I attended a very lovely wedding this weekend of my husband’s cousin. He married a beautiful, gracious lady in a picturesque ceremony, and the reception was enjoyed by all.
When attending a wedding as a guest, I try to be mindful of my place. My intent is to satisfy my photographic addiction while trying to stay well out of the way of the official photographers. That means avoiding putting myself between their cameras and their subjects, and trying to get out of the background as well, if possible. I turn off the flash during the ceremony and if I use the flash at other times, I try not to let it interfere with their shots.
The best way to do this, of course, is to concentrate on the periphery of the action, rather than the central focus of the bride and groom. Now, obviously, I want some pictures of the wedding couple, but I know that the main wedding events will be well covered by both official photographers and guests, so I try to take more pictures of the crowd dancing and other side action.
I took the dance floor pictures with flash simply bounced off the ceiling. I used a shutter speed of only 1/40 second, which is way too slow to freeze action, but in areas where the ambient light was dim, the flash provided the main source of light, and the pictures still looked pretty sharp.
However, in areas that were better lit, you could see the blur from the ambient light. In dance floor pictures, this is not entirely bad, as the blur can convey action and movement.
In the case of this couple, though, I wish I had had cranked up my shutter speed just for this shot to get the faces sharper. There was a bit more ambient light, possibly because the videographer was now concentrating his lights on the couple on the dance floor who had been married the longest. Uncle Cliff and Aunt Evelyn have been married for 60 and a half years. Uncle Cliff says that he isn’t budging on the half year, either. I salute them on their long, happy union, their appearance of excellent health, and the fact that they still move fast enough on the dance floor to cause motion blur on the camera!
And of course, congratulations to Paul and Hope! May your conflicts always be resolved with love, humor, and a healthy respect for each other’s individuality and Force-contained plasma weaponry.
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