Photography Is A Journey – Phase 3: The Official Assignment

The learning continues, and you now have probably your original camera set up, and a second lens, and perhaps a flash unit. Phase 2: The Gear What-Ifs will still reside in memory, but very soon, a contact will start to notice how into photography you are. And right about this time, you will receive an invitation. The conversation will go somewhere along the lines of the following:

Friend: Hey I notice you’re into photography. Saw your photos, they’re nice.
You: Thanks, yes, it’s really fun. Still learning.
Friend: I see. Hey I have this friend of mine having a wedding/event this weekend, would you be interested to come and shoot for it?
You: *Lips quiver with excitement, and you try your best to contain it* (and obviously in your subtle/obvious/reluctant/enthusiastic manner, you agree)

And there you have it. Phase 3: The Official Assignment; the invitation to be a guest photographer for someone’s wedding, or someone’s event.

The excitement and nerves are hard to contain. You start asking friends whether or not they’ve done weddings/events. Sometimes you find a contact who’s a freelancer, or a semi-pro, or maybe even a professional and you ask them too. You start doing your research, and then you start panicking.

Why?

Because suddenly you realise that the flash you didn’t buy yet from Phase 2, or the lenses that pros use for wedding/events are not the ones you own. And to make matters worse, a high number of people that you know whom are knowledgeable enough, will tell you to invest in a lens or a flash or something pretty pricey. Think things like f/2.8, IS/VR, primes, flash etc.

Right around this time, you usually end up doing one of the following options:

Option 1: Buy a new lens/flash
Option 2: Borrow equipment from a friend
Option 3: Wing it, and just go with the flow with what you have

No matter which option you take, you will very likely still go through this phase. But after making your decision, you start to focus on other photographers’ works covering similar scenarios. You start doing your homework. And with that, you take a deep breath, and dive straight in.

The wedding/event will go by in a flash, you’d likely have taken a few hundred shots in under 2 hours. You would have taken a few shots of each just to be safe. And you’d be running high on adrenaline. This is the stuff that people live for… the adrenaline rush. Depending on how well the shoot went, you may even think of doing this more often.

You may hit a brand new high. You may find your calling. Or maybe you won’t. Maybe you go home and realize, “Holy crap, my shots didn’t come out so great.” You may instead find that you are going to have to spend hours doing post processing to save the images that are key. Or you may even console yourself that this is your first shoot, so you believe you can do better.

Very likely, this phase will feed your gearhead tendencies if you have any, and you will start wanting professional gear, and the better camera. It will also be somewhat of a reality check, possibly even a humbling process. There is a chance you’ll get a handful of excellent shots, and you will start thinking, “Hey, this isn’t so hard, I can do this too!” Or you may go “Wow, I have no idea how the pros do it.” Either way with the experience under your belt, you may revert back to Phase 2 and again back to Phase 3 and do this on repeat till you’ve gotten all the gear your heart desires.

Or you reach Phase 4. This I call The Photographic Lull.

Photography Is A Journey

Phase 1 – The Possibilities are Limitless
Phase 2 – The Gear What-Ifs
Phase 3 – The Official Assignment
Phase 4 – The Photographic Lull
Phase 5 – Defining The Photographer In You