I was sooooo lucky with my first booking once landing on Spanish soil because it was for a fabulous family from London! And i thought what a great starting point – location: Spain, language: English…woooohoooo!
I was happy with that, even though i wanted to throw myself in at the deep end with Spanish weddings i can’t tell you how relieved i was that i wasn’t going to have the language barrier! The job was to photograph an evening 10 year blessing on the beach in La Cala….perfecto! And it was, they were hilarious i had so much fun taking the photos there was never a dull moment.
I had taken along my Nikon D610 and D3200 as my back up cam and my Nikon lenses- 50mm F1.8, 35mm F1.8 and 75-2oomm F4. But all i ended up using was the D610 with the 50mm for the duration and 35mm for a couple of wider shots. I didn’t use the zoom, it was an intimate gathering and as i was bobbing in and around everyone the 50mm was perfect for that, it is my lens of choice at the moment i LOVE IT! Its such a fantastic all round lens and i use it most of the time. I am a natural light photographer and will only use flash IF i have to, i think you get so much more natural depth to a photo without it. So i don’t rule out using it, sometimes you can get some really great effects when used creatively but if i can get away without it i will.
The main lesson i learnt was …. NEVER wear skinny flip flops on the beach in the height of summer in Spain if you need to stand around for a while. For the whole time i was there until the sun went behind the trees i was hopping (discretely as i could and also trying to hold my camera steady whilst taking photos) from one foot to the other and trying to find the inner strength that people use to walk over hot coals because thats what it felt like …. and there was nothing i could do about it ….”hi, oh by the way i cant photograph your wedding because i’ve got the wrong shoes on …” hmmmm not quite the professional image i’m trying to create! So that was penciled in my mental notebook for all future sessions on the beach in 40 degree heat!
I used the setting sun to my advantage and had lots of back lit photos which created such a nice romantic mood to the photos, then in Lightroom because i shot in RAW i was able to bring back the detail that i wanted in areas that were originally quite dark.
As a whole my first dip into a photographing a wedding in Spain went without a hitch, and i had such a laugh at the same time. They made it so easy for me and for that i was so grateful….a perfect start to the new journey….except for the blistered feet! 😀
