[Mr Bump]

I was recently asked at short notice to photograph the wedding of a couple whose limited funds had evaporated rather too quickly leaving nothing to pay a pro wedding photographer. The request came because I had photographed the bride’s parents’ wedding long long ago. After making it quite clear to this couple that I am not remotely a wedding specialist their response was that anything would be better than nothing (we’ll see).

Several excellent wedding photography guides/tips on this PhotoRadar web site gave me a good idea as to what the couple might expect and how to go about it, but I had reservations about my kit: I mostly use three Pentax ‘Limited’ prime lenses with the K-5, but also have a Pentax 18-55 WR kit lens and a Pentax 50-135 f2.8 SDM. I knew the 50-135 would be suitable but was unsure about the 18-55.

Access to photograph during the wedding service proved to be excellent and there was enough balanced natural light in the historic building to avoid the need for flash for most shots. The recently acquired D-BG4 grip proved invaluable not only for vertical format shots but also to balance the heavy 50-135 lens and Metz flashgun a lot better than the basic K-5 body does. I used the 50-135 f2.8 for close-ups with shallow depth of field and the 18-55 kit lens for wider shots. Between roughly 24mm and 45mm the 18-55 WR is a decent performer, its main drawback being the smaller maximum apertures, but the superb high-ISO performance of the K-5 (I used max 1600 ISO indoors) achieved much better images from that lens than expected. I took a monopod but it was little used thanks to the very effective K-5 shake-reduction system. The bride and groom obligingly wore mid-toned clothing so metering was not as tricky as I had feared and the K-5 coped well.

Electing to shoot RAW (PEF) + 16M premium jpeg proved fortuitous as the DJ brought along a digital projector and large screen to present a continuous slide-show of my jpegs during the reception, which went down very well with the guests. Short-listed PEFs will be pp’d and saved as tiffs, which the couple can take to a professional printer in due course.

I was pleasantly surprised at the consistent quality of images achieved inside and out with the K-5 using just the two zoom lenses, battery grip and occasional flash and, importantly, the bride and groom were delighted with the results. All-in-all a versatile and confidence-inspiring camera but, no, I won’t be touting for more weddings – they’re too much like hard work!