#41

Make The Best Of It

You've heard it said, "If life gives you lemons, make lemonade" well this was definitely the "ade" of the lemon. We all hope for the best weather on the day of but sometimes it just isn't meant to be. After a day of high winds and even tornados dropping in the area (we even witnessed 3 small sailboats capsize on the water as a microburst went through a group of boats) but the mood was wonderful in the evening as the rain was POURING down on the backup plan tent for the outdoor wedding and as our time with our clients was drawing to a close and the dancing was in full swing we asked them to be crazy with us and walk out into the rain for us to get this shot...

Now a few things to know, if you put a flash behind the couple and trigger it for a photo it will light each individual raindrop between the camera and the flash. So if the flash is further away and you use a longer zoom lens you will get more raindrops between the camera and the flash. Second, water and electronics don't go well together. Trying to trigger a radio-controlled flash properly when the rain is pouring down just doesn't seem to work as well as when it's nice and dry. Also, cameras don't focus well in the darks so sometimes you have to set your focus before, not touch anything and hope you get the shot in focus. It's the best that can be done at times.

So I went out and placed the flash where I wanted it, placed a little marker in the grass for where the couple was going to be and got ready. Then our couple ran out and got into place and even though I had tested it 3 times prior to them being in the shot... It didn't work!!!! So lightning speed troubleshooting began... I ran to the flash, fiddled with a few things and ran back to the camera (by this time we are all soaked) then Sherry ran to the flash and laid in the grass (getting wetter if that's possible) to hold it up as the grass was interfering with the radio signal, and we pulled the trigger. I glanced at the camera and saw that what we had was close to what I envisioned, couldn't check to see if it was in focus and had to trust that what we had was good as we were certainly not going out in the rain again... and we ran back under the tent. We said our goodbyes and sat in the front seat of our car to look through the photos and see if we got this, and it was perfect.