Shelby and Marc, how many images do you shoot and for a typical wedding? How many hours are involved start to finish for a "first class" assignment?
Are formal type images taken with LF film gear ever requested by your clients?
Thanks for all your posts - they are a real treat to view and study work done by "real" working pros.
PS: Shelby, your little girl is a doll. Mother must be a real blonde.
I've been doing this for about 10 years now. For the first 5 or so years mostly with B&W film using Leica Ms and printing silver prints myself. Most of my clients then were art directors, painters, designers, writers and musicans. Now, I'm not so lucky creatively
... but the money is better ...
We do anywhere from 6 hours to 9 or 10 hours (which can be grueling with dimminishing returns at about hour 8). 1000 images is not uncommon, but I strive to shoot less than that. Last weekend's wedding produced 600 ... 500 of which were keepers and 172 worthy of consideration for a coffee table type album using 100 or so shots.
The first class assignments are usually 8 hours, but I use second shooters and sometimes an assistant. Irakly Shandize shoots with me from time to time ... he uses a Leica M8 exclusively. I'm training a second shooter to do all the stuff that I don't like shooting so I can get back to what I do best ... snatching decisive moments from all the structured chaos that is a wedding.
Clients rarely request anything more than "digital" ... a few ask for B&W film ... however, there could be a place for LF work believe it or not. There's a movement toward doing set up shots either before or after the actual wedding. I know a 4X5 shooter that gets 3K for an hour session and a large display print. There's always a place for something more exclusive with a certain level of clients.
My website is being totally overhauled so has remained untouched ... but a better representation of my wedding work can be seen here:
http://photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=540005
-Marc