Each time I do a gig like this, I learn something for the future. Naturally, as the saying goes, if something can go wrong it will go wrong. But it doesn’t mean that those things can’t be overcome. 

The first challenge for me was my inability to sleep Friday night. Was it nerves? Too much caffeine? By 6 when I decided to just get up, I was worried that I would bomb it, being too exhausted to think straight let alone shoot decent pics. But I was able to stay energized just enough throughout the day to last until 10PM when the reception, under a beautifully lit tent with the clear night star-filled sky above, moved from slow dancing to raucous, DJ-and-alcohol-fueled entertainment. By then, I was dead to the world.

Lesson learned: get plenty of sleep somehow. Any-how.

Another issue popped up when I was getting out my brand-new tripod Friday night. The clamp which hold a part of the leg open or closed broke completely. It took me until the next morning to jerryrig a solution so that it would be able to operate, though with one leg permanently jammed open. Oh well. At least I had a tripod.

Lesson two: bring a spare tripod and/or monopod (both of which I had at home but forgot in packing). And don’t forget basic tools/duct tape. (I used a leatherman and tie strips to fix the tripod).

Digital cards can be frail. My brand new 16GB card, in use with my brand-new Nikon D90 camera, failed halfway through the ceremony. It was unreadable and I was just sure I had lost pictures from the makeup/getting ready portion of the day as well as half the wedding (including the vows). I did have spare cards on me, but I was kicking myself for not moving over the pics I had already after the makeup (or at least when there was a lull in the getting-ready time). Later that evening, I found that with a bit of cleaning solution and wiping I was able to get the card to read again, though I don’t know if I’ll ever trust it completely again. And I was using a second camera usually equipped with a wide-angle lens so we would have a variety of angles and compositions.

Take spare digital cards and download your pictures as soon as possible.

Congrats to Rolf & Natasha and thanks for a good day. Having a gorgeous wedding party always makes it easier for the photographer, too. I mean how much work does it take to get good pics from people who naturally already look so good?

A few years later I was asked to shoot a friend’s wedding. Now, up to this point, I was happily ignorant in never having attended a Christian wedding in Malawi. I knew it would be an all-day event. Full of over-the-top noise and revelry. Exhausting in every way. People would be stuffed into Western-style suits sadly mismatched in Africa. Women would trade out their normal hair for fake that would make them feel more attractive. Money that nobody had would be spent to make this huge party a success. Small denominations equaling about a nickel, dime or quarter would be paraded up to the bride and groom or dropped into boxes in hopes of recovering some of the money spent that day. But all of this was rumor to me. I hadn’t been and could only go along for the ride and see what was in store.

It was a Saturday morning. I dressed into what I consider my finest (as I hoped never to wear a suit and tie again and certainly wasn’t going to be caught in one this day). I arrived at the groom’s house where he was getting ready. Shot a few pics. Recorded some video. Did the same where the bride was getting ready. The interesting thing with this wedding was that their children would be participating as well. A new concept to me, it’s common in Africa for a couple to be “married” without it being a church-recognized, official union. My friends, after probably ten years, wanted to have a “real” wedding finally and this was their moment to shine. And why not? Good for them, I thought. Especially as church leaders, maybe this would be a good example to give the institution of marriage a boost in the perceived commitment level that marriage brings.

To shorten a very, very long day into mere words (and to spare you from what I consider sheer monotony) let’s speed past an all-too-long sermon, past the side-to-side, painstakingly slow dancing up the church aisles and the reverse thereof when it’s all said and done… to the reception hall where hundreds are packed in like sardines eager for entertainment. Young singers and dancers with electronic keyboards amped to the max are set up as DJs/entertainers. The mass of humanity is ready for their moment to participate by singing, swaying and dancing up the aisle where they will deposit their dime or quarter in paper money onto the heads, or tucked into the folds of clothing of the bride or groom. Where the master of ceremonies will announce who gave how much money toward the happy couple.

I did my best to shoot what I could, but looking back on my results years later I see that everything is just a bit, how shall I say, lackluster? Boring? Uninspired? I did have my Nikon D50 at this point, but wasn’t yet shooting in RAW format and so was limited in the post-production part of things.

