Tag Archives: Second Shooter

Best of 2012

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I have gone through the over 7000 images from this year and chosen five that I think are the best.  I am not going to rank them.  Rather, I will present them chronologically.

The first one is from Galveston.  Earlier this Spring, Debbie was walking on the beach and saw that someone had started to pile rocks on each other.  As other people came along, they created their own piles of rocks to the point where eventually, there were hundreds of piles of rocks.  I took this picture of one of the piles.  I used a strobe and softbox to help me make the sky a little darker and to help define the surfaces of the rocks.

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Earlier this Summer, Pat Jones asked me to serve as a second shooter at a wedding.  I enjoyed the process.  The wedding was at an interesting outdoor area in Roundrock.  As the sun was going down, we got the couple to walk with us. There was a place in the woods where the setting sun was coming through a break in the leaves of a tree.  I positioned them in the spot where the sun hit their faces and got this picture.

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For the Waco Wild West 100 Bike Ride, last year, I stood at the end of the Washington St, Bridge and tried to get pictures of the cyclists with the suspension bridge and the Hilton in the background. I got some similar shots this year, but noticed that the river was absolutely still.  So, I went down along the river and shot up at the cyclists on the bridge, with the reflection in the still water.

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Ashley Henager wanted to get some pics at an old house in Speegleville.  A couple days before, she contacted me and asked it we could change and shoot with her husband and son.  I loved the idea.  We shot at Midway Park.  Noah was as cute as could be, but he really wanted to get in the water. He kept trying to get away and get in the water, and at one point, the tug between them resulted in this picture.

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Finally, the last shoot with a model I did was with Heather Lynn Johnson.  I have already discussed the lighting issues, but this shot was really great.

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Wedding – Reception

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After the ceremony, all the guests were made to go out into the foyer while the formal portraits were taken and the chairs removed.  There were refreshments and a calypso band.  Once the ballroom was ready, everyone was ushered back in.  The first event on the agenda was the toasts.  I don’t remember what the best man said, but it got a reaction from the others.

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The bride did not want pictures of the guests at their tables for dinner, and that was fine with us.  There were too many guests, the lighting was terrible, and we got to rest just a little.  After dinner, they started the dances.  The bride and groom danced, then the groom and his mother.  The bride’s father was deceased.  So, she decided to do four dances, one with each of her brothers.  Her brothers came from Puerto Rico.  So, it  was a special occasion for them.  Cindy said that this meant a lot to the bride.  So, we concentrated on getting really good pictures of these dances.  Again, the lights were down really low.  So, focusing was a serious problem.  Even at that, this is a picture of the bride dancing with one of her brothers.

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The rest of the evening was spent dancing and visiting, and we got some nice pictures of the rest of the reception.

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Wedding – Ceremony

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The wedding was in the ballroom of the convention center.  It was obviously not the easiest place to decorate.  The wedding planner did an outstanding job with what she had to work with. The ceremony was held in the center area, and tables and chairs for dinner and the reception were set off to the sides.  After the ceremony, the chairs in the center were quickly removed to form a dance floor for the reception.

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Sometimes you capture a moment.  This was in the middle of the ceremony.  I am not sure of the precise context as it happened so fast.  But, the preacher looked up to the heavens, and I snapped the picture. This made for a unique image for their wedding folio.

These pictures look pretty good because they could not find anyone who could turn the lights down.  Although it was far from bright sunlight, there was really good, diffuse inside light and that helped us a great deal.

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Wedding – Groom Preparation

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Cindy finished her editing of the over 5000 pictures we took at the wedding three weeks ago, and the bride and groom have seen them. So, now I can post some of mine.

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This was a pretty standard shot of the groom anticipating the day’s events.  My assignment was to get the groom pics.  The groom and his groomsmen were in a room in the Hilton hotel.  Unfortunately, by the time I got there, he was already dressed. So, I only got a couple pics of him dressing.  There was pretty good light from this window.  So, I closed the drapes to restrain it and good this shot.

I took some more of the groom, his parents, and the groomsmen around the Hilton.  One of the shots they wanted was of the groom’s party coming from the Hilton to the Convention Center.  There is an open walkway, but the light was terrible.  The walkway is covered and kind of dark, but the surrounding area was very light.  With bright sunlight, there was really contrasty light that made a good exposure difficult.  Much of this shot was saved in processing. The background was blown out in order to get good exposure of the faces.

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While we were doing this, the groom commented that it was kind of a “rat pack” thing – a bunch of guys in tuxedos.  Someone else commented that it was kind of an “Ocean’s 11” thing.  I had a little different slant.  I told them it looked more like a “Reservoir Dogs” to me. To each his own, I guess.

I posted the rest of the preparation pics in the Wedding Gallery and will post more tomorrow.

Second Shooter

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I was not paid as the second shooter on the wedding, and that was what I wanted.  This way, I am able to use my own images.

I recently read something that made me really think about that.  Sal Cincotta has an on line magazine called “Behind the Shutter.”  In it, his wife has an article about second shooters.  She says they always pay their second shooter.  They  learned a hard lesson about that early when they had a second shooter who was not paid.  That person shot over their shoulder.  Thus, they go the same image as the principal photographer.  They then used the image on their own web site, claiming credit for it. So, now, they pay their second shooters and the second shooter uses their memory cards and must surrender them at the end of the shoot.  They are not allowed any use of the images at all.

In some respects, I think that is as immoral as what the second shooter did.  I understand that the principal photographer is the one with the job, and has the right to sell and market the images.  That’s fine.  However, for that person to take credit for producing the image isn’t right.  If I shot as a second shooter, and made a really great image, I would not have a problem with not selling the image to the client, but I would have a problem with never being able to use or display that image as mine.  And, I would have a great deal of problems with someone else taking credit for the creation of that image.  They are no more entitled to that credit than the second shooter who shot over their shoulder.