Nikon D800 - Ahead of its time

This is not a D800 review, as there are plenty of them floating about. Most reviews will say the same thing; they state the tech specs, complain that the 36.3 megapixel count in the D800 is too high, that it is competing with Medium Format and that the D800 is not a D700 replacement.

My Thoughts

I personally feel the D800 is the D700 replacement and that nothing else is in the pipeline. If something does crop up within the next few months, its due to Nikon listening to their consumer demand for an affordable, semi-pro, full frame DSLR with a manageable megapixel count.

Over the past few years, one of the features most advertised with DSLRs, or any camera in fact, is the megapixel count, this is due to the consumer perception of increased megapixels relates to increased quality.

Following this conventional wisdom, Nikon has bumped up the megapixel count from 12mp in the D700, to 36.3mp for the D800. Most who have used the D700 agree however, that the 12mp has been sufficient.

I believe when Nikon released the D800 with 36.3mp, it had nothing to do with consumers needing more megapixels, it was purely so Nikon could have a ‘one-up’ on Canon in terms of megapixels.

The downside to this frantic quest to be the top of the megapixel game is the increased file size, which results in a higher demand with computing power and storage which few people can easily attain.

Many people say the D800 is a poor choice for wedding photography. However, I personally love using the D800 for Weddings as it has a strong build quality, shares the same AF system as the flagship model D4, compact (for a pro DSLR that is), immense dynamic range, great low-light capability (even better when the file is downsized), and with the 36.3mp, it allows you to either crop for perfect composition or print large for the couple.

Many reviews have complained that the D800 is slow and that 4fps is not cutting it by todays standard and because of this, they regard the D800 more as a studio camera. As far as I’m concerned, the 4fps is sufficient for event purposes as event photography is about capturing the decisive moment. At a wedding, I am never in “Continuous” and have never felt restricted by this 4fps.

So I feel the Nikon D800 is the perfect camera for wedding photography and that it’s my computer that is not ideal for the large D800 files!

Conclusion

History tells us that the time lapse between full frame camera upgrades is roughly 2-3yrs, while computer equipment is upgraded annually. Likewise, the cost of storage decreases each year.

Memory cards over the years have gone down drastically in price. The same 45mb/s 16Gb SanDisk SD Card that cost me £49.99 in 2011 now costs £9.40 from Amazon.co.uk. The only difference is this card is now labelled “Extreme” while the new “Extreme Pro” is now rated at 95mb/s.

I predict that in a few years’ time, we will see more DSLR’s approaching this high megapixel count and that even in a few years’ time the D800 will still be able to hold its own against the competition as a serious shooter! Then again, my opinion may be biased as that’s what I own now :S

2012-09-01 - Melissa & Steven

The power of Facebook put me in touch with Melissa & Steven.

My sisters old school friend stumbled across my Photography page and had “Liked” it. When she found out her friend Melissa was looking for a Wedding Photographer, she suggested that Melissa take a look at my page and not long after, I found myself sitting in Melissa & Steven’s living room discussing her big day!

Thinking back to the meeting, I cannot really remember how it all went. I just remember walking out of there thinking they were both very friendly and extremely welcoming to me. I also remember thinking “I hope I didn’t scare Lexa”.

A couple of months later however, the big day arrived!

I usually shoot Weddings by myself, but I had one of my friends who’s into Photography express a strong interest in shooting Weddings also. He asked if he could assist me and gain some experience of what it’s like in the field shooting Weddings.

Melissa & Steven were kind enough to allow Jason to take shots at their Wedding so he can gain some experience and portfolio work.

Me and Jason arrived around 1pm to grab some shots of the venue before the guests started arriving, and it was so strange as there were no guests there at all, and didn’t look like any were coming anytime soon. Usually I arrive a little earlier and find at least one grandmother hanging around. But this Wedding, I had no-one! I was seriously questioning myself if I had the right venue…

Me and Jason went around, knocked out a few shots, and then once the guests arrived, we felt somewhat relief knowing we were in the right place.

Steven is a very sociable friendly guy, and it was evident from the very beginning when I met him, but even more so now he’s surrounded by friends and family. What I love about Wedding Photography is capturing true emotion, which is why you’ll rarely ever hear me say “Smile!” at a Wedding (if you hear me say that I have just genuinely ran out of jokes, and I am not the funniest of people also, so if I end up saying that, I’m in trouble lol… at least for that moment lol). But Steven made my job so much easier as he was just genuinely happy throughout. He did not seem stressed at all, and moving from guest to guest with a big smile on his face, he was just awesome!

Melissa was arriving soon, so all the guests went in to take their seats.

As she pulled up in the Daimler V8, I see why Steven emphasised a few times he wants shots of this car. It was a beautiful car… But then Melissa stepped out and stole the show!

I find it funny as the first thing Melissa said to me when the car door opened was “What do I do?” lol… With how I shoot Weddings, I don’t like to direct too much. I just want to capture it. So literally just told Melissa to be natural, relax, and enjoy your day. The only time I need to direct is for the Formal shots, otherwise, I prefer people to just enjoy the day as it is their Wedding, and not a full day Photo shoot. After this, it all fell into place and Melissa walked down the aisle and enjoyed her day.

