Photodoto » Blog Archive » Shooting a live event: an exercise in positioning and timing:

John over at PhotoDoto shares some great tips for making the most of live events. It also occurs to me that these tips apply particularly well to the likes of weddings.

Be prepared. When you head out, think ahead to the kind of shots you'll be able to take, the weather conditions, and the distance to the performers. In this case, I knew the Expo was going to be a crowded event so I planned on using my telephoto zoom a lot. I was travelling extremely light that day so all I brought were my D70, 80-200mm f/2.8D, two memory cards, and a spare battery. It would have been nice to also have along a wide-angle zoom for a few shots. But the one thing I really wished I'd brought was my SB-800 speedlight. It would have made several shots much better.

Y'know, if the boy scouts hadn't got in first, I think "Be Prepared" would be the motto of any on-location photographer...