Murphys Law: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
I was determined to get everything right on my first wedding shoot. After all, there's a lot at stake. Myself and my photo buddy had decided we would could shoot weddings, and threw ourselves into it, rather cocksure. He had been asked by a friend of a friend if he could shoot weddings and he felt he couldn't say no. In fairness, we both had some portrait experience, and a Creative Live account.
What could possibly go wrong?
Actually, it went really well. We had researched like crazy, gotten inspired and done a couple of practice shoots. I even learned how to shoot TTL flash, something that up until then seemed pointless (how wrong I was, but that's for another post) ..
We melted into the shadows during the more intimate moments of the ceremony, and cordially got a mixture of candid and posed shots during the garden reception. I was getting mostly posed shots while my somewhat shy friend sniped for candids with his tele. Apparently he's shy about responsibility too, so we decided I would shoot the group shots, even though he was the more experienced shooter. They went really well in the end. Herding a few people, a little fill flash, job done.
I remember near the end of the evening, browsing the shots on the camera and being impressed at how they were all coming out. My Canon 6D was killing it.
"Why would anyone call this a consumer camera? .... Holy shit, the grip is really warm. I must have taken thousands of shots today.... "
Suddenly..
"Err 02. Card cannot be accessed. Reinsert/change card or format card."
FFFFFFFFFF U C K ...
Somehow the 64GB Sandisk SD card had fried and died. The 6D doesn't shoot dual cards so I had no backup. Rather than make a scene, and not knowing if the data was recoverable or not, we left without incident, saying goodbye to everyone, and getting hugs and thanks from members of the family. Ouch.
That week I rushed the card into a recovery lab, who after some investigation concluded that card was, well, screwed. Desperate, I sent the card overseas to another lab, who had a shot at it. Apparently the more modern "monolithic" SD card design is far more difficult to work with. Unfortunately they had no joy, and the card was even more dead than ever. It was time to fess up.
I got in touch with the groom and gave him the bad news. My partner had a few decent candid shots, but he was sniping with his 70-200. All the formals were gone, as well as some far more intimate candids and detail shots. We eventually refunded the couple and offered our sincerest apologies, but the bride was devastated. I was too. I didn't pick up my camera for a month after that, and when I did, it was to sell the 6D to fund a 5D with dual card slots.
Lesson learned, the hardest way possible. If you're thinking of shooting paid work, don't make the same mistake. SD cards die, all the time. Dual card slots are essential for professional photography, especially when you're capturing the biggest day of someones life.
Image sources: Meme Generator, Canon.com, Pixabay
Someone promoted your post. Promotions help every steemians.
Your reward is an upvote and 0.896 SBD extra promotion.
Good job, see you next time in
Promoted! ;)Damn, such a badluck indeed.
Always carry spare sd cards, dual card camera or not.
Agreed! I wouldn't like to shoot a wedding with a single SD camera now, but if I had to, I would change cards regularly.
Not to mention those flash cards are pretty much impossible to recover. I had few customers with corrupted flash and they had no joy recovering after going to specialising firms.
Upvote for meme face. LOL. But yeah, the card was mashed.
Ouch, that confession must have been the worst... It is my opinion however, that such a bad thing is only completely bad if you do not learn from it. In that respect you learned what you could.
Thanks for the meaningful comment. Yeah I absolutely grew from that experience, but I'd much rather learn off the job than on. I still feel for that bride. I'm sure the subject of her wedding photos comes up now and then.
Oh. My. GAWD.
This post describes to a "T" my worst nightmare. My other half and I both shoot so we've always got it doubled up, but she does the formals and I back her up as a second shooter. However, in the beginning of the day, I follow the groom/groomsmen around while she goes with the bride/bridesmaids until we meet at the ceremony, which we both shoot from different vantage points with different lenses, etc. If either of us lost our data, we'd be missing half of the story of the whole day.
I also have the 6D, and I must say, Dual Card Slots are a MUST for jobs like that. I desperately need to upgrade for that exact reason.
Thanks for the comment man! I recommend you do, or at least factor it in during the day. If we had shot the formals with two cameras or changed cards, we might have gotten away with it.
