A Birthday Event Shoot
I had lots of things to write about my past Photography shoots since 2014.. but the blog started in 2025 and hence we start NOW..
Had a recent shoot for a 50th Birthday event. Every shoot I learn something, there is always a takeaway - like a retrospective!
The following were the two that stood out -
All party venues don’t have enough AC outlets.. better carry Extension chords
Murphy’s law is irritatingly consistent! I was carrying two cameras for this shoot on a double camera strap. My D810 with a wide angle Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 with the Nikon SB-900 speedlight, and my Mirrorless Nikon Z7 Rii with my lovely 70-200mm f/2.8. Now for cake cutting, I was planning on using the wide angle.
The cake cutting begins and D810 with the wide angle lens, shows “Card error”.. Removing the card, the battery, putting it back does not work. The camera is stuck. Just a few minutes back I had removed a full card when the camera was On.. This probably caused the error? Who knows..
I just stepped back, made sure nobody was blocking my view and framed a wide shot with my Z7 and 70-200mm, now set at 70mm. Thankfully it worked and the light was enough.
Those few moments in an Event Photographer’s life send chills down your spine. I have had many such incidents - either the card stopped working (it’s nice that there are 2 cards in the camera and I have one of them set as a “Backup” so every photo gets saved on both cards), or the camera had too many clicks and just wanted to take a nap, or a battery dies at the most crucial moment, or a card goes Full, or the camera simply refuses to focus..
Each such moment teaches me to have a backup plan!
