Mac and Lisa: Married! (plus my thoughts on the Canon 5D Mark II)

Mac and Lisa had a wonderful wedding in the Inland Empire here in Southern California.  They are both EMTs, so I knew they would be able to handle the stress of a wedding better than the average couple.  These two just couldn’t take their eyes off each other the whole time!   It turned to be a beautiful wedding, with a truly unique mix of cultures and families.

I had two tag-team second shooters (both of my original second shooters got sick at the last moment), so thanks to the [b] school, I found Hanssie Trainor and Paige Green.  These two did a great job, and really saved the day.

I’ve put some thoughts about the new Canon 5D Mark II at the end of this blog post, for us photographer geeks.

The slideshow is available here: http://christopherwrenphoto.com/slideshows/carillo/

I really enjoyed the day, here are a few of my favorites:

(yes, the makeup lady was wearing a guitar hero plastic guitar the whole time, she was a riot!)

She had some kickin’ red shoes!

The opted to have a first look, and I really love how it turned out.  It was completely dark after the ceremony, so we got the good light before the ceremony.

What a stunning bride.  The next two shots were taken by Hanssie Trainor.

How about this fun shot from Paige Green?

The reception had a “Christmas” theme, and the kids were cuter than ever.  Paige got the shot below on the right.

Mac (the groom) actually removed the garter with his teeth!  What a stud.

Thanks guys so much for making me a part of your big day!  I hope these photos give you memories for a lifetime. -Christopher Wren

For all the photographers, here are my thoughts about the 5D Mark II:  My first 5D Mark II arrived with not one, but THREE major manufacturing defects, and I had to exchange it for a new one.  Other than that, once I got a working model, I was really impressed.  I shot this wedding with an old 5D on an R-Strap, and my 5D mark II around my neck.  The 5D Mark II with my 50mm F1.4 was able to get consistent, clean results at ISO 6400, which I pretty much can’t live without now.  To see how it performs, most of the non-flash reception shots were taken with the (broken) 5D Mark II, mostly at ISO 6400.  The mark II’s focus seems to be more accurate, and is definitely peppier in terms of squeezing out more shots per second and writing them to the card (although I filled up card faster due to the large file size).  The amazing new screen allows you to get much better feedback on focus and exposure (although it gets gunked up easily), and shooting in “live view” is so much more convenient for certain situations.  The build quality is a step up; it feels like a very solid camera.  I would highly recommend it to any serious photographer who doesn’t already own a 5D.  The upgrade from the original 5D is only worth it if you shoot in super low light often, or if you “need” the video or HUGE RAW files, or if you just want to be noticed in public.  I took it to Disneyland the other day and heads were turning!  I really like the different sRAW + jpg levels as well, since I don’t want to deal with 21MB filesizes.  The video feature is really fun, but focusing is a pain.  I’ll need to practice with it a ton before I can do videos reliably.  All that to say, I love it!  Come try to pry it from my Kung Fu grip.