My First Second-Shooter Experience

Six of mistakes I made and lessons I learned from shooting my first wedding.

For those of you looking at getting into wedding photography, a little bit of advice: an associate photographer and a second shooter are not the same thing. A second shooter is a photographer who works along-side a lead photographer during the wedding day. This allows for double-coverage and allows for a camera to be at two places at once (highly recommend a second shooter for all weddings). An associate shooter is the only photographer there at the day of the wedding, filling in for the photographer who was actually booked. Both types of photographers are a good move for those starting their business as neither type ends up booking or communicating with the clients, since they are technically working for the lead photographer and not the actual client. But if you have zero experience shooting a wedding or any large event, definitely steer clear of associate shooting for your first couple of weddings.

So, I did not do that :)

The first time I ever shot a wedding was one of the most humbling experiences in my photography career thus far. To jumpstart my business, I had been advised to start out by being a second shooter for weddings. I messaged several photographers on Facebook and relatively quickly, scored my first opportunity.

I had responded to an ad in a Facebook group for Cincinnati photographers that had been put out by a local photographer last October. I sent her a long message saying that despite being inexperienced, I was very eager, passionate and dedicated to my new little business and would love to have the opportunity to shoot my first wedding. She agreed, paid me a retainer fee, and that was that.

Come the day of the wedding, I drove 40 minutes to Oxford, Ohio to the address the photographer had given me, to a small family-owned farm where I presumed the wedding would be. I arrived a little bit early so that I could become acquainted with the space and meet the photographer. As I pulled into a gravel road, seeing a white rental tent in the distance that would house the reception, after looking around, I concluded that despite being in the right place, no one was here. I texted the lead photographer and she responded saying everyone should be on their way back from the church.

I was now only shooting the reception. Slightly bummed, I sat in my car and waited for a parade of cars to come driving down the gravel road. The first car that came was the DJ. I got out of my car and trudged my way over to him and introduced myself as one of the photographers. He seemed slightly confused but said hello and left it at that. I walked around the area and took a few detailed shots, watched the DJ and then a bartender set up and basically stood around waiting for everyone to arrive.

About a half hour later, wedding guests finally started arriving. The wedding was only around 50 people at most, and with the reception being outside in only 50°F weather, the atmosphere was a bit underwhelming. I continued to walk around and take candid photos of the wedding guests, still awaiting the wedding party and the lead photographer to arrive.

Eventually, one of the family members came up to me and said that the wedding party wanted some photos before they came to the reception. They drove me up in a golf cart to the bride's house which was located on the property and I very quickly met the bride, groom, and their three young children. I had been anticipating a traditional bridal party with groomsmen and bridesmaids, not anticipating a family. The bride explained that she only wanted family portraits with one specific pose, limiting all of my creativity that comes with my typical portrait sessions. Needless to say, I felt awkward taking photos of a family I had absolutely no connection with, and the photos show it...

By this point I realized the lead photographer was not going to be here at this reception. I was on my own, in the middle of nowhere, and did not know anyone at this wedding reception.

After the family portraits were done, I was driven back down to the reception tent, where I continued to walk around and try to desperately look for anything to take a photo of to pass the time. It was then that I realized how inexperienced I was at taking photos with low light. I did not know my camera that well and shot in Aperture mode the whole night because I didn't know how to shoot in Manual mode yet and normally, Aperture mode worked great for my other regular portrait sessions I'd done with this camera. If I had done the slightest bit of research on my Nikon D5200 that I'd gotten from my grandmother, I would've known that even shooting in Shutter mode would've sufficed. Again, the photos showed this ignorance, and only a few photos could really be salvaged as the majority of them ended up being too blurry or underexposed to even bother with editing.

As the night went on, no one offered me any food and I definitely did not feel obligated to ask. It was around dinner being served that my camera's battery decided to die. And so, I put in a new one. Beforehand, I had charged up my two spare batteries, both of which were off-brand batteries that my grandmother had bought a few years ago.

...They didn't hold a charge.

Because we were outside on a farm, there weren't any outlets where I could discreetly plug in my battery charger. There was a generator that was powering all of the DJ's equipment and the lights in the tent, but I would've had to ask him if I could plug in my charger and I didn't want to admit that all my batteries were dead. I resorted to switching out my three batteries every three photos I took, managing to make it through the first dance and the cake cutting.

Once the bride and groom finished smashing the homemade cake into their face like the cute newlyweds they were, I knew that I wasn't going to get any more photos out of my dead batteries. And so, I quietly left, without saying goodbye to anyone, partially because I really didn't know who to tell that I was leaving.

Afterwards, I immediately culled through all the photos and did very minor touch ups to some of them so that when I sent them to the photographer who hired me, I wouldn't appear to be a complete amateur.

Once I sent them back to her, I came clean and told her that I shot in the wrong mode, to which she responded very graciously. Since then, I've done a few partnerships with her and have kept contact with her as well.

So here's a list of my advice in response to the mistakes I made so that you don't make the same ones:

1. Ask questions about the specific details about the wedding. Ask for a specific timeline, ask about the size of the wedding party, ask about the number of guests there, ask about the venue(s).

2. Know the difference between a second shooter and an associate photographer when looking for ads on Facebook or Instagram.

3. KNOW YOUR CAMERA. Like the back of your hand. There's no do-overs for certain shots at weddings and if you miss it because you're trying to fiddle with your camera, you're going to feel pretty bad.

4. Buy on-brand batteries and buy like five of them. Buy a USB battery charger so that you can also charge them in your car.

5. If you're an associate, build a relationship with at least one key person at the wedding. This could be someone in the bridal party, the wedding planner, a family member, just someone who knows at least some of the logistics.

6. Don't show up too early - it ends up just being a waste of your time.

Obviously, I've learned from these mistakes and I'm really starting to fall in love with my little Nikon and am loving each wedding and couple I meet more and more!

Until next time!

All my love,