The 50mm Challenge Wedding
I recently got an opportunity through one of the local wedding groups I’m in. The post read: “I have a wedding tomorrow about 50 people 3-730 I need a lead shooter for. please dm me!!!” and me, being the enterprising young woman I am with nothing to do the next day, I followed up and got given the shoot.
I had no idea what I was signing myself up for, but I love love and I love weddings so I was game to risk it. You never know what you might encounter in situations like this. Is the couple going to be kind? What is the venue like? Will I be equipped for the job?
What I walked into was better than I could have ever hoped for: a Middle Earth themed wedding on a beautiful 18th century estate at the peak of Autumn here in Virginia. The sweetest couple, Sarah and Ryan, had an entirely outdoor ceremony and reception in some of the most beautiful scenery I’ve ever witnessed.
Now, for the catch… that lead photographer I was covering for? The one who posted on Facebook needing to get someone else to shoot this wedding the NEXT day? She could only offer me $300.
I was conflicted. On one hand, $300 is what I charge for ONE HOUR of an engagement shoot and if a direct client had told me that they could only pay me that much for a whole wedding, I would politely suggest that I might not be the right fit for them. On the other hand, I wasn’t going to be doing anything that day anyways, I hate the thought of a wedding losing a photographer and not having a backup, and $300 is still more than $0.
The question became one of balance. How was I supposed to provide the level of service that my clients know and love me for while not grinding myself into dust for about 10% of my usual rate? The compromise I found? Make it a challenge.
I often say that the difference between a photographer and a professional photographer is that the professional should be able to take any camera and get a good image out of it. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to put that to the test. I downscaled every part of my wedding day operation. While I usually run-and-gun with two camera bodies on my hip, one equipped with a telephoto and the other with a wide angle lens, two off-camera flashes and one on-camera, this time would be different. For this wedding, my challenge to myself was to shoot the entire thing on one camera body with ONLY my 50mm lens.
I had a few reasons for going with the 50mm lens:
50mm is most people’s first prime lens
I trusted it more for portraits than my 35mm, ultrawide, or telephoto
It’s my fastest lens at f/1.4 (though I could have done just as well with an f/1.8 50mm)
It’s lightweight and easy on the hand for all-day use.
My main thought behind imposing these limits upon myself was that I wanted to show that it’s entirely possible to shoot a wedding without crazy, fancy equipment; that anyone with the dedication and willingness to learn can do this.
That being said, I really didn’t find it all that difficult! It wasn’t exactly easy, and there were definitely moments that I wished I had my telephoto or maybe a 24-70mm zoom, but after having shot about 130 weddings over my career, I don’t stress about them the same way that I used to. While there are always 1000 different things that can go wrong, an experienced wedding photographer learns all of the little fires that pop up on a given wedding day and how best to put them out.
I think the biggest problem I encountered was that with a fixed focal length, I’m not as able to get in as close as I would with my telephoto zoom, but that’s easy enough to fix with two things: shamelessness and a little foot zoom. If you’re worried about obstructing someone’s view during the ceremony, don’t. As long as it’s only briefly and you’re moving around enough, I promise that no one is going to remember. They’re much more focused on the couple getting married than they are on the photographer trying to get a shot.
Normally, this is a shot I’d get from the far side of the guests, but with a 50mm I was forced to get much closer
While I don’t think I’d choose to do this again, I’m grateful for the challenge and experience it gave me. Doing this gave me a sense of what it might be like to be a wedding photographer starting out and the specific problems they might face. If you’re thinking about getting into weddings, but worry that your gear is what’s holding you back, just know that it’s possible to get beautiful images with any lens if you know what you’re doing.
If you want to see what a wedding of mine looks like with a full kit, you can find them all here!
Interested in booking? You can reach out through my contact form or email me at tori@bluerosetori.com
