A Wannabe Photographer (Part one)

About January last year, my friend from church, Kuya Joven was about to get married. They were not rich but he and his (then, future) wife were able to save money to have a decent church wedding. They had everything settled except for a pre-nup photo which seemed like it was not important for them, given their limited budget.

Before then, I was known to them as a “photography enthusiast”. Don’t get me wrong though. I didn’t go through any training or workshops or anything that a professional photographer usually undergo. I didn’t even have my own camera then, only my cellphone camera. And most of the photos I took were sceneries, not people.

Photo taken with Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime Taken along Calle Crisologo in Vigan, Ilocos Sur, Philippines

Photo taken with Sony (sorry, I forgot the name of the phone hehe) Taken during our boat transfer to Caramoan islands in Camarines Sur, Philippines

Photo taken with Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime Caught my eye (get it?! get it?! hahahahaha kbye.) Taken while we were exploring the Pinto Art Museum in Antipolo, Philippines

Photo taken with Olympus digital camera (I forgot the exact name of the camera huhu) Taken at one of the islands in Zambales when we had our island hopping tour

But my interest in photography was ignited by my uncle who developed his photography skills in film and just bought a DSLR then. He let me handle his new camera and afterwhich, reviewed my photos. He claimed that although I was just a point-and-shoot kind of photographer (the camera was set in auto mode), I had a natural eye in what to shoot and in what angle.

Since we are not rich, no matter how much I wanted to have my own DSLR camera, I simply had to capture photos with what I have. Sometimes, I even borrow other people’s phones when I don’t have anything with me to capture something I see that is worth capturing.

Anyway, enough with the pitty party… Back to the prenuptial photos of my friend 🙂

When my aunt (their godmother) learned that they were not able to get a photographer for their prenup, she contacted me and asked me if I could do it for free.  Of course, I didn’t want to get any payment for it since I am not a professional. I said yes, but actually, I had no idea what to do. Right after I hung up the phone, I immediately googled how to set manual setting for DSLR. I didn’t have any DSLR so I studied everything in theory. On the day of our shoot, we just borrowed my cousin’s DSLR.

Equipped with only a Nikon D5500 (no lights or reflector or anything that professional photographers have) we (two of my cousins and I) took off to the nearest, (what we thought was) places that we thought would beautifully set the romantic mood; Paco Park and National Museum.

While waiting for the couple to get dressed, my cousins and I did some sample shooting to get the right manual setting (that I learned two nights ago) for the natural light (good thing, it was a sunny day!) available. All of us brainstormed for the concept but everyone depended on me to make the final decision.

We didn’t really have a theme so we just went with what was natural and what was available. For exampe, these flowers were falling from a tree so we picked some of it and included it in this photo ^.^

Kuya Joven (the man) was the joker while Ate Jean (the woman) was more of the shy type. We instructed Kuya Joven to tell us some jokes that will make us laugh and I took this without them knowing. This was one of my favorite pictures because it just looked very honest and natural. Very much like themselves caught in one click. My regret here though was I did not include their feet -.-

With this looking so natural, I then thought of taking pictures, “paparazzi” style. 😀

Later on, when we warmed up a bit more and felt more comfortable with each other, my cousins and I took turns in instructing them what to do. But then again, my favorite pictures were of those that somewhat looked natural…

Since I was on my Christmas break, I had a lot of time to do some “editing”. When the couple saw the turn out of their photos, they were so happy that they offered to pay me for the effort but I refused and just told them that it was my gift to them.

Anyway, at the end of the shoot, we all agreed that we had tons of fun doing it and would not hesitate to do it again for a friend.

Here is a group photo of us (I cropped one of my cousins, the 2nd girl from the left since she was the one who took this photo haha)

Was I happy with the results? Yes, considering it was my first time and we just had a lot of fun together.

Would I do it again for free? Definitely, if the couple would allow me to take the opportunity and develop my skills (prepare though for not so good photos… sorry)

Would I want to be taught by a professional wedding photographer? Yes! Definitely, yes! But maybe once I have my own DSLR 😦

Would I accept a used DSLR camera for free? Hell yeah! *ehem ehem* hahahaha

All in all, it was a wonderful experience for me, the rest of my team, and the engaged couple. 🙂

Note:

I’m not sure if taking prenuptial photos inside the National Museum is really allowed but since all we had was one DSLR camera and no lights whatsoever, we were able to get away with it. We also made sure that we strictly follow the “No flash photography” rule and that we didn’t bother anyone who visited the museum at that time.

UpNext: I was again asked to do a free prenuptial photo op for an acquaintance OoO. It was harder for me because…

---