My first offical wedding shoot! 
I’ve been keeping some of my gear, notably my 3192 tripod, at the studio. Last night we loaded it, another tripod, a jib, a monitor, and a couple of cameras into the van and set up at the wedding venue. Nice place. The wedding was held in the upper floor of the ferry terminal, which features a huge hemi-dome overlooking Bellingham Bay.
I set up on the left (naturally, heh. 
) and had a nice view of the Bellingham waterfront homes and the string trio that was providing the music. Jerry set up on the right, where he had to shoot into the sun. Fortunately, there was some overcast so it wasn’t too bad. He had his Chrosziel matte box and French flag on his camera, but he didn’t use it. Indoors, it’s mostly for show. (He likes to impress the clients with neato-mosquito gear.) There wasn’t enough room to use the jib, so we left it in the van.
The photographer was a friend of the bride’s former roommate. Jerry thought she was a dude at first. As a photojournalist, she has a different style from an actual wedding photographer. I tagged along on the last wedding, and the wedding photographer was well-dressed and unobtrusive. She really knew her business! This one was always getting in our shots, and she was doing some rapid-fire shuttering with her digital Nikon. And she was dressed… erm, ‘very casually’.
After the ceremony we went around gathering shots for the montage until the party started eating dinner. The food looked good. Jerry said we could eat if we wanted to (the kitchen staff were eating, as were the bartenders and the wedding planner), but nobody invited us to anything so we didn’t eat. It was hard enough finding glasses so that we could have some water! We got some soft drinks out of a vending machine, and a half-hour before we wrapped I got some Pop-Tarts out of another vending machine.
Jerry had hoped to wrap earlier, but the schedule was different from other weddings he’d shot. Apparently the toast, throwing of the bouquet, garter toss, etc. is usually handled earlier so that the rest of the evening is given over to partying. I don’t know. This was my first one. Anyway, we did a lot of chilling. I got on the Internet – sort of – on my new mobile phone, but was unable to go to my webmail. There’s only one game on the Motorola, and you have to buy others. Chill, chill, chill.
We got out of there around 22:30 and headed back to the studio. Jerry was beat, having been partying for a couple nights in a row. Today he is editing. (I should be there too, but he wants to bust this one out quickly. I’m afraid I’d just get in the way.) We passed three other weddings on the way back to the studio.
No idea how much he’ll pay me for running the second camera. He only uses two cameras for the ceremony, the reception being covered by one. I did grab a few shots, but mostly I schlepped the tripod and hung out.
Being my first wedding shoot, I recited the Test Pilot’s Prayer (which I thought was appropriate): ‘Dear God, Please don’t let me fuck up!’