Even though we've been doing this for so many years,
despite all the experience I go to each wedding feeling nervous. Still.
The scale of our operation is dependent on the size of the event typically.
So it really can vary between a team of three to sometimes a team of five.
We call it fantasy and reality, so the fantasy being the couple portraits
that look like they're from a fashion magazine.
And they're inspired by maybe movie scenes or actually from fashion or art
and architecture and, you know that sort of thing.
The reality is actually just pure documentary - it's capturing what we see and what we feel in front of us.
Asian weddings are different because of the scale,
the amount of cultural history that goes into it.
People are always amazed with how much equipment we turn up with.
We've got three 1DX Mk2s and three 1DX Mk1s.
And probably about 15 different L series lenses.
My go to is the 1DX Mk2s with a 70-200 on one side
and I usually start with the 24-70 Mk2 on the other.
The 1DX is a performance machine; y'know it's incredibly quick.
So I didn't know what to expect from the EOS R.
The EOS R arrived the day of the wedding.
As far as weddings go this was probably the most elaborate of the year.
I think the wedding itself had something like seven or eight hundred people
and I had that morning to customise both cameras and get to know them.
But what fascinated me was how easy they were to actually customise
but how familiar they were.
Customisation is critical in what we do.
Mainly I think because as creatives we all work in different ways.
But also we all have muscle memory
and if there isn't the customisation it can hinder the way you work.
Particularly if you need to switch between a photojournalistic brain to
a portrait brain to a landscape brain to y'know, a sports photographer a brain and
you can actually have a little bit of all of those at a wedding.
We were going from day to night
and the wedding itself was in changeable conditions
because the marquee was transparent, the sun was going in and out.
It Was hot. And we're on our feet for 16 hours.
We're always open to the emotion of the day.
As well as just observing what's going on.
But the emotion is the key thing and that'll lead us.
So when you can see that there's some kind of engagement emotionally between people
There are parts of the ceremony which kind of slow down
and you'll catch an expression or you'll catch eye contact or something like that.
I was using the eye focusing pretty much all the way through which was awesome because it meant that
I could shoot quite wide open, more wide open than I'd be used to shooting with a 50 1.2.
With all the lenses I might steer clear of 1.2
but here I was happy just to stay at 1.2 and it would nail focus every single time.
My approach when I'm shooting is to generally underexpose by a third or two.
I always protect the highlights because there's a lot more latitude in the shadows.
I create contrast with lighting rather than actually bumping up contrast in post production later on.
But the dynamic range is the key thing.
I want it to look as realistic and human-like as possible.
Because our eyes can see so many more stops of dynamic range than a camera can.
I think there's a perception that y'know, if you're a pro then your equipment needs to be bigger.
And I think we've all fallen for that at some stage as well.
But I think that's going away.
With the EOS R, the size, the weight,
the EVF being able to see all that information and review the image as I'm shooting,
the silent shutter, and articulated screen - that was fantastic.
It did everything I needed it to do on the day and it didn't falter.
The single card slot issue I think has been blown out of proportion.
Technology is so much more reliable than it's ever been.
And SD technology is so much more reliable than it's ever been.
So the fact that the EOS R has one card slot isn't a problem.
What we do is so valuable.
It's creating a legacy for that couple
and their family, their kids, their grandkids forever.
The bride lost her mother when she was probably 13 or 14 and I can relate to that.
I lost my Mum when I was 15 so I'm very sensitive to these things as well
and that's why photographs are so important to me actually.
And it's one of the things that we try to explain to brides and grooms and they come to see us that
their photographs will be priceless to them in the future
because we will all lose somebody along the way,
they just don't know it yet.