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Audience Q&A

okay canada we have questions we always have questions and this was a question from earlier but we're talking about angles and that is do you ever with the big groups shoot up from a balcony and do you think about posing differently in that way or do you ever get up to shoot the group you know that's an excellent question in fact yes in fact if I had had we had this light was in the way here so I really couldn't get upon my my stepladder but that would be awesome angle for a big group it can be really quite pretty it's a very very pretty way to get a big group I like getting up higher and then shooting down on a group people if I do that like if you have a big bridal party or just like big groups that wedding receptions getting on the second floor in having you but you get to feel the love at my son's wedding we had my one of my photographers was up on the roof and shot the entire group of everybody that was there so I think it's a really pretty pretty angle and for that situation do y...

ou pose people or you know just in that kind of scenario because you're working with like a hundred people are two hundred people all I want is everybody if they can see me I can see them so I said hey guys just get getting nice and cozy right here and then I want to put the bride and groom in the core family members in the middle you know are right close to the front and then have everybody just getting cozy and it's a pretty easy thing to do hire camera go really is very beneficial because it's pretty easy to see everyone's face at that time on that for the first church of ugly bill if you want to do a group shot after the ceremony and it's dark in there how would you recommend lighting it because typically it's right after the ceremony so you don't have timeto the hall in a bunch of stuff when people are crammed back question aura excellent question okay here's what you do if you're going to use studio lights and I love using studio lights in churches like that but this is what you do you take your life you set it up you collapsed the umbrella and fold it down and then you tuck it away in like the rectory or someplace that's close by and then while that bride and groom are walking up that aisle after they say I do your assistant goes into the rectory grabs your your light it's already set up all they gotta do is is open the umbrella turn it on and you are ready to rock and roll and if you prepare ahead of time so that your light you set it up so that you could you know exactly where what f a a is where you know we're how are the distances and where you need to have that light set up it's okay so I know that after the ceremony we're going to do our group shots here so can you stand on that altar and the other ceremonies not for an hour and so you have a chance to to pre plan then what you do is you just say ok I want you stand here while I set the lights up when we get him all perfect this is where it needs to go here this one needs to go right here okay you take a picture I love the way that looks it looks great then you just took him away and when you get back there's no rehearsal while they're walking out your assistant sets him up and you're ready to go you don't want to break him down completely you want them to be set up and just tucked out of sight so it's really easy and that's one of the things I like about you the portable license like the d one because you have a portable power pack and you have they also plug into the wall so if you wanted to do a wall socket you could also do that but I like the fact that they are completely portable that way especially if you're working with big groups I prefer working with bigger umbrellas and such not to mention let's face it it looks a whole lot more professional than it does just to have a little speed light you know on your camera and the thing you have to be prepared for is in a dark church like that quite often the only lights that they have in them are right up above your subjects heads and you must overcome and overpower those lights there from overhead if not then you're going to get the raccoon eyes underneath and it's very unpleasant and very unflattering looking so great question laura yes following up on more lighting in the previous image that you were showing the more mature couple you said you had a video light yes side but it's behind them video light is about three feet behind them wrecked this is like the barn door and there's this is a stall and inside my assistant stand there with the video light and I use caution a little video light about this big actually you know what could somebody grab my camera bag I'm not gonna show it to it is the dumbest crazy silly little inexpensive thing is you've ever seen I bought it from you know one of the camera stores being h I know carries it on dh there very simple it was like sixty nine dollars and it's got a dimmer on that you want the one with thanks dad here we go oh it doesn't put a battery in it okay it takes double a batteries which is awesome so you could just pop you take the little puzzle you know just little video batteries or I prefer with the double a's because I don't like being at the mercy of one of those little those little spare batteries but this is it it's called a flashpoint uh a flashpoint video light and it has like a dimmer on the side like that and I'm not kidding you this dumb thing with sixty nine dollars I mean dumb dumb dumb this is exactly your light I used behind there and it's actually so very powerful tomorrow will play with all of this a little bit I'll put my batteries in it and I could show it to you in real time so you guys that are on in tv land come back tomorrow for sure and I'll show you exactly how it works so great question okay anything else let's see let's see good I don't know if I'm reversing too far back into our photo shoot from earlier today but there was quite a few people asking about the uncle bob's oh no way okay I'm like I'm bringing it back but I don't want that you think I'm so glad you brought that question it because it does come up quite often okay here's the emmys take on that um and and I'm telling you this from many many years of experience leave him alone and let the guy take pictures if he as long as he's not in your personal space who cares if he gets a good shot here's what you have to do though first of all you need to think in the big picture the little picture is he gets a good shot and they don't buy that picture from you