family member's funeral

my cousin's grandma past away last week. she has been in a coma for years after a heart attack in her home. they are doing an open casket viewing tomorrow and the cremation is on Saturday.

my parents have asked me to photography the funeral and they have hired 2 video guys. ive never done a funeral before. from all the funerals ive been to, ive never seen a photographer. how should i approach this? is it just mainly candids capturing people's emotions? do i take pics of the open casket?

my parents said these photos and videos will be sent out to our family members from oversea that cannot be here for it.

i will probably be using 2 cameras. should i only use tele lens for this type of event? im sure people dont want me all up in their grill for photos. my longest lens is a 100mm macro. should i rent a 70-200 2.8 IS? should i use flash?

Well that sounds ackward. Never done that before, but here is my take.

Yes, since they'll be sent to family members who could not attend, I would think they would want a picture of her in the casket. I would suggest doing those shots behind closed doors if you will. Not sure how well that would be perceived by on lookers. I would think the Funeral Director would allow that.

And yes candids of family talking together would be great. I would also have an area setup to do some quick group portraits. I've found funerals are the best for family reunions.

I was asked to do this once (for the same reason -- pics were headed overseas); not fun. Exclusively candids, pj. Used a 35L on a crop so low light wasn't a problem. I tried to stay at a distance, just capture the emotion and the atmosphere; the 70-200 is a good idea to capture some of the emotion from a distance, but frankly there were so many tears around me, I never felt like I couldn't reach something poignant. Didn't use flash -- seemed way too intrusive. Took a couple of the casket, but from a distance and not so the full upper torso or face was visible. Rather, tried to stay even with the top of the casket and just capture part of the head. This all seemed to work in the end, but I never felt comfortable and was very self-conscious throughout. Just kept repeating to myself, "This is what my mother-in-law wants."