“I get emails all the time from different people asking similar Photography, Wedding and Portrait related questions, and Ask Your Photographer is an attempt to answer them.”
Question. “Do you have Back-up Equipment?”
Answer: – YES I DO !!!
And its one of THE most important questions you can ask your photographer. And the Answer should always be YES !!
And , as always, there is more to this question than just a simple yes or no answer, and its not just about having 2 cameras either. Your photographer needs to have good quality back-ups of all their essential equipment, including camera’s, lenses, flashes, batteries and memory cards. Gear does fail, thats a fact, and anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is just lying to cover themselves.
On that note, I am going to be bold enough to state that “You should never hire a wedding photographer than only has one camera”.
I always carry 2 camera's during a wedding, my second is lying on the ground behind me while I shoot a close-up during Alex and Laura's Wedding - Barwon Heads
That might sound harsh, but it’s reality and your wedding is too important. Would you hire a limo to get you to your wedding knowing that they didn’t have a spare tyre?
Exactly.
As many people know, I like to talk about myself, so we will move this post back to me again. :)
I currently have my awesome assistant Ryan working with me, and at every wedding we are carrying at least 4 camera’s, 5 flashes and 8 lenses, 60Gb of memory cards and spare batteries for all our cameras and flashes and battery packs among other things, so we are covered if anything goes wrong.
And things have gone wrong, I have had cameras fail, flashes stop working correctly, lenses get knocked so hard they wont focus and all manor of other things, but I just switch to a backup and continue like nothing has happened, because to me, its no big deal, nothing lasts forever, and I am ready for it.
And if you act like this on a regular basis (see image below), then you are bound to have an “Oops” moment now and then.
As a Wedding Photographer, I occasionally put myself in interesting situations. Asking for trouble...?
And yes, that is a Bridal Bouquet in my hand, and don’t I look pretty.
Remember, always ask questions, and promise you wont hire a “one camera” photographer…!!
by Robb Duncan
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