Well, as promised this blog will highlight the "engagement" shoot I did on Saturday - 6th April - an interesting day to say the least and one that provided me with several good images and a lot of experiences...!
It all stated a few weeks ago when a friend on Face Book (just can't escape social media) suggested I contacted a couple who were looking for cheap photographer to photograph their wedding... Although I don't consider myself cheap I dropped them an email offering my services. They finally replied on Thursday and we made a deal - although with language difficulties I was not 100% certain of what they wanted. I drew up an agreement based on what they said they were looking for - basically an engagement shoot of just them for about 3 hours at a hotel just outside Dubai followed by a limousine ride and a cruise. I quoted my usual hourly rate for this.
Now any good event photographer should always try and visit the shoot location before hand so I decided to arrive early and have a look around - checking for locations etc. (and bemoaning the dust storm that was blowing through). As I pulled into the car park and hour before the agreed time, my client phoned me to ask where I was... "Hummm" I thought... "interesting". I was told to report to reception and they would let them know I was there. I did this and after half an hour sitting in reception they phoned again asking me to meet them by the pool. I dutifully found the pool and sat around for another half an hour waiting again... Finally I get to meet the couple - lovely Egyptian couple, full of life and fun... They had this idea of having the wedding certificate made in to tea-shits and were wearing them for this part of the shoot...
"OK" I think, I can go along with this... So after these shots were taken, they went off to change again... 40 minutes later I was joined by the groom and after a further 20 minutes by the bride...
So having quoted for 3 hours work based on the clients' description of the day I have now used up 2 of them...
They finally reappeared in their finery and I took some lovely shots of them...
Diffusing filter used on this shot...
This final one came from a sequence taken amongst some trees - I love the lighting here..
I shot exclusively with my Nikon D2Xs with a SB-600 speedlight mounted on top and alternated my Nikkor 20-35mm f2.8 AFD and Nikkor 35-70mm f2.8 AFD lenses. For this shot I used my third pro zoom - Nikkor 80-200mm f2.8 AFD ED...
So after this we headed off to their car and the trip up the road to Dubai... They have a lovely car - Ford Mustang - and a soft top as well. I am now sat in the back of a two-seater sports car with my large camera bag as we zoom off down the highway to - well I had no idea...
We arrived at the hotel and after some phone calls we got into a stretch Limo and went for a drive around Dubai. The cruise had been cancelled due to the bad weather (here? bad weather? how unlucky can you be...? more of that later).
After a this drive which lasted about an hour we stopped at a couple of locations for other photo shoots - Atlantis on the Palm Jumeirah and the Dubai Marina Yacht Club...
We then set off back to the original hotel and then home - driving through Dubai at 140km per hour with the top down in a sand storm and spotting with rain.... The bride was delighted with the rain as it is good luck in Egypt for it to rain on your wedding day... (they ought to move to the UK!!!)
A 3 hour shoot had taken 5 and when you add the 2 hours of travelling that's 7 hours work... for the 3 hours I'd quoted... Still the pictures have come out nicely...
So I emailed a small selection last night and received a favourable reply although the bride did say the ones taken through the diffusing filter were a bit hazy (some people!!! :) ) and maybe some "Photoshop" was needed - I haven't yet had a reply as to what "Photoshop" she means... Remember the original quote for 3 hours allowed for a small amount of post processing...
So that's it for the Engagement shoot that turned into a wedding shoot and took longer than expected. A great experience and fun to boot...
More pictures will be appearing HERE so keep your eyes open... any comments on the blog will be gratefully received... Speak to you all next week...
TTFN
It all stated a few weeks ago when a friend on Face Book (just can't escape social media) suggested I contacted a couple who were looking for cheap photographer to photograph their wedding... Although I don't consider myself cheap I dropped them an email offering my services. They finally replied on Thursday and we made a deal - although with language difficulties I was not 100% certain of what they wanted. I drew up an agreement based on what they said they were looking for - basically an engagement shoot of just them for about 3 hours at a hotel just outside Dubai followed by a limousine ride and a cruise. I quoted my usual hourly rate for this.
Now any good event photographer should always try and visit the shoot location before hand so I decided to arrive early and have a look around - checking for locations etc. (and bemoaning the dust storm that was blowing through). As I pulled into the car park and hour before the agreed time, my client phoned me to ask where I was... "Hummm" I thought... "interesting". I was told to report to reception and they would let them know I was there. I did this and after half an hour sitting in reception they phoned again asking me to meet them by the pool. I dutifully found the pool and sat around for another half an hour waiting again... Finally I get to meet the couple - lovely Egyptian couple, full of life and fun... They had this idea of having the wedding certificate made in to tea-shits and were wearing them for this part of the shoot...
So having quoted for 3 hours work based on the clients' description of the day I have now used up 2 of them...
They finally reappeared in their finery and I took some lovely shots of them...
I shot exclusively with my Nikon D2Xs with a SB-600 speedlight mounted on top and alternated my Nikkor 20-35mm f2.8 AFD and Nikkor 35-70mm f2.8 AFD lenses. For this shot I used my third pro zoom - Nikkor 80-200mm f2.8 AFD ED...
So after this we headed off to their car and the trip up the road to Dubai... They have a lovely car - Ford Mustang - and a soft top as well. I am now sat in the back of a two-seater sports car with my large camera bag as we zoom off down the highway to - well I had no idea...
We arrived at the hotel and after some phone calls we got into a stretch Limo and went for a drive around Dubai. The cruise had been cancelled due to the bad weather (here? bad weather? how unlucky can you be...? more of that later).
I loved the mirrored roof in the car - gave great light and reflections...
We then set off back to the original hotel and then home - driving through Dubai at 140km per hour with the top down in a sand storm and spotting with rain.... The bride was delighted with the rain as it is good luck in Egypt for it to rain on your wedding day... (they ought to move to the UK!!!)
A 3 hour shoot had taken 5 and when you add the 2 hours of travelling that's 7 hours work... for the 3 hours I'd quoted... Still the pictures have come out nicely...
So I emailed a small selection last night and received a favourable reply although the bride did say the ones taken through the diffusing filter were a bit hazy (some people!!! :) ) and maybe some "Photoshop" was needed - I haven't yet had a reply as to what "Photoshop" she means... Remember the original quote for 3 hours allowed for a small amount of post processing...
So that's it for the Engagement shoot that turned into a wedding shoot and took longer than expected. A great experience and fun to boot...
More pictures will be appearing HERE so keep your eyes open... any comments on the blog will be gratefully received... Speak to you all next week...
TTFN
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