Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Expensive hobby

I shot my first wedding on Saturday since becoming a mom. I had a bit of a challenge finding clothing that would fit for the shoot. I typically wear black and most of my black pants no longer fit. Finally, I found a pair of pants from ages ago when elastic waist bands were en vogue. Thank goodness. Needless to say, I am now on the hunt for a comfy black skirt to add to my stash. It wasn't blazing hot but hot enough when lugging around my gear.

I am glad it was a short shoot. The couple did a small wedding at a local restaurant so we shot outdoors at the park across the street and proceeded back to the restaurant for the ceremony on the deck. I was able to get back home just over my four hour window. This is typically how long I can be away from my new friend the pump. Needless to say, had we gone longer I would have needed to book an assistant so I could take the time out.

Even with a small group it was more portraits than I dig, but oh well. I need to pick up as many gigs as possible to build my portfolio. I went through the first pass of the photos last night and am happy for the most part. It was a gorgeous day outside - not a cloud in the sky. Damn it. While the rest of the folks were enjoying the lovely weather I was praying for a couple of clouds. Just one or two that would politely sit overhead blocking the sun while I shot the groups. No luck. It will take me a bit longer to work on those photos to see if I can take out some hotspots and bring up some of the darker areas. One thing I am learning - I do not charge enough for weddings. It's not the shoot that takes the time, but the editing. However, until I get good enough, I feel bad charging a lot of money. Urgh.

The bride requested that I use a professional level camera. My camera is only a 6.4 megapixel. Now, from what I understand, unless she was going to blow up a picture to anything above 20x30 we would be just fine using my camera. But, the customer is always right, right? So I chose to look at this as an opportunity to test run the D2X from Nikon (from local outfit WestPhoto). I currently shoot Nikon so am familiar with the Nikon body I thought it would be better to go that route than try to adjust to the Canon body for a wedding.

I know I want to upgrade someday but don't know if I want to switch over to Canon. The dilemma for me is all my gear works with Nikon - external flash, lenses (which need upgrading too). To buy a new body, either Canon or Nikon, it will cost me between $3,000 - 4,000. If I go the Canon route I need to tack on another $400 for the lens I want and another $300 for the external flash. At my current wedding rate I would need to do 12 weddings to pay for the equipment. Yikes. I better stick to my day job, eh?

1 comment:

Sarita said...

Tell me about it!

I've been trying to figure out how I'm going to work the wedding I have in a couple of weeks. It's an 8 hour wedding in Isanti, that I booked long before I was pregnant. I suppose I'll just have to pump in the car.