okay right my right about that okay here's the problem with that stupid philosophy uh you think he'd buy it from you if you made him that and you told him he couldn't take a picture I mean you think he'd buy anything from you think he would ever hire you ever to photograph his daughter's wedding heck no no he wouldn't because I mean who the heck do we think we are telling it a loved one's loved ones like aunts and uncles and cousins that they cannot photograph are set up I think that is such a thing insult to family hood it's an insult to me as a mother and you know when my my son got married his my sister in law christine she is the gal who I mean she diapered that kid she was like his second mother can you even imagine your von who shot my son's wedding him telling my system ocracy I'm sorry no you can't photograph this this is my set up I mean really who the heck do we think we are you see that that's that's the short that's the little tiny picture the big picture is I don't want him in my face I don't want him in my special in my little zone but I really want a photograph every relative they have I want to shoot their weddings too and I know that if I make him mad he's going to make me his poster child or her poster child and they will tell every friend they know about how rude that photographer was and they wouldn't even let me take pictures of my little niece and I divert her in global and you know exactly what I'm talking about right so I say okay so what they get a good picture let them have their joy charge so that you are well compensated to get your butt out of debt out of bed that day and then guess what what you'll do she'll say you know uncle friend maybe that camera real quick I'll do it for you okay click and you get the shot click ok get it or this is the other way I handle it and I truly but this is exactly what I do if I have aunt marthe and she's in my my little my little you know my little space my personal space I grab her by the hand my look liquor aunt martha I need you do me a huge favor okay I am the world's biggest klutz could I get you to just back up about five feet or just a little bit I promise you I'll let you take your picture would that be okay okay now what did I tell her I said get your butt out of the way right I said move your booty right but what did I say that I'm so sorry get this you know martha I'm so so sorry honey I wish I could give you more time to take pictures I know how important it is to because I'm a mom too but you know what I promised the kids I'd get him to the reception really quick is that okay you see who's the bad guy not me and you know how I learned this how I learned importance of this the gentleman who trained me originally and photography twenty five years ago we were shooting a wedding was for one of the denver broncos and his aunt was there and she was standing right behind the photographer my old boss and taking pictures and he turned to her and he said you can't take pictures of this because this is my set up and she looked at him and she and she didn't say a word her son who was also won the denver broncos walked over to my boss grabbed him bythe neck lifted him off of the floor and said you don't tell my mama she can't take pictures do you understand me on his and in his pathetic little girl voice you have s so the moral of the story I want to make friends I want everybody be my friend and you know what the end of the day nobody going to get cancer if uncle for that fred stands back there it takes pictures as long as he doesn't get into my space if he gets too close to me I'm going to back up a little bit and I'll turn around him and I'll say hey I need you move just a little bit please I'm so sorry you know and in or I'll take the camera out of his hand and I'll do it but the most important thing is I want him to be my friend because first of all if you make a mad guess what he's going to be a bigger pest than he ever wass because he's going to show you who's in charge so you have to look at the big picture and I'm sorry to make it such a big deal about that but it really is all the time people ask me that one of the things I want to mention before we go on is what during the wedding when the bride and groom are saying they're valassis stuff let me tell you about where I stand my perfect spot to be in is on the second row if it's in a church on the second row on the aisle now that's usual we're family you're seated right that's where families are seated and that's where I want to be is on that second row right behind the mother and daddy right there so I have a perfect view because first of all the little wedding nazis will not tell you if you're a relative that you can't take pictures right but they would tell me I couldn't but this is what I do I walk up to uncle fred who's sitting in that second I go honey I said I'm so sorry andi andi control I'm the photographer and you know what the bride and groom have asked me to sit in this seat would it be okay would you believe my fat friend but I get you to save my seat for me now do you see what I said first of all who's the bad guy how the bridegroom asked me to sit in the seat could you save it for me I'll tell you what if you do I would love to photograph you and your family during the reception would that be okay see I wanted him to be my friend he'll save my little seat and big note will be sitting there that's my photographer sitting there and she's gonna be my little friend hey make friends of people and you are going to be home free you'll be absolute home free so any last minute questions because we're going to move on okay one of the things I want to just show you real quickly do we have a re hooked up with sound okay because what I want to just show you now is something really quickly um this is a little photo shoot I did a couple of weeks ago and real real briefly before we move on I am I shoot the cover for metropolitan bride magazine and I have a very very unique workshop that I'm going to be doing in august with dawn shields who's the owner of metropolitan bride magazine and the people we all are taking ten students and if you want to be a attendee there's only two spaces left you khun email me at bambi at cantrell portrait dot com c n t r e a l l portrait porthos dot com and the cool thing is this is what's really neat about it is that one of the students whoever they'll be ten kids in the class one of the students will have a double page spread in the magazine whoever does the best pictures in that class so here we go