Get that photo in 2 minutes!!!

This past weekend was the annual CTPPA (Connecticut Professional Photographers Association) meeting in Windsor CT, where all the pros in the state come together for a weekend of bonding and learning. This year we tried something different where 4 photographers were chosen in advance to participate in a ‘live wedding shootout’. As one of the chosen four, I was subject to the tension and torture 🙂

We had a couple who were our “bride and groom”, and were each given a ‘really bad wedding’ scenario right before we were allotted only TWO MINUTES to size up the situation, react to it and get the best photograph we could with what we had to work with. To add to the anxiety, there were about 25 other photographers standing watching our every move!!!

The first setup was in the ladies room of the hotel. The second in a conference room where we had to get a “First Look” in a really ugly space. Number three was outside under the cover of the hotel awning on a ‘rainy day’, and number four was at the indoor pool, where we were restricted to a single pre-determined lens type.

After that, we all retired to our rooms to do a quick edit before our evening presentation where we got to show our images to everybody, and discuss the how and why of our thinking process.

So i’ll spare you the boredom and tech-geekery of THAT and instead just let you enjoy a few before and afters. Again–we had only TWO minutes to figure out and get each shot!!! Now, if these were REAL wedding photos I’d have put even more time into these, but I just wanted to show you what I got under the restraints we had…

[tops and/or left images are after–but I hope you’d of figured that out…]