Do you ever cringe...

...showing up at a wedding as the official photographer with your 20d and 300d and all the modest gear you're soooo proud of, and one of the guests shows up with a 1ds MkII ! Crap - (where's that corner table so I can hide?) To make it worse, he's a friend of a friend of the Bride AND a photographer for National Geographic! If anything, it made me step up my game plan and I managed to create images I never thought I was capable of producing! It turned out okay in the end 'cause we reluctantly created small talk, then he took me through his kit. OH - MY - GOD! Talk about Lenses! We ended up chatting between shots and sharing techniques, tricks and tips etc. I still felt a little inferior by equipment standards but he was great value especially after he explained "...he hates wedding photography!" YEAH!

My wife's moral of the story? ...ummm "Pull Your Head In Dear!"

LATER!

its not the size of the tool that matters, its how you use it. Congrats on stepping up!

wow.. sounds like he was a nice guy... I love meeting up with other photographers no matter what the occasion... and yeah, I'd be a little intimidated... but not enough to let it affect my shoot..

sari

Very cool experiance though Im sure.

Especialy since I didnt know we had National Geographic photogs here in NZ.

Is that a Morpork in your Avatar?
Iv heard plenty, but never actualy seen anything more than glowing eyes in the wild.

OMG! I'd have died! LOL

Well done for having faith in yourself - I'm looking forward to seeing some of the pictures

As they say in sports, you get better by playing with the better players. I should say that the NatGeo guy is probably one of those few professionals who are down to earth. Some of them just give you a look of... sarcasm... or whatever.

I remember shooting the re-enactment of the commonwealth games at my son's school a month or so back and the photog from the local paper just gave me a look that said "who the hell are you?" I just waved and went on my way...

Especialy since I didnt know we had National Geographic photogs here in NZ

He lives in New York and is marrying a Kiwi girl in November. He uses Nikon for personal use and his work provides TWO 1dsMkII systems. He had interesting comments on lens systems I might add. (Prefers Nikon for wide angle but Canon for Telephoto/Zoom). Absolutely down to earth and genuine.

Yes it is a Morepork. I was about 5 feet from it when I took it. It was more interested in the Puriri moths than me. Loc: New Plymouth. 300d with 75-300mm - 1/60sec at f5.6 - ISO 400. Used manual focus otherwise the AF assist strobe would've blinded the poor bugger

Thanks for your comments everyone I really appreciate it.

Have you ever watched the TV show "Later with Jools Holland"? - a small studio audience and a list of maybe 5 or 6 bands playing in an hour long show. It's amazing to see the quality of the short sets each band pulls out when they're performing in front of fellow musicians. They had one last year where Green Day were playing with punk royalty Mick Jones and Paul Simonon from The Clash in the audience. Suffice to say Greenday nailed the 3 songs they played.

Great show! Missed Green Day though. It's funny; musicians also check out each others' gear/rigs/axes etc the same way photographers check out each others' kit. Musicians have a slight upper hand in that much of their work is semi or well rehearsed and may need to adlib for say 16 - 32 bars. Photographers on the other hand have very little rehearsal and need to do say...8 hours improvisation! Hmmm...I think I'm a bit off track from your original post (I'm pretty good at babbling) but I can see where you're coming from. Cheers.

all i know if I walked in there with a baby Xt and he had a 1ds, I woulda ran out the front door crying!

samnz wrote:
Great show! Missed Green Day though. It's funny; musicians also check out each others' gear/rigs/axes etc the same way photographers check out each others' kit. Musicians have a slight upper hand in that much of their work is semi or well rehearsed and may need to adlib for say 16 - 32 bars. Photographers on the other hand have very little rehearsal and need to do say...8 hours improvisation! Hmmm...I think I'm a bit off track from your original post (I'm pretty good at babbling) but I can see where you're coming from. Cheers.

Good point - same routine for the musicians whereas each shoot is a new world to the photographer. I hope to get the stage with photography that I can at least reduce the improvisation time . It's really amazing when you see a "pro" working and they can visualise the lighting and composition in their minds as the camera sees it.

why do people feel inferior with cheaper kit ,than the other guy who has the latest top of the range item,the fact he worked for natgeo would have been a good reason ,but kit wise ,its what you do with it that counts ,i see some of the shots taken with canon G5's on this forum ,but some of them would have no reason to worry if they watched me walk in with my 20d...having an expensive camera doesnt make you an expert or a pro

I would have felt so inadequate...not only because of the gear but because the fellow was good enough to be a photographer for National Geographic!

yeah...mainly because the guy works for NG...one of the few very sought out employeers in this profession.

Anyway, so far it's been my experience that a photographers talent is directly related to how friendly and willing to share knowledge there all.

thanks for sharing the story!

I know what you mean. when this happens to me, and mind you it happens a lot, I just say to myself, its more of knowing the capabilities of my equipment, composition (knowing what is going to happen next) and timing! Easier said than done