/3.5-4.8 R LM OIS at Kai and Cathy's wedding and it was more than sufficient to handle all the demands of an action packed low light wedding, although it would push the X-T1's light sensitivity capabilities close to it's limits, I managed to get through without even turning on high performance mode. This time I brought in the venerable Fuji XF 50-140 f2.8 R LM OIS WR to handle Karen and Robert's wedding. What a pleasure and life saver it was when the Fuji X100 batteries failed me as the Fuji Charger BC65N had failed to charge my batteries at all but would give my battery indicator a "full" reading. Of course, I also had my backup Nikon D7000 DSLR with me as well although I only took 6 shots with it. The Fuji X-T1 really took care of the business. One things for sure, the weight savings switching over to mirror-less was well worth it. My arms and fingers were no longer fatigued after a days shoot so I was still quick on my toes ready to capture any spontaneous action the reception threw in my direction! I used a Vivitar 383 Speedlight (for Nikon) on the X-T1 with a light sphere diffuser when they had parts of the night completely under candle light only. Although I shot the majority of the work using natural lighting since the hall didn't have suitable(safe) location to setup a wireless speed light system. The last thing I want is an accident from intoxicated guests tripping over my tripods/speed-lights.
Enough talk here's the link to the Full Gallery! Here you'll see the full published gallery.
Below is a select few photos of the occasion!
