Your training schedule?

Okay all, let's see if we can get an honest answer to these questions...

1. How often do you shoot outside of paid gigs? What are you shooting? How many frames? Is it deliberate practice and training, or is it just because your kid or fluffy did something cute?

2. How did you "train" before getting into weddings? Did you figure out how to load batteries, a memory card, slapped it on green mode, then went out the door? Was amature fun good enough, the rest O.J.T.? You assist anyone? Any other concerted effort to "train up" to shoot the most important day in someone's life?


I ask this for several reasons. Mainly, I see on most forums, people are generally talking about the business of photography, where to get post processing tools, "what gear to buy", and very little discussion on how that gear is actually used. I realize it's hard to discuss on a forum, but still an observation.

It seems like people talk more about taking pictures than they actually practice taking pictures.

So I'm just wondering, do any of us actually "practice" or is game day alone good enough?


Before I started shooting paid weddings, I did tons of drills with my camera, almost military style. Really boring, repetative, regimented....... but worth every second of effort. I'd set up shooting situations in all kinds of different conditions, then move between them very quickly. Outside direct sun, in shade, mixed light inside, window light, lamp light only, and a room in total darkness with one object - then run between them in full manual attempting to make one single perfect exposure with perfectly blananced flash of each item.

It's a lot harder than it sounds.

I also spent about 3 nights a week placing stuffed animals aound the house and shooting them with off camera flash - direct, bouncing, multiple flashes, mixed light with lamps, high ISO, low ISO, no flash, fill flash, you name it. Then I'd go back and really study the images on the computer screen and really look at every shadow and hit of light. I'd figure out why the good ones looked so great, and also figure out why the awful dark or blown out images looked the way they did.

Now with the studio, I'm in there a couple nights a week just tinkering with the lights. "I wonder how it would look if".

Whenever I'd watch TV, I'd just sit there with the camera in my hands, clicking ISO's up and down, switching modes, adjusting exposure comp and FEC by feel only - getting an actual 'feel' for how many clicks it takes for an adjustment. I'd goto manual and go from 1/100 to 1/1000 by feel - then see if I got it right. Not counting, but just building the muscle memory for about how much dial is required for a given change.

It's dumb, and it's repetative. Like running drills on a football field. Or spending hundreds of hours on a driving range hitting thousands of balls while focusing on each individual component of a swing.



I sometimes hear people struggling, trying to get it figured out, but then I wonder, what are they doing to practice? Do they just show up, flip on the ole trusty, click a few frames, then toss it back in the bag until the next gig?

Photography really is a practiced sport. The really great photographers are not accidents. They don't just "get lucky" shoot after shoot. They know what they're doing, each shot is very deliberate and intentional. They have their camera skeeelz smoothed and as second nature as breathing.

I've got a long way to go, so I keep practicing, but I can say that in a day of shooting, I very rarely give a second thought to camera settings. I'm thinking about DOF, what miinimum ISO can I get away with, where the light is coming from, what it's bouncing off of, and where are the shadows that need filled, and by how much.

I look at the EXIF and clearly I'm riding all those settings all day long, but I don't think about it. The other day I tried to tell someone over the phone the button combo to change ISO on a MkII. I had no idea. I can however make my fingers into the right shape to hit those buttons, like playing a guitar chord in the air. I don't know what buttons to push, but I push them many times without any thought during each wedding.

This is no super human skill - it's a practiced and aquired skill. Just like riding a bike, typing, playing the paino, or painting.

Imagine yourself right there shooting a wedding, in the middle of stress and madness - what are you thinking about? Do you think about your flash settings? Or do you just frame the images in your brain and your hands almost automatically manipulate the camera and capture them? If that's not happening, then you really should practice. Just like setting up a workout schedule - set a time, and do some drills. If they frustrate you, then that's all the more proof that they can really help you if you keep at it.

Give it a shot. I absolutely assure you - if you can stick with it and just do the work, you will be less stressed and feel far more confident on game day. You'll nail the "great catch!" shots more often, and you'll spend more time observing what's really happening around you, rather than burrying your head in your LED display.

If you're not ready to Q.B. the super bowl, the time to realized that and practice till your fingers fall off is _NOW_, not on game day.