During the Ceremony, having an assistant shooter was great! With the help of Jason, we were able to capture multi-angle shots. At times he remained up top, and I stayed down below, and we switched occasionally also. It was strange however that despite already having discussed with the vicar about Photography, he made announcements during the Ceremony “No Photography”. This put both me and Jason in an awkward position as we didn’t have time to clarify if he was actually talking to us, however, all I knew is that Melissa and Steven had paid me cover the ceremony, so I carried on shooting. I was more aware and cautious of the fact the Vicar had made that announcement, so I set my camera to Quiet-Shutter for the first time ever, and then found out it’s not even quiet! It’s just slower in how it makes its noise :S

After the ceremony, we went outside and it was a ‘no brainer’ for where I was going to do the group shots. I had to do it right in front of the Church with the massive Pillars. I am a sucker for Pillars. There were also a few steps which would help elevate some people at the back to avoid any people being blocked by the person in front.

We knocked out the shots very quickly, surprisingly quick in fact. I had warned Melissa beforehand that it’s difficult to predict how long the formal shots will take, it just depends on how the guests co-operate. There have been Weddings where ‘Grandad’ has disappeared and no-where to be found and the shot cannot be done without him. Obstacles like that do slow things down. I only had a 30min Window to capture these shots as I needed time for a few Portraits of them after, but this Wedding went amazingly smooth. So smooth that we added more random group shots to fill-up the time.

I pre-visited the reception venue earlier in the week and had spoken to someone at the Venue, and they informed me that a lot of the outside areas would be blocked off. So there were not many options for Portrait shoot locations, so I decided to get as much as I can outside the Church Venue.

When we arrived at the reception venue, which was Chessington Golf Centre, there was unfortunately a delay before Melissa & Steven could get out of the car. However his allowed time for Steven to act like a big kid and pretend to drive his dream car! Lol

Once all settled down, they made their entrance into the venue and I cannot express enough how much I love confetti shots! It’s something about things being thrown at people which makes them smile lol… Melissa & Steven were showered with Confetti all the way through from the car park to the entrance of the venue.

At this point, it was socialising and mingling for the guests. Jason and I were just trying to stay out of the scene and let it all pan out and capture all the candid moments.

During this time, me and Jason also went around capturing the details. I absolutely LOVE this Cake Topper! It looks JUST LIKE THEM! lol

The meal began, and Melissa & Steven graciously sat us amongst the guests. It was nice to be sat amongst the family and friends, with everyone being so welcoming.

When it was time for the speeches, it was time to get back to work! My god the speeches were funny…

As a Wedding Photographer, you hear a lot of jokes, but these speeches were hilarious! Probably a bit to crude for me to repeat them, but the one joke that sticks out in my head was the David Beckham Calendar lol! Anyone who was there listening to the speech will know what I mean lol… They rolled on this David Beckham obsession and brought out a life sized David Beckham stand. Btw, when I’m referring to a David Beckham obsession, it is the Steven that has this obsession. I know most of the readers will assume I’m referring to Melissa lol…

After a gorgeous meal, a couple of drinks, some funny speeches, they cut the cake and we went for some silly pictures outside with this David Beckham stand lol…

When it came to the first dance, their song came on, and my more youthful side wanted to scream out “CHOON!!!” lol… K-Ci & Jojo – All My Life. I am well-known amongst my peers that I am no doubt, and R&B head. I love R&B…

Melissa & Steven looked so happy during the first dance. I always shoot my First Dance pictures with a 50mm f/1.4G lens. First Dances are done in low-light, and when shooting at f/2 or faster, the Bokeh (out of focus areas) just looks so much more pleasing. It gives a nice separation from the guests surrounding them, and you can really focus in on the couple.

I always shoot them using the rule of thirds, so I throw the couple off to one side of the frame for a bit more of a cinematic feel.

Sometimes the first dance can be quite challenging to shoot, as they dance and move a lot in a circle, and it’s sometimes really hard to capture a smile from both Bride & Groom whilst looking at each other. Sometimes I can only get the back of the Grooms head whilst the Bride smiles. It just depends on what moments pop up and how much space I have to run around. With Melissa & Steven’s First Dance, it was challenging as there were kids sitting on the floor around them, however they made it easy for me as they were both just looking so happy throughout the entire dance.

I have since added Melissa & Steven on Facebook and we still keep in touch. I’m happy to see that we can keep in touch beyond their Wedding and I do now consider them friends of mine. I have seen some of the Wedding pics from their guests after I had left the Wedding and there was one funny picture of them all on the floor rowing the boat lol… I wish I got that shot! Lol

Both Melissa & Steven were very welcoming to me throughout this entire process. From the moment I was invited into their home to discuss their Wedding Day, until the moment I delivered the photos to them. You can tell they are both genuinely good people through and through and I am sincerely wishing them all the best for the future.

2012-09-23 - Kang & Vanessa

Kang is actually a friend of mine from when I was a wee little boy...

I've known the guy for as long as I can remember, but that's not saying that much seeing as my memory generally only goes as far as back as a week... I have a poor memory :S

Kang and Vanessa's Wedding was a jam packed day. I had done an oriental Wedding earlier this year, and they had their two ceremony's separated. Tea Ceremony the day before, and Traditional Wedding the next day. However Kang and Vanessa had both all in one day as they had family from all over the world, and wanted them to be apart of it in one go.

Needless to say, it was a manic day.

We began shooting at 9:30am to get some shots of the Groom and his Groomsmen before the Chinese Games began. We were just clowning around and we came up with the idea of mimicking the Abbey Road album cover!

The next image has no real significance to anything, I just thought it was hilarious to see Kang have his brother tie his Shoe Laces. What a Diva!?

The Chinese Games were about to begin, so Kang had to jump back in the car and ride up outside his Bride's house. My stupid sense of humour suggested he pretend to be like a dog and hang his head out the window lol

Then Kang's stupid sense of humour was to pretend he's trapped and squashed inside the car! lol

He was so proud of his accomplishment, it was worthy of the inspiring pose that I had seen in a Rocky Movie ;)



The Chinese Games began with the Bride's Brother coming out demanding payment, Kang and his great negotiating tactics and with the help of his Groomsmen, he managed to get out of the car and proceed to Level 2! He was presented with a Prize (or was it just breakfast?) of 2 Oranges. Which he began to juggle to celebrate! (or show off that he could juggle)...

The Ceremony shots were done by a friend of mine, Jason Shum. Jason is an aspiring Photographer who had assisted me on a previous shoot of mine for Melissa & Steven.

Jason mainly does food Photography as he is a Chef, however he wanted to try his hand at Wedding Photography and he managed to capture some great shots.

After the Ceremony had finished, it was time to get back to work!

I went around the Church venue with Kang a few days before the Wedding to scope the surroundings. The Wedding was in September and the weather seemed pretty decent at the time, however when it came to the actual Wedding day, the weather was really poor. It was such a shame as no-one wants it to rain on their Wedding day, and it forced all of the Photos to be done inside the Church.

Seeing as the church only scheduled for us to be inside for the ceremony only, and everything else was to be outside, we unfortunately had to break the rules and stay behind a bit longer. Constantly getting nagged by the lady who was locking up saying that we had to leave, we begged and pleaded for more time, and she obviously really didn't want us to stay as she decided to turn off all the lights.

We rushed through as many shots as we could, and I had to set up two flash stands with shoot through umbrella's to illuminate the groups. The ceiling was way too high for my little Speedlights to keep flashing without burning out.

I decided to under expose the background just a touch, as I wanted to have a bit more separation on the group.

They had a large number of guests at the Wedding, and as always, I had to go for a large group shot and I just about managed to squeeze everyone in. At this point the Flashes wouldn't spread the light evenly enough, and over exposed on the edges a bit, and I had to go over with an adjustmen brush to increase the exposure for the guests in the middle/back, but I still feel the shot came out pretty good considering the time we had to get things done.

One of the last shots I could pull off before we decided to leave as the woman was really pushing us to go was a solo of the Bride. I love this shot as Vanessa's dress was very elegant, and with the help of the Bridesmaids they spreaded the dress out quite nicely, and Vanessa was so easy to make smile as she generally is a smiler.

We moved onto China Boulevard in Wandsworth/Battersea for the Chinese Tea Ceremony. The one thing that made me laugh about this Tea Ceremony was that everyone who had a sip of the tea, said the exact same thing... "Whoa that was sweet" lol

It just made me want to try it, but I had to focus on shooting. I decided to go for a very cinematic type look by shooting over the shoulder of either the Bride or Groom, to show the faces of the family memebers, of vice versa to show the faces of Vanessa and Kang. It was important to me to capture the individual emotions of the Bride, Groom and their Guests, rather than focusing on the image as an event of passing the cup of tea over.

Where I did try to capture everything, as a single shooter, I was unable to get the wide and close up shots together. But my focus was the emotions which related to that part of the ceremony whether it be laughter, smiles, or tears.

I just wanted to throw this shot in as I thought it was funny... she's shouting "Canada!" btw lol... She wanted recognition of her country within the father of the Bride's speech lol

We went outside for a few shots, but then the weather got too cold, so we found a spot and took some Portaits which really represented their personalities... they're both clowns! lol

They had their First Dance, which wasn't scheduled, and at this point, I was fairly drunk :S but I managed to get a few captures for them. It's mainly of the Groom's face, but I could've swore whilst I was shooting this dance, they were swaying in such a way so that she'd be hiding from me. Or I was just pretty drunk at this point and couldn't co-ordinate :S

Probably worth mentioning that at this point, I wasn't really planning on shooting as it was 'Guest' time lol...

I wanted to get a shot with Kang and his siblings as I have known this family my whole life, and trust Kang to ruin it! (even though I'm the one looking ugly, but it's due to Kang poking me in my side... This happens a lot and I never learn)