How I MESSED UP My First Wedding Photoshoot

Murphys Law: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

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I was determined to get everything right on my first wedding shoot. After all, there's a lot at stake. Myself and my photo buddy had decided we would could shoot weddings, and threw ourselves into it, rather cocksure. He had been asked by a friend of a friend if he could shoot weddings and he felt he couldn't say no. In fairness, we both had some portrait experience, and a Creative Live account.

What could possibly go wrong?

Actually, it went really well. We had researched like crazy, gotten inspired and done a couple of practice shoots. I even learned how to shoot TTL flash, something that up until then seemed pointless (how wrong I was, but that's for another post) ..

We melted into the shadows during the more intimate moments of the ceremony, and cordially got a mixture of candid and posed shots during the garden reception. I was getting mostly posed shots while my somewhat shy friend sniped for candids with his tele. Apparently he's shy about responsibility too, so we decided I would shoot the group shots, even though he was the more experienced shooter. They went really well in the end. Herding a few people, a little fill flash, job done.

I remember near the end of the evening, browsing the shots on the camera and being impressed at how they were all coming out. My Canon 6D was killing it.

"Why would anyone call this a consumer camera? .... Holy shit, the grip is really warm. I must have taken thousands of shots today.... "

Suddenly..

"Err 02. Card cannot be accessed. Reinsert/change card or format card."
FFFFFFFFFF U C K ...
Somehow the 64GB Sandisk SD card had fried and died. The 6D doesn't shoot dual cards so I had no backup. Rather than make a scene, and not knowing if the data was recoverable or not, we left without incident, saying goodbye to everyone, and getting hugs and thanks from members of the family. Ouch.

That week I rushed the card into a recovery lab, who after some investigation concluded that card was, well, screwed. Desperate, I sent the card overseas to another lab, who had a shot at it. Apparently the more modern "monolithic" SD card design is far more difficult to work with. Unfortunately they had no joy, and the card was even more dead than ever. It was time to fess up.

I got in touch with the groom and gave him the bad news. My partner had a few decent candid shots, but he was sniping with his 70-200. All the formals were gone, as well as some far more intimate candids and detail shots. We eventually refunded the couple and offered our sincerest apologies, but the bride was devastated. I was too. I didn't pick up my camera for a month after that, and when I did, it was to sell the 6D to fund a 5D with dual card slots.

Lesson learned, the hardest way possible. If you're thinking of shooting paid work, don't make the same mistake. SD cards die, all the time. Dual card slots are essential for professional photography, especially when you're capturing the biggest day of someones life.

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Image sources: Meme Generator, Canon.com, Pixabay