Somewhat of a first shoot

[Dynesh]

I had two birthday parties to go to this past Saturday; my mother-in-law's 50th, and mine and my wife's best friend's party they had for their 1 year old.  So I thought I would take the cameras and act like a videographer for a while.

The first party for my wife's mom was at Olive Garden, so not the idea place to set up Tripods.  So I just got some outside shots.   Then I took 1 Camera in and got a birtday greeting from everyone, and some various shots of the goings on, so I can put it all together in a little short edit for my Mom-in-law.  
People don't really like having the camera put in their face for greetings, but on well, it will be nice for her, since she didn't see me getting any of the greetings.  

Next it was off to the 1 year olds birthday party, where the fun really started. First off it was at a public playground, and they had gotten some picnic tables that were half under some trees.  So I had to deal with half footage in shade and half in direct sunlight.  Not being all that fast and knowledgeable with the camera, that posed some problems.  I recorded him eating cake, and got birthday greetings again from everyone there, which I think will be neat years later for him to see all these people he will most likely get to know real well and what they looked like when he was 1.

But the real excitement began when I begun to feel a rumble in my tummy.  It only got worse from there.  Eventually I had to get my wife to record some stuff while I drove(very quickly) to her mom's house a couple of miles away. I tried to leave there three times, only to have to go sit down again.  I finally got back to the party, and started doing some more filming, and it hit me again.  Had to go to the public restroom.  After that, I just had to pack it up and leave.  Since its my best friend, I knew he'd understand, but don't know what I would do in this situation if it was a paying client.  Hopefully won't happen very much.

Anyways, gonna start editing tomorrow and see what I can come up with.

[HankCastello]

Wes,

The experience you get shooting events like this will pay off when shooting weddings and other events.  Just keep at it.

As long as we've been shooting weddings, we've never had a time when one of us got ill, but it could happen to anyone, anytime.

We have pre-arranged that if one of us had to leave during a ceremony, we would pull back to a wider shot of the couple, signal to the other, then leave to take care of oneself while their camera continues shooting.

If one gets ill, the other must carry on to the best of their ability.  Each shooter should have his own cell phone, some cash and credit cards, in case they get separated.  (We generally need our cell phones to find each other when we get separated at Walmarts!)

Unless one is seriously ill, the wedding shoot takes precedence and the ill shooter must fend for his or herself.

[Matfam]

As a professional you are typically under contractual obligation to complete the video....so as my drill Sgt. would have said "Suck it up little buck-a-roo" ok he would'nt have said that but it sounded good to me.

I believe that reality is this, If I am sick nobody except me really cares or wants to know about it. They just want me to do my job and leave.

my 2 cents.

Kevin

[osbornes5]

This is really a great question for you to ask here. A couple of points come to mind. First, it re-inforces the reason you should always shoot with at least two videographers. Second, this contingency is something you should have covered in your contract along with equipment and vehicle breakdowns, natural disasters, etc. We cover all of these in sort of a blanket sort of way.