My 6-year-old son Gabe accompanied me as my assistant that day and I actually found his shots quite refreshing compared to mine. Perhaps it’s the point of view? (Nikon Coolpix, 3.1 megapixels. I touched up these photos with Lightroom to add more color, or subtract as desired. Cropped down to 4×6 on most as I don’t like the size that the Coolpix produces.)

I left the wedding reception before it was over. Night was falling but my own personal batteries had depleted. After that, I vowed never to shoot another Malawian wedding.

But guess what? It’s not easy to say “no” when a friend asks you to record their happy day and, 2 years later, here I was in the same boat but with a little more technical knowledge and a few new lenses. As the official videographer, I thought it would be no big deal to shoot some photos when I wasn’t videotaping. But, as I learned, there’s a reason why people don’t hire the same guy to do both video and photos.

My first mistake of that October 31st wedding, just two months ago and fresh in my memory, was assuming the wedding would start late. I banked on 30 minutes, just to be safe. One challenge for me was crossing the international border, something that usually goes fine but always adds more time to the trip. I assumed I’d be there about 30 minutes after the official starting time and, if it had worked that way, all would have been well. But searching for a guy who wanted a ride to the wedding and being stopped later by police at a roadblock who insisted I show them my safety triangles in a car I wasn’t used to driving and didn’t own made me about an hour late. By the time I arrived, the sermon was already well underway. I had to play catch up.

As I took in my surroundings, I saw someone else who looked like he knew what he was doing shooting video. Maybe I could get his footage and simply edit in some of mine, I thought. Of course, plenty of people were there with cell-phone cameras or smaller point-and-shoots, but none like mine and so I made the decision to become instead the official photographer.

It went okay, but my heart just wasn’t in it and inspiration certainly lacking. My mind was already at the lakeside resort where my family was awaiting me up the road and I merely wanted to endure the wedding ceremony and official wedding party picture-taking (at the home of complete strangers to the wedding party who just happened to have a pretty garden). That done, I headed off feeling like I had let down my friend and again vowing that wedding photography in Africa just wasn’t my thing.

How ironic that, just a week later, another opportunity came up to shoot a wedding. But this would be different. It would be a wedding between an American and a white Zimbabwean. Practically my own culture! It is amazing how much more fun such a wedding was for me. I felt at home. I understood all the language. Nothing took me by surprise. I got some pocket change for my efforts. Everything just felt so “normal” and, despite the long hours (up at 4:30 for an hour’s drive pre-wedding, shoot the wedding party as their prepared, do the wedding and high tea afterwards, then head back to the original location for official portraits before leaving as the party started evening dinner) it was a joy.

Things are best learned through trial-and-error. Experience. If I could give some advice to myself, I would recommend a few things:

• DO try to attend a wedding ahead of the one you plan to shoot from the same culture so you can see what types of things you can expect. While each wedding will be different, a theme will run through them. Be sure to choose the same religious affiliation (Catholic, protestant, Muslim…all will be different) as the one you plan to shoot.
• DO have a cultural insider who can help you along during the shoot, explaining things that you don’t understand and preparing you for what may come next.
• DO give yourself plenty of time to get to the wedding.
• DO try to talk with the bride and groom ahead of time to see what they are expecting from you.
• DO take your cues from those around you. Are people acting happy or trying to look sad? Are you free to come and go and move easily from place to place or is it best to stick to one location out of the way?
• DO try to have more than 1 camera on you that has a different lens. For example, the last wedding I shot went so much better because I used 2 Nikon D50s. One with a wide angle lens; one with a 24-120mm for more close up work.
• DO your research!
• DON’T try, at least in most cases, to do both video and photo.
• DON’T allow your brain to fast-forward beyond the event to where you’d rather be (an easy thing to happen in a place where you may be bored or not understand what is going on around you).
• DON’T expect to get great pictures with every shot. Of the 800 or so I shot last wedding, probably 50 or so made my cut as “acceptable”. Of those, perhaps about 20 were considered my favorites.
• Finally, DO check out this short-and-sweet post from the Digital Photography School: How to shoot a traditional cultural wedding

On the 8th of December, I shot a wedding for some friends (a white Zimbabwean marrying an American) that was held at a little country Anglican church in the tea-estate land of Thyolo, about halfway between Blantyre and Mulanje.

Here are a few of my favorite shots from the day: