A Cambodian Ceremony

Just wanted to share some photos from a close friend's wedding that I shot this last 4th of July weekend. This is the first part of a two part entry since they had a traditional Cambodian Ceremony on Saturday followed by a Western Ceremony on Sunday.

A little background: A traditional Cambodian wedding ceremony usually last several days; however, a modern Cambodian Ceremony only lasts 1 to 2 days at most these days to save time and money and quite frankly it's hard to get 4 days off for a wedding for most people. It consists of multiple ceremonies ranging from the groom presenting a dowry to the bride and her family, followed by multiple blessings, outfit changes (I've seen over 6 outfit changes in one day), story telling and much more. This is only a small sample of what really goes on but hopefully it'll give everyone a good idea of what takes place.

As always any comments or critique is welcome.

1.

Very interesting.. but what is up with all the burning in #2 and #3(left side)?

Good question. That's not actually burning, that's just a wall (#2) and the back of someones head (#3) that turned out black because I was shooting through the main door from inside the house.

Here's my take:

#1: I like this shot. I would straighten out the lines and crop tighter though.
#2: The dark foreground on the left, and the siding foreground to the right just doesn't do it for me. Looks like the guy with the "umbrella" is the main subject too.
#3: Foreground elements are distracting. Skin tone is reddish, though I am sure that's coming from the "umbrella". Otherwise I thing this is a nice capture.
#4: Lighting is a bit harsh, but I like the capture.
#5: The guy in what seems to be a "regular" button down shirt and khakis on the left side bothers me.
#6: I think this is a decent capture. Would have been better if the bride's face was also visible and without the guy standing in the foreground.
#7: I like these, particularly the one on the right. Nice pop to them too.

I checked out the blog and I think you have some nice captures in there as well. Overall, I think this is a job well done.

Thanks for the comments and critique Nick. Here's my response:

1. I'll try a crop and see how it goes. Although I took that shot with a 1DMKIII so I'm not sure if I can crop too much without sacrificing file size.

2. Definitely not the strongest in the set or at all but I put this in because I liked the fact that this is what the bride saw right as she was coming through the door to greet him. I guess it's a give and take for me but I left it in for now until I can do a thorough edit of all the photos.

3. Couldn't fix the red with the skin tones cause of the umbrella. Would have to blend in two or more versions for the skin tone and background/clothes to make it work.

4. Agree on the light but I was stuck with the videographers light for the entire ceremony. Was only able to add a bit of bounce flash up and left to add a bit of fill to the left side of their faces.

5. Good point. After thinking about it I can see why it's distracting but I guess since I was there with all the chaos part of me just accepts the fact that there was so much going on that there was really not much else I could do other than accept it hah!

6.That's probably the most frustrating thing about shooting a Cambodian wedding is how busy everything is. People are everywhere, constantly moving and sometimes no matter how hard you try you can't get certain people to move or you can't move for a shot so you just have to shoot "through" everything. That's just how it goes and this is probably one of the better ones I got where you can actually see the couple.

7. Thanks. The middle of the street was the "cleanest" background I could find. After that it was up to the 85L to do it's trick.

nice set, sure haven't seen that. why the US dollars? and not local currency?

Double06

Nice job. We shot our first one last year.It was a blast and the double ceremony was a lot of fun. You are 100% correct. They are hectic to say the least. The monk, the parents, the relatives spoke no english, and We relied on the brides sister to tell us what was going on and what were the important things to capture for the native ceremony. Pretty amazing customs. My bride had 10,000.00 in gold around her neck and probably 5000.00 in gold weaved in her hair....crazy stuff

I stand by my original statements i have made for the last 20 years. If you dont know what you are eating , dont put it in your mouth. The food is crazy at these events and i was afraid to put some of it in my mouth. But i would not trade the experience for anything. One of the best times we have had and we didnt charge nearly enough money. The experience off set the lack of costs on our part, plus they treated us like kings.

Looks like you had fun. Nice Job. These things are nothing like our traditional ceremony's.

rick_reno wrote in post #12709997
nice set, sure haven't seen that. why the US dollars? and not local currency?

Thanks. The wedding is in Denver, CO actually so that's why they're using US dollars.

umphotography wrote in post #12710156
Double06

Nice job. We shot our first one last year.It was a blast and the double ceremony was a lot of fun. You are 100% correct. They are hectic to say the least. The monk, the parents, the relatives spoke no english, and We relied on the brides sister to tell us what was going on and what were the important things to capture for the native ceremony. Pretty amazing customs. My bride had 10,000.00 in gold around her neck and probably 5000.00 in gold weaved in her hair....crazy stuff

I stand by my original statements i have made for the last 20 years. If you dont know what you are eating , dont put it in your mouth. The food is crazy at these events and i was afraid to put some of it in my mouth. But i would not trade the experience for anything. One of the best times we have had and we didnt charge nearly enough money. The experience off set the lack of costs on our part, plus they treated us like kings.

Looks like you had fun. Nice Job. These things are nothing like our traditional ceremony's.

Thanks for the comments! Yes you are absolutely dead on with that assessment when it comes to working a Cambodian Wedding. Well with the exception of the food since I'm Cambodian myself so that's something I really enjoy. Which is ironic for me because I speak the language and it's still hard for me to work the wedding at times because of how hectic it can get and how sometimes the guests get in your way intentionally.

To be fair though, not all Cambodian Weddings get real crazy, but most are simply because there's so many people crammed into such a relatively small place for the amount of guests there are. I guess that's the other thing I should have posted about a Cambodian Ceremony is that there's usually tons of guests sitting or standing everywhere around the bride and groom or where ever they can see the bride or groom. Which doesn't leave a whole lot of room for a photographer to move around in. That's also a detriment to my shooting style of two bodies and multiple primes since my movement is limited. Also I don't like to interfere with ceremonies or become a distraction during the ceremonies out of respect to everyone. So with that said I simply try and shoot through people even if it does sometimes create distractions within the frame because that's how the wedding really went and if you were there that's what you probably saw with your own eyes. The odds of finding a straight clean shot that's creative aren't that great throughout the day.

Btw, do you have a link to the wedding you shot? I'd like to see it if you don't mind.

umphotography wrote in post #12710156
Double06

One of the best times we have had and we didnt charge nearly enough money. The experience off set the lack of costs on our part, plus they treated us like kings.

Looks like you had fun. Nice Job. These things are nothing like our traditional ceremony's.

Oh and you are right about the time vs money part also. It's a lot of hard work and you can easily underestimate how much coverage/hard work needs to be put into it. But on the plus side there's tons of food if you don't mind trying something new and yes, everyone treats you like a king!