Furious Photographer

[Arthur Gannis]

The problem is with the phones themselves. They all have a built-in camera so it's almost impossible to forget to take a camera along. Once armed with a camera and subject matter it becomes like an automatic reaction to raising it and snap away when a few are doing it and add to the flock. It's contaigous. Monkey see monkey do. Some snapshooters are itching so much to take pictures, any picture of even inanimate objects during the wedding day like decorations, flower arrangements, silverware, table settings, etc. It's the irresistible urge to push the button and snap, snap, snap. Why not, it's free, no film to purchase and no prints to develop. Cheap, convenience, and best of all the added bonus of aggravating the video person.

[John C. Chu]

I think people believe they will capture moments that the photographer/videographer might have missed?

They want to be the hero that got the great shot the pro's might have missed?

Wedding planners or the wedding wrangler need to provide some general guidelines to the guests and respect the key moments in the wedding.

[Noa Put]

You can't educate the guests, how many times I have experienced being asked to turn of mobilephones during a ceremony yet each time you hear such a mobile phone go off, often more then once. It is what it is.

[Arthur Gannis]

[QUOTE=John C. Chu;1902476]I think people believe they will capture moments that the photographer/videographer might have missed?

Nah, we don't miss anything...just the shots that them guests get in the way of.

[David Barnett]

Originally Posted by John C. Chu

They want to be the hero that got the great shot the pro's might have missed?

Yeah I think there's truth to this. AND they think they'll get it quicker. WTF, why wait 6-8 weeks for the photos to return when Captain Smartphone will have it uploaded onto Facebook tonight!

[Noa Put]

I always slowly circle the dancefloor at the outer edge with my steadicam during the first dance, I prefer to do in this way so I never block any guests view for longer then a few seconds, untill that one time when I was blocked in my motion by a guy who stopped me with his hand, first I thought I bumped into someone when I saw he deliberately stopped me because he was shooting the first dance with his smarthphone and he didn't want me to walk in front of him. :D

[Steve Burkett]

Originally Posted by John C. Chu

I think people believe they will capture moments that the photographer/videographer might have missed?

They want to be the hero that got the great shot the pro's might have missed?

I'm not convinced that's always the case. Many are doing it because others are and because they get caught up in the moment. You get that frenzy at other events to - I've seen it at street carnivals, parties, air shows and music festivals. When something is happening, there's just an automatic reaction to want to capture it to share with others. I don't think some of them even spare me a thought.

Originally Posted by Noa Put

he deliberately stopped me because he was shooting the first dance with his smarthphone and he didn't want me to walk in front of him. :D

I just ignore such people. If the Bride and Groom trusted him to film their 1st Dance, they wouldn't have hired you. I don't like to block guests if it can be helped, but most reasonable people are understanding that I'm doing this for the Bride and Groom's benefit and give me the space I need.

[Noa Put]

I just continued my circling route after that and walked in front of him a few more times while I hear him cursing but it shows how far guests can go in their attempt to cover an event.
Here a framegrab from a locked camera from a recent wedding, both the man and woman in front of my camera are holding their smarthphone to shoot the groom/bride at the altar, you see me standing in the left corner on the other side of the room. I had to go up twice to them to point out they where blocking my unmanned camera, some people just won't learn.

[John C. Chu]

This gigantic iPad thing isn't just happening at weddings. This is happening at school concerts and the like and I see people walking around Central Park with them too.

Damn you, Apple with all your creating films with iPad commercials. ;)

[Charles Newcomb]

This is exactly why God invented squirt guns.

[Arthur Gannis]

That is another reason I only shoot with one cam. Aside from the fact that I am lazy. No seriously, I went through all this nonsense in the past and I came to the conclusion that it ain't worth getting upset and mad about. Sure I'd love to slap the offending intrusion just above the right ear but I'lll wait for that golden opportunity on my very last wedding.

[Steve Burkett]

Originally Posted by Arthur Gannis

That is another reason I only shoot with one cam..

Seriously. Multi camera is the one reason I don't worry too much about guests or even vendors for thst matter getting in my way. Yeah its an irritation, but I've edited 2 Speeches today where the Photographer parked himself in front of the main camera for 10-15 seconds intervals and in all cases, another camera angle ensured the couples when receiving their videos will not be aware of the inconvenience as I was. Shooting single camera only makes the matter worse not better!

[Chris Harding]

Brides are getting the message too. I booked a bride last night and she is having an unplugged ceremony and will have a large blackboard outside the ceremony venue stating so as well as having the celebrant announce that no devices can be used during the ceremony.

The good thing about this is that she attended the ceremony of a bride we did in August and was horrified by the sister sitting up front holding her bright red leatherette iPad case in the air ..blocking all guest and camera views. Maybe we need to carry around an 8x10 print of a iPad blocked ceremony when we sign up brides so they can actually see the problem.

[Steven Davis]

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

Brides are getting the message too. I booked a bride last night and she is having an unplugged ceremony and will have a large blackboard outside the ceremony venue stating so as well as having the celebrant announce that no devices can be used during the ceremony.

The good thing about this is that she attended the ceremony of a bride we did in August and was horrified by the sister sitting up front holding her bright red leatherette iPad case in the air ..blocking all guest and camera views. Maybe we need to carry around an 8x10 print of a iPad blocked ceremony when we sign up brides so they can actually see the problem.

I might make a t-shirt and put the message on my back, right now it's my logo, but I'm tempted. I've also thought of making 1000 business cards with the message on it and put it on the end of the pews.

[Josh Bass]

Do you guys think these are otherwise intelligent people whose brains just turn to pudding at certain moments in their lives (i.e. weddings/similar events) or do you think they conduct the rest of their lives with this same sort of obliviousness? Genuinely curious.