Many years ago, my kid sister wanted me to be her wedding photographer, but my
sense of peril was great and I begged off, saying that for this one needed a
pro, and so she found one. Nor did I want to be working at her wedding.
However, I did photograph her friends at the party she had the night before.
For this, I rented two large studio flash units with big lightstands, and
pointed the flash heads straight up, at the vault ceiling of the living room in
which the party was held. Then, I wandered around with a Zuiko 100-200mm f/4.5
zoom on an OM-1 body with a pipsqueak Sunpack 1600 flash on the hot shoe. The
pipsqueak flash was also pointed straight up, and its flash triggered the two
studio flashes.
Then the room was explored with a Quantum incident-light flashmeter and a lot
of test flashes. I don't recall details such as the f/stop needed for the ASA
100 color negative film, but the light was very even and natural-looking, so I
set the camera as indicated by the Quantum flashmeter and proceeded. I do
recall that the zoom was not at its limits, so it was at least f/8 or f/11,
which is very convenient.
It worked very well for candids. Her friends soon lost track of me because the
flash they could see came from the studio flashes, which didn't move, and the
100-200mm lens allowed me to do head shots from far enough away that the quarry
of the moment generally didn't realize that their photograph was being taken,
even though I was out in the open and obvious. I was concealed by the milling
around of the partygoers. Because the quarry were unaware of the camera, the
pictures came out with them looking natural, not all scrunched up and strained
looking. The benefits of stealth and treachery.
The pro's photographs didn't look that good, but then again the pro didn't know
my sister's friends either, and was working in the chaos of the wedding itself.
The pro did have adequate equipment and skill, and the official photos were
all perfect from a technical point of view.
Joe Gwinn
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