Cutting the rug–Carlo and Mary dance during their 50th wedding anniversary at Cafe Sevilla restaurant.

Mary and Carlo were one of my earliest clients when I started working for myself.

Their daughter Teresa was the one who hired me to document this very important milestone.

Event photography of this nature is always fun. There is no stress at all,  unlike a wedding.

Everyone is in great spirits and out to have a great time.

I consider it a privilege to be included in something like this because I’m in awe of couples who are married for longer than I’ve been alive.

Cafe Sevilla Restaurant in Riverside was the location for this celebration.

I can’t speak to the other locations of this chain, but the interior of this restaurant is gorgeous.
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Lighting

Its large windows produce soft light bright enough for catching candid moments, my preferred way of working.

Spacious interiors is a big deal.

When space is limited, seating becomes crammed and uncomfortable.

Movement between tables is awkward and I find it very tough to work.

Using flash entirely produces a look which is very artificial unless you use multiple lighting setups.

The venues which have dark interiors often leave you no choice but to drag out the lightstands, and flash units.

In those instances, you’ll need radio slaves so that you can trigger the flash from anywhere in the room.

Lighting an entire banquet room has advantages.

If you set up your lights carefully, every place in the room will be lit and you can use long lenses without fear of camera shake.

The other advantage is your exposure.  If  you set up carefully, you’ll get even lighting and you’ll be able to shoot with the same aperture anywhere in the room.

When your subjects are closer to one light than the others, you’ll need to compensate so as not to over-expose. But with “chimping” capability, that’s a piece of cake.

If you have battery powered flash units like speedlites, you’ll need plenty of AA batteries.

I sometimes use my studio strobes since these can be powered by household current as well as a portable battery.

If you plan on powering your strobes by plugging into AC, bring duct tape or gaffer tape so that no one trips over those cords. It’s your responsibility.

Besides, you don’t want your flash units to come tumbling down when guests get too wild, do you?

Hopefully this shows how important your attitude is towards every job.

Give that someone special a gift certificate of my services.