Chris Lin Photography

I had a class project that involved reverse-engineering a mechanical system.

My partner was taking photos with a point-and-shoot. I offered to take the system (a cordless drill) home to take photos, as I had a setup. Set up flashes and a white backdrop using a roll of newsprint paper.

I used the 85mm f/1.8 with extension tubes and three flashes. Two bounced (ceiling and wall) and one through a shoot-through umbrella. Fine time to find a dead battery in the Skyport transmitter. Now have spares.

Do a search for “wedding shot list” and plenty of results come up. Some high-profile, like this one from the Knot. They say, “The best way to ensure your photographer captures the right moments for all posterity is to provide a suggested shot list.” About.com has their List of ‘must take’ shots.

Some of them are curiously specific:

• Close-up of groom’s adorably nervous mug waiting for his other half
• Bride with her happy, proud parents and/or stepparents
• Groom with his happy, proud parents and/or stepparents
• Bride/groom with college alums

Others rather obvious:

• Exchanging the rings
• Close up of hands
• The Kiss

It’s like a scavenger hunt! I propose the following items:

• Overzealous guests with cameras, attempting and failing to hide in the foliage.
• Guest annoyed that other guest is blocking his/her line of sight.
• Bride jumping out a window
• Keg stand
• Members of the bridal party propositioning each other
• Bored guest checking facebook/twitter on iPhone 3G
• DJ doing something embarrassing
• Guests clinging to the wall to avoid the dance floor just like in sixth grade
• Guest leaving who’s totally going to get arrested for drunk driving
• Best man flirting with bride
• Maid of honor flirting with groom
• Women fighting over bouquet
• Bloody nose after bouquet toss fight
• Group shot of all ex-boyfriends and ex-girlfriends
• Kid trying to drink ‘adult beverage’
• Kid with “it wasn’t me” look on his/her face, while another kid cries
• The rings… somewhere on the floor after dropping them while setting up a cool ring shot
• “We’re so not getting back the damages deposit.”

So yeah. Shot lists are silly.

Again, For The Win released its album, Bonus Deluxe Version, and celebrated with a show at Red Eyed Fly in downtown Austin.

It’s crawfish season, at least back home in Louisiana.

This is a photo I took in 2007 at a crawfish boil my friend Bruce had at his house in New Orleans. Like the mannequin photo, it’s in my desktop wallpaper rotation.

A long time ago I rented another lens, the EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM from rentglass.com. Here is one photo from walking around with it at Perkins Rowe, near my apartment at the time in Baton Rouge.

This is through the windows of the then-unopened Levi’s store. The mannequins are not yet set up and dressed.

It’s on rotation as one of my desktop backgrounds. After fellow photographer Christine Tremoulet saw my laptop desktop background and asked if I had taken the photo (it was a Mac one included with the OS) I decided to actually use photos of mine instead.