No photos of the ceremony?

I guess CC that you pretty much wanted to get engaged as your date for joining this forum precedes the concert and thereby the proposal!!!!!?❤️?

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Peter

Were not allowed flash photography as our minister is prone to migranes but our tog is allowed to take pics discreetly ie to the side of where we stand, beside the vog. I think pictures of the ceremony are important - it IS the wedding if u know what I mean. But obviously your church means sthing to you both as well. I hope u's get sorted x

Worst I've had is I could only take photos of the couple walking down the aisle, a couple whilst saying their vows, the register and leaving.

To be perfectly straight with you, find another church.

I understand that some vicars take the marriage ceremony very seriously but they are in minority when they're that strict. You can't do anything about it so find somewhere else and write a letter to their superiors stating why. Don't just say 'We weren't allowed any pictures' but more along the lines of...'we couldn't even have a photo of us saying our vows or exchanging rings'.

Generally you can't sway a vicar on the rules. Because the Vicars that make the rules aren't for swaying!

Duplicate.

The thing is that in the couple of (last resort) situations where we have had to sit in the congregation, we have used several well placed people with very unimpressive looking and subtle NON flash (non DSLR) cameras to great effect. We don't sit there and snap, we just make sure we are in the right places to get a couple of decent key shots. While it is a bit mercenary, we are paid to do a job, just like the vicar is

As I said at the top of my post. The key is understanding what the exact issues are with the vicar. Once you (the photographer) understand the issues, dealing with them is a lot easier. Example: I had one Officiant at a minster saying he hated flash.. We simply demonstrated to him that we can shoot without flash and get excellent shots – also letting him know that we only move around in the hymns when everyone is standing any way, and what can be done remotely generally convinces the most die hard vicar that we can do the job without causing any issues for him. He was even happier when we shot a few free stills for him. Of course then we could shoot the wedding how the couple wanted

The most important thing is to deal with this before he mentions it himself. That’s why we contact them way in advance, and explain how we work. I find this is vey effective, because if I know the vicar doesn’t like flash, I will tell him we don’t use it before he even mentions it etc...

TBH the worst offenders I have had recently are not vicars but 2 particular registrars, whose attitude (to the whole wedding, not just the photography) is appalling (one actually lives next to the venue the weddings are held at and regularly complains about any noise after 8.00pm!)

On the flip side, last weeks registrar was brilliant, and even held the flashgun for me at one point - bent over backwards - and this is becoming the norm

Unusual technique Richard, couldn't you get him to hold it normally<evil grin icon>?

The days of large format cameras have largely passed. These had noisy shutters often combined with flashguns that could be interpreted as interfering. With modern cameras, this "perceived interferance" can be toned almost completely down. Faster ISO, telephoto lenses, turning off the the cameras beeps or even using live view can make a shedload of difference. The problem is that some officiants remember the noisy days.

I occasionally shoot in Radio and TV studios where any innapropriate noise gets a stern rebuke from the sound supervisers, or getting in the way gets you in to trouble with the floor manager....so far no problems.

Peter

Surely banning a professional photographer encourages guests to take pictures? If the minister explained to the guests the photographer is the only person allowed to take shots during the ceremony & he/she'll be getting all the key moments the guests would surely be happy with that & happily sit there enjoying the ceremony. I know I'd want to get some shots for the couple if I was at a wedding where a photographer wasn't allowed. I have to say I agree with all the photograohers here the cameras now are so discreet I didn't even notice the photographers in my wedding, in fact I couldn't even tell you where they were stood because I didn't see either of them during the whole ceremony & only caught a glimpse of one of them on the way out! I was so wrapped up in my own little world I don't even remember hearing any cameras going off or being distracted in the slightest by any noise from our guests.

You dont want to upset the FM - additionally a lot of modern DSLR's have a "silent shutter mode"

Nolan, it's been my expirence that when photography is banned during the ceremony, it's ALL photography, including guests. THese days, I can't really blame them for feeling that photography can be distracting when you have every guest with a camera, and then the pro as well. I can see both sides, but feel bad when I can't provide quality ceremony images. Really there are just a few spots that having a photo of that moment is 'must have',, but what you can't plan on, are those little moments that aren't scripted in the ceremony, and it's those moments that get lost.