We’re shooting an outdoor wedding next weekend and there’s a chance of rain.  But there’s just no way I’m running around looking like this guy …

My Apple-fication is complete.  Last year, after attending an seminar where a photographer was making lightning-fast adjustments on a MacBook, I started looking into Apple systems.  A few weeks later, I bought a Mac Pro desktop.  I was so incredibly pleased with the Mac that the next month I ditched my Dell laptop and replaced it with a MacBook.  The next month, we stopped using DVD and CD players in Children’s Church and I started using an iPod to run everything.

So, today, the last piece is in place.  I got myself a nice new iPhone.  This thing is just so cool!  Like all Apple products, there’s just such a nifty, sensible way that things work.  I’ve only scratched the surface of what I can do, but so far having all my stuff synchronize and work together is terrific.

I’ve been getting tired of the look of my website, plus some people told me the fancy cascading menu wasn’t working in Firefox anymore.  So I’ve been whipping up a new look, which went live today.  The only thing not converted yet is the proofbook and ordering sections, everything else should be working.  If you find any broken links, missing pages, or any pages that still have the old (blue) look, please let me know.

We’re doing an out-of-town wedding soon that’s far enough away that we need to get a hotel room.  It’s a morning ceremony, which would mean that we’d have to get up around 3am to make the drive. So we decided to go down the day before, scout the location and stay the night.

Well, I just heard from the bride.  The wedding venue has another event scheduled for that morning, so they can’t get into the venue until an hour before the ceremony.  So they have to do hair/makeup, etc, at another location, then drive to the venue.  They decided to just get some rooms at a local hotel.

You guessed it.  The same hotel where we’re staying.

I got the idea to try this unusual angle during the bouquet toss a few minutes before the event. I think this is the best bouquet toss shot I’ve ever gotten. I love the angle and the look on the bride’s face.  Also, notice the arms of the extremely eager bridesmaid directly behind her head!

We shot Stephanie and Will’s wedding out at Amelia Island Plantation yesterday.  A beautiful, if dark, chapel and a gorgeous reception site, Walker’s Landing on the marsh side of the island.  Perfect, cool, and cloudless day.

The highlight of the day, for me, was the reception.  Specifically, the food.  They had the reception catered by a barbecue restaurant, the name of which escapes me at the moment [UPDATE: Stephanie's mom told me it was Mojo's].  It was GREAT!  I try not to eat too much at a reception, so I don’t get overly full and lethargic.  But this time, I couldn’t help myself.  I had a heaping plate and it took all my willpower to not go back for another.

Hey guys, great choice!  But I’m gonna have to work extra hard to get back on track with my diet …

I’ve been to a lot of weddings, worked with a lot of wedding officiants. Baptist, Catholic, Episcopalian, Methodist, JoP, all different kinds.  Up until recently, I’ve never had a problem with any of them. Some were very business-like, some were very chatty and friendly. I used to say I’d never met one I didn’t like.

Then I met Priest-zilla

Wow, what a jerk. Condescending, arrogant, sarcastic, everything you wouldn’t want in the guy running your wedding.

His “rehearsal” was pathetic. First, he’s late.  Then, after telling the wedding party that he would assume they had a modicum of intelligence, he proceeded to talk to them like they were complete idiots.  He just sort of half-told them what to do, then had them kinda walk through some parts of it, leaving them confused.  Like weddings, I’ve been to a lot of rehearsals and I’ve never, ever seen one so bad.

One thing I made sure of was to get his name.  I will never, ever work with that guy again.

I love my Nikon D3. Sam and I both use D3s when we shoot a wedding. Built like tanks and the images are stunning.

Then, a few months ago, Nikon announced their new D700. Essentially, they took the D3’s sensor and focus system and put them into a smaller body. You get 90% of a D3 at 60% of the cost. Having shelled out a ton of money on the D3s last year, I was a little peeved at Nikon. $2000 per camera is a big savings! And the D700 has been hugely popular, to the point that I had never actually seen one available.

While the D3s have been amazing cameras, I’ve always been a bit worried because our emergency backup camera, while capable, is nowhere near as good as a D3 in low light. And low light is where a wedding photographer lives. So I’ve been mulling the purchase of a D700 if I could find one.

Well, yesterday I happened to not only find a D700, but a used one! I got the camera for 25% off the new price and it had only been used for 300 shots. I normally shoot that many in a single morning, so for all practical purposes this camera was brand new. It appeared that the camera body was taken out of the box and used for those 300 shots, then put back in. The battery, charger, manuals, software, cables, everything else was in the original wrapping. The only way I knew the camera wasn’t brand new was by checking the shutter count.

So, after shooting with the D700 for a little while, I’ve definitely learned one lesson: I wouldn’t trade my D3 for it. While it’s a very nice camera (for $3K, it should be) it just doesn’t have the heft and quality feel of my D3s.  Also, with my large, long lenses, the D700 doesn’t have the weight to properly counterbalance them.

The major reason, however, is that the D700 has only a single memory card slot, whereas the D3 has two.  I’ve gotten to where I consider my D3’s dual card mirror mode (where every shot is copied to two separate memory cards) to be essential.  I’ve never had a memory card fail before, but it would be a disaster to lose my only copy of the shots because the computer couldn’t read the card.  On various photography forums, you always read about some poor soul who’s trying desperately to get his images off the card.  While memory card failures are rare (even for cheap cards) having two fail simultaneously is virtually impossible.

So, while I’m very happy to get a bargain on a wonderful backup camera, I won’t be selling my beloved D3s to buy D700s.

Last Saturday, we had the pleasure of shooting Jason & Cynthia’s wedding. Cynthia has a large, boisterous Filipino family and I learned a lot. Like the fact that a Filipino accent doesn’t include F’s, they use a P instead: “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt your peelings”. And the fact that Filipinos use a kind of “psst” sound to get each other’s attention.

Now, my point here isn’t to make fun of their accents or culture. What I realized was that it’s really cool that, for a day, the families of my couples let me become part of their family. I talk with them, I laugh with them, sometimes (usually during the father-daughter dance) I cry with them. It’s wonderful and it’s funny that I’m just now realizing it’s a big part of what I love about being a wedding photographer.

One of the flower girls from yesterday’s wedding.  She’s getting her hair done and is less than thrilled with the experience.