This past weekend’s wedding was a long, 15-hour day that had me shooting nearly 2000 frames. I had been to quite a few pseudo-Chinese weddings with a bit of Western flavor, but this was Chinese style through and through making for a slightly more challenging job. I’m talkin’ early morning games, red umbrellas, suckling pigs, hotel banquet hall, the whole nine. So it was a lot of fun to see and learn some of the more traditional wedding rituals.
I’ll have to share images in another later post while I post-process a stack of CF cards, but just a few notes on the gear I brought and what I ended up using. I shot the whole day with the Nikon D700 with a 24-70mm F2.8. As tight as space is in HK, I really did not need anything longer. And any doubts I had about paying the extra money for the expensive mid-range zooms were put to rest after this shoot – they are just so versatile and so sharp its an absolute necessity for fast-moving event coverage. Our other shooter used the Canon equivalent (5DMk2 + 24-70mm F2.8) but switched to a telephoto lens for the longer shots. I was using an SB-600 flash on the hotshoe of my camera for nearly all indoor shots and bouncing behind me wherever I could, and if not I was using the ceiling. I found the Manfrotto 190CX3 tripod to be super helpful for the posed group shots, and likewise with the Manfrotto 685B monopod to get higher up for the toasting at each banquet table. The AA rechargeable batteries somehow lasted the whole day of powering the flash, and the same with the D700 battery and the camera body. Wish I could say the same for myself, I was pretty wiped by the end of dinner.
To cap off an eventful night, I woke up early this morning to watch the Giants break the hearts of 105,000 Dallas Cowboy fans watching live. Sweet.
