[Leica] SLR or M for weddings?????

["BIRKEY, DUANE" <dbirkey@hcjb.org.ec>]

Tom K  wrote:

>But, great finder and 250th sync on the R8 aside, I hate SLRs for 
weddings.
>Too loud. Too hard to focus in low light. SLRs are better with lenses
>longer than 100mm, and I never use long lenses for weddings, who does. 


I would like to know how you get close-up shots of the bride and groom 
during the ceremony with nothing longer than a 100mm without standing 
up in front of the entire church?    How do you get close-ups of the 
rings?  How do you isolate the faces of the bride and groom from the 
rest of the people around them during the reception.  I know how I do 
it.......   a 70-200 lens  at 200mm.

Although I'm not a wedding photographer,  I know how bad the 
alternative is here if I don't do it,  so, I've done 3 in the last year 
and the 4th will be on Valentines day.  

Few people will object to the flash going off during most  parts of the 
ceremony and none will during the entrance.   If you want my opinion,  
use your M-Cameras after you've got the rest of the shots with your 
other EOS/Nikon/autofocus/motor/TTL flash and Zoom lens.   Your M will 
work fine for wide shots of non moving people, but people want 
close-ups too! 

Couples could care less whether you use Leica or not.   They want 
special photographs to remember a very special day.  I'm far too 
concerned about getting great facial expressions.  When you are worried 
about that there is no time to monkey with focus and exposure.   I have 
no idea how anybody can follow focus a moving subject with an M camera 
and still get the best facial expression since the rangefinder is in 
the middle and their faces aren't.   Besides that,  I can get several 
shots with more or less the same framing since I'm using a zoom.   What 
happens if they close their eyes or one looks down during your one 
shot?????  What happens if you got the focus wrong or they get to 
close,  You got zip!

I use three EOS zooms, a 17-35 2.8, 28-70 2.8 and 70-200 2.8,  two Eos 
bodies and 540 EZ flashes with a Quantum Turbo Battery.  

This last wedding had the reception at the Equator park just north of 
Quito.  It was at night with a base exposure of  1/4 sec at 2.8L.  They 
had a video crew who kept turning their lights towards the crowd and 
into my lenses.  I shot most of the program with the 70-200 and flash 
sitting on the ground between two tables as it was one of the few 
places where the lenses didn't glow.  I did some with a tripod to show 
the fireworks and overall ambience of the reception.  They were quite 
pleased with the fotos other than the fact ( as I had warned them) that 
the background was dark.    

Also try to do the formal pictures before the wedding!   I had one 
wedding where we had scheduled the photos for before and the bride 
didn't show up in time.   Anyhow they insisted that the congregation 
remain while we did the formal shots after the wedding.  What a 
nightmare,  the whole wedding party was looking at their friends 
instead of me.  The kids were terrified and barely looked up and of 
course wouldn't smile.....  Bring some studio lights and a flash meter 
and if you do it right, you'll get far better shots than with available 
light.  Set your modeling lights to either dim or set them to beep as 
they recharge so you'll know that all are firing.  I would use an 
infrared or radio slave, don't use sync cords,  and make sure you don't 
cause your shadow to appear in the shots.  

You can lose good friends if you don't get what they want during that 
special day.  Shoot lots of film, take two of everything and at least 5 
or 6 of the entire wedding party.  Somebody always seems to have their 
eyes closed!  I ask if anybody thinks they had their eyes closed!  Try 
to have fun...........................................   Ha ha!

Duane Birkey
HCJB World Radio
Quito Ecuador