Last wedding I shot there where 2 photogs, both shooting with Nikon full frames, I was chatting with the photogs during the reception and the father of the groom came up to us with a small lowepro bag which had a brandnew fullframe nikon camera and a 24-70 f2.8 lens attached to it, I am not familiar with the nikon line up but the photog told me afterwards it was a newer model then they where using.

The father had some questions about the camera and he had some issues getting good photos out of it. I hear him asking questions that I would expect from my daugther when I would give her her first camera at her birthday, he clearly didn't understand what aperture, iso and shutter was and what effect these settings have on the image.

So here you have a guy buying a few thousand dollars worth of photo equipment while he doesn't even understand the basics of photography, like Steve said, he buys the camera just because he can, not because he needs it.

Yep, there are a lot of people with good disposable income that are happy to pay thousands for the best equipment regardless of knowing it's capabilities and how to use it to it's full potential.

All this talk of guests with great gear is really more a problem for the Photographer than the Videographers. Guests with a camera can with some skill or luck or both, take great photos. For video, well unless they're skilled handheld, they'd need a tripod or monopod. How many Weddings has anyone been to where a guest has brought one of these along. If a guest turned up with say a C300 and support rig, yeah I might feel a little competition, but that's never happened so far. Closest I got was the DJ taking some shots of the Reception tables and some dancing using a camcorder. He had a tripod with him, and was rather throwing himself into his little video work. I just made sure I got great shots myself, and trusted my work was better than his. I caught him watching me from time to time as I was going about the room, seeing what angles I was going for.

I have to admit, it really doesn't bother me a little because of their gear, with one exception: if they're firing off a flash right next to me, over and over.

Other than that, it's simply the exact thing we expect from the photog, ourselves, or anyone else: courtesy. Please don't block my cameras. Please don't stand in the middle of the aisle between the bride and the groom. Please don't walk out to them during their first dance song, and stand 2 feet away for the entire song, with your camera/iPad in their face, filming.

I once had the grooms uncle who insisted to shoot at the grooms place with his 5dIII, I was at that moment shooting the brideprep and could not make time available to go to the groom as well as he was staying a half hour drive from the bride, I even used his material in my film, I had to colorcorrect the footage because the people all got a yellow face but beside that it looked decent enough.

Only he wanted to shoot in the church as well, the bride warned me about him and said if he would interfere to much I could tell him to move out of the way, I rather would her telling him to stay out the church with his equipment but she was afraid to tell him that and cause a discussion.

He came to church with a pana hvx 200 and his 5dIII on a monopod and he had a microphone stand with a shotgun mike in front of the lectern that was xlr connected to his hvx200. I was holding my sony cx730 with a small shoulderrig and a second cx730 on a tripod :)

I ended up using just one shot from him which was a closeup from the grooms face with his 5dIII during the vows, all the rest was useless to me. All his 5dIII shots has such a shallow dof it didn't match my other camera's + they where too shaky and again wrong whitebalanced.

So he had bigger and better gear then me at that moment yet my footage turned out to be of a better quality.

You can give a thousand monkeys a camera.... maybe you'll get a few usable shots...

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/totem-poll-totally-off-topic-everything-media/524433-monkeyright.html

And they'll work for bananas...

I saw Dawn of the Planet of the Apes yesterday, monkeys are much smarter then you think...

I would venture to guess that a vast majority of the video taken by enthusiasts never gets used for anything or ever even will see the light of day. It is one thing for a guest to get caught up in the excitement of the event and go overboard with taking pictures and video... it is another thing when it comes time to edit and the enthusiasm has worn off, they realize how much work it really is and he would much rather just watch TV instead.

Totally agree.

Even though I get paid, I lose enthusiasm some times and need a break. I would be surprised if a friend or relative will dedicate that much effort on a film.

We had this last weekend. Had to have a few nice words in the end.

2 of them, same cameras, same lens and always shooting in the same place. Was a little odd but I think it was the age old problem of a pro with an assistant who didn't want to leave the side of the other and the pro couldn't trust the shots of the assistant so just re-did everything they did.

