Moé Moé Rabu

As some of you may remember I mentioned that I got offered to become an assistant photographer for a professional. Well last Saturday happened to be my first job as an assistant and boy was it definitely something. Although this is the first, I have been called up before but the previous times the photo session got canceled, but this time it was all go ahead.

ISO 400, Focal Length: 35mm, Aperture Size: F/4, Shutter Speed: 1/60, Flash: Straight up Bounce

From what I was told beforehand, it was a wedding photo shoot, but luckily I have some experience in doing a photo shoot from my own Mum’s wedding. When I met up with the photographer he looked at some of my work and gave me advice on such things as cropping, scenery, lighting and the type of equipment to use. So before heading off, he handed me the equipment that I needed to use:

• EF 17-40mm f/4L USM Ultra-Wide Zoom Lens
• Speedlite 580EX
• Battery Grip Pack

As you can see from the photo above, it is quite a lot of equipment. My camera went from weighing at 800gms to about 2.4kgs. You may think that it doesn’t seem heavy, but trust me, after a while it starts to feel heavy. But the heavy part is only one side to it, all the listed equipment together with the camera body is pretty much $4000 AUD. So I had to be careful with the equipment. So armed with all the equipment, I was ready to starting taking photos. But of course I wasn’t by myself as the pro photographer had a video camera to record everything but also had his own camera to double my shots. He also brought along one of his sons as an assistant as well, so all up we had 3 photographers.

So throughout the day we went from various locations like the hotel the wedding couple were staying at, Mrs Macquarie’s Chair, Sydney Art Gallery and the Groom’s home all for the daytime photo shoots. We spent a lot of time at the hotel especially with all the tea ceremony (since it was a Chinese wedding) and a lot of time down at the lobby. Although as I was taking photos in the lobby, this old guy told me off saying I was invading his space. Well I’m sorry, but there was no need to go like that. Anyway, below is just some random photos I took since I want to see what the equipment could do.

ISO 400, Focal Length: 31mm, Aperture Size: F/4, Shutter Speed: 1/60, Flash: Straight up Bounce

ISO 400, Focal Length: 24mm, Aperture Size: F/4, Shutter Speed: 1/60, Flash: Straight

ISO 400, Focal Length: 40mm, Aperture Size: F/4, Shutter Speed: 1/60, Flash: Straight

Not exactly macro photography, but the use of the flash and the wide-angle zoom lens was just awesome. The above photos have not been editing in anyway except for a bit of Auto-Leveling in Photoshop. I realised then that the standard lens really is crap and I could never get a result like that with it, even if I used a tripod.

Later on that night was the reception, which was held at Cantebury Leagues Club. It was the first time I’ve ever been there and I have to say, the place was amazing. The couple informed me that they had something like 100 guests coming, although with the constant arrival of people in groups and all the photos, it felt like there was way more. Of course over the course of the night, I had to do a lot of crouching and kneeling to make the photos look level, but god damn my legs and feet were killing me. Below just some more random photos I took.

ISO 400, Focal Length: 17mm, Aperture Size: F/4, Shutter Speed: 1/4, Flash: none

ISO 400, Focal Length: 26mm, Aperture Size: F/4, Shutter Speed: 1/10, Flash: none

Well it was also a good thing that I could take a break during dinner. With it being a Chinese wedding, the reception of course is held at a Chinese restaurant. Since there were some seats left over, the other photographer and I sat ourselves down to join in for dinner. So free food and drinks, not so bad. At least I had a chance to actually sit down.

So over the course of the night, many photos were taken and the night eventually came to an end. I think I ended up taking close to 500 photos as I filled up both 1 gig memory cards, as well as deleted some unwanted ones. Before packing up I went to congratulate the groom and bride on their wedding and to say goodbye, but of course, I didn’t end up leaving empty handed. In fact, the groom and bride had a gift for everyone who attended the reception.

This was sitting at each person’s seat at the table, so what do you think is inside this little box? Well I had no idea until the end of the night and when my photographer partner opened his it revealed this:

Yep, a glass apple that has a rose and heart image imprinted inside with the message “I Love You”. Definitely a very nice gift to the guests and not only that, everyone got lucky red envelopes, including us photographers. If there is one thing I know about Chinese weddings, the groom and bride end up giving a lot rather than receive presents. Well it was a nice present and I ended up thanking the couple for the gift.

So a long day it was indeed, a whole 13 hours of photography work. But of course I got paid for being his assistant photographer at a rate of $10 AUD per hour. Now it may not seem like a lot, but the experience and meeting people makes up for more than that. After hearing what he had to say about my earlier work, to experimenting with the equipment, to the various conditions in which I had to take photos was just awesome. It makes me realise I still have a long way to go in my photography skills. The pro photographer checked the photos I took throughout the day and he likes what I have done so far. I think all my figure photography shoots are starting to pay off in which I can apply the same techniques and theory to a variety of different types of photos. And so with the pro photographer happy with the photos I took, he wants me to work for him again when the chance comes up, though I don’t know when that’ll be since he does have other assistants.

Overall it was a fun and great experience. Though as a result, on Sunday when I woke up, both my legs were killing me in which I found it difficult to stand and my left arm was hurting from carrying the camera weight. It hurts so much that I can’t move my left arm behind my back. But still, it was totally worth it.