This is every wedding photographer's nightmare....even with dual card slots. This is why I shoot with small cards and change them often. I would rather shoot 20 4GB cards than a 64GB card. If one 4GB card fails, I still have the other 19.....I try to never shoot more than an hour on any one card.
Thanks for the comment. Yeah it was so stressful. Everything else went really well. I felt so disappointed. Never thought something like that would happen me. Famous last words eh?
I am terrified every time I shoot a wedding...the nerves don't go away for me. But I shoot with some awesome 2nd shooters and weddings are a lot of fun even though they are super stressful.
I had similar embarassement shooting at the exibition of a colleague photographer. It was CF Sandisk Pro that died in my Canon EOS 350D 😕
Ouch. I thought CF cards were supposed to be bullet proof!
Yes, I thought it also 🙁 You can't rely on single memory even if they are marked as Super Extreme Pro, or however… And I have none of photos to prove it! 😉
Oh man, this affected so many people and mostly the bride who was looking forward to seeing her memories even in the future. I totally understand why you didn't pick up your camera for a while. You must have felt horrible. I know I would. But you're right, it's a lesson learned. Every trade has its risks but the good thing is that we can learn to manage the risk. So don't be discouraged. Get out there and do more work, and have a backup :)
I've since stopped shooting weddings, but not entirely because of that incident. You need perfect health and consistent motivation to shoot weddings regularly. I'm blessed with neither.
I still shoot though. Macro, fashion, lifestyle, etc
Ok, I understand. But you're still shooting though, right? As long as you're still doing what you love and it makes you happy, then that's great.
Oh, my gosh, I can't imagine the trauma! Thanks for sharing!
resteem and upvote for you
TYVM!
u r welcome...
thanks for sharing i like
Thanks for the comment
I love your sky photos!
I felt that one in my gut @condra, I've been in similar confessional situations and it's always the best thing to do, I think that you handled it very well!
Cheers for the comment. Oh, confessional situations are never fun are they?!
I can relate...first weddings are chaotic 😊
I did shoot more but I stopped eventually. Weddings are lucrative, but a huge stress if you take pride in your work. You shoot?
Yes, I shoot. I use to shoot weddings and all types of portraits...that's what paid the bills. I didn't enjoy it. My passion is shooting anything but people. Weddings are awful. Lol 😊
Oh man, that sucks... If you do such jobs again, get a WiFi transmitter for the camera, so every shot is tranfered to a laptop immediatly, and from that to a cloud drive. Then you have 3 copies of everything in different places.
Man thats rough.... luckily i've never had that happen! Ill be looking for a new camera now for the dual recording feature!!
Lord, I wouldn't want to admit that to the bride.
Yeah it sucked.
Such bad luck, at least you learned from it. Although, I wouldn't fancy having to tell the bride and groom. I hope you have had successful shots since this rather disastrous one :-)
Thanks for the comment. Yeah it was sucky. Plenty of great shoots since then, thankfully.
When purchasing extra memory cards, make sure it is a reputable brand. My favorites are SanDisk and Kingston brand memory cards. I haven't had a card fail on me (yet) but I like to rotate my memory cards around to spread the workload and wear and tear.
Thanks for your comment. I agree, good quality cards are essential. The card that failed was a SanDisk card though, so I was extra surprised!
I know the feeling. Try being a mobile deejay and your equipment fails on you in the middle of a party. No leaving quietly and explaining later.
Oh no! That sounds like a nightmare. All eyes on you!
Hi, I've seen some of your publications I'm going to follow, follow me and let's collaborate together =)
Always Start with 8gigs(dressup) and 16gigs so they get full early so you can change "Dont put all eggs in one basket" even if its dual card cameras
Technology improves our skills, which require more updated one. A vertical nonstop Y axis…
Now Worries, they will be divorced in 8 years on average and in the great scheme of things, none of it matters.
Thanks for sharing your story.
It’s one of the point on my wedding - I’ll ask for help guys with good recommendation http://wedding.dosbananas.com/ , I hope I’ll not mess with it.