She would stand in front of me during the ceremony, take a shot and then stand there checking the shot. Just had no idea I was even there. So had to tap on the shoulder and point at my camera and then after just asked them to be more aware of not only us but other guests (standing in front of mum and dad during the ceremony). They were fine after that.

I think sometimes it is lack of experience and sometimes they just arent used to shooting with others.

IT wasn't just me though. The registrar had to have words in the end and also gave them a telling off for full on shooting the signing of the register.

Hi Danny

More often than not the lack of experience is obvious ... an assistant there purely for moral support. I had two guys also at a ceremony obviously with 10mm super wide lenses and at some stages their lens hoods were touching the bride's arm in an effort to get ultra close shots of the rings. Like yours the celebrant eventually had enough and banished them to behind the first row of chairs. Hope they had more than the wide lenses otherwise they would have been in real trouble.

I also did a wedding and had each photog straddling my main camera ... I think they were having a competition to see who could hit 1000 exposures first of the speaker at the lectern!! Seriously what were they thinking. My photog make sneak up and take 3 at most of each speaker .... these guys were obviously shooting identical frames and literally hundreds of them non stop!!!

I wonder if they work on the assumption that if they are sweating blood and running around like ants people might be impressed at their work effort???

The mind boggles sometimes!!!

Chris

I blame myself actually. I only said to julie the other day how lately everyone is shooting on 5DMK3 which is lovely as the shutter is silent.

What happens? The next week and EVERY wedding since has been Nikons with shutters that sound like a tea tray hitting the floor. I jinxed it.

Being a Nikon shooter I sometimes used to cringe doing stills on my D90's but they are pretty quiet ..the full frame Nikons are very noisy indeed " Will you "clunk" John take "clunk" Melissa ........ " I find the FF Nikon shooter are also the ones that want to stand next to the bride and become part of the ceremony so my lav on the groom picks up every shutter actuation!!

Chris

I just ran into a similar situation. I shot (video) my nephews wedding yesterday and before the wedding started I spoke with the photographer with both my nephew and his fiancé present. I told her where I had planned on having my camera locked off and would it be a problem with her. She said no problem, I won't get in the way of it and we both agreed on it. When the wedding started everything seemed to be going fine until I noticed that everywhere I went with my r&g camera, she would follow me and then get her arm in some of my shots. Keep in mind I was getting tight close up shots. toward the end of the wedding she decided to walk down the middle of the isle and get in the shot of my locked of camera. I told my nephew about it and he was wanting to take a look at the footage so that they could talk to her about it. do anyone know of a way to get around this in a polite way?

I'm reminded of a wedding I videod a few weeks ago in which a lot of effort had gone into choreographing the 1st dance and several tracks which were to follow. Yep it involved all the bridesmaids etc. To be several minutes long, probably the most important part of the day for these particular clients (it was the 1st thing they mentioned when they first enquired), and of course destined for Youtube.

I had 5 video cams running. All carefully positioned to anticipate the best angles with minimal chance of blocking. I asked the toastmaster (the chap in a red jacket who announces everything at some UK weddings) to ask the guests to stay clear of the cams when he announced the dance. He was great all day. What could possibly go wrong :- )

Time came, he forgot to ask the guests to stay clear, then he promptly stepped off the floor and managed to block not 1 but 2 cams. The groom broke off from the 1st dance early and blocked a 3rd cam. I was shooting handheld with the main video cam and couldn't break off to signal to them to scram. In the footage in post you can see where both the toastmaster and the groom gradually realise they "may" be in the way, do a double take on the cam, and swiftly move away. Then there were the guests :- (

The end product was OK but not nearly as good as it could have been.

Anyway, my point is that no matter how eager they are to please (the toastmaster) and how much of a vested interest they have in me getting great footage (the groom), and in the complete absence of any malice what so ever this stuff still happens. Maybe sometimes we are too quick to attach guilt / incompetence / selfishness / etc to the offenders.

Pete

these guys are from craiglist