Long before people curiously decided Twitter was the next killer business app, it was a social-media site for sharing experiences. In that vein, when my Facebook status Saturday pondered live-tweeting that day’s wedding of my friends Fred and Michele, other friends unable to make it asked me to keep them updated on the festivities.
I’ll say this much: Live-tweeting a wedding is more difficult than doing Commencement or any number of other activities. The wedding of Fred and Michele (or @fredvigeant and @mjoyner, if you prefer) unfolded in St. Mary’s in Oswego, a beautiful church with soaring architecture and large stained-glass windows. What it doesn’t have is the kind of light you’d like for iPhone pictures. Thus attempts to photograph the bride may look like this:
Fig. A: Here comes the blur.
Or, if you’re lucky and steady, this way:
Fig. B: This is better, despite the back light and low ambient. Those who saw it live-tweeted at least appreciated it.
Pictures aren’t the only challenge (and I did collect enough for a Facebook photo album). When typing the info to provide context on the live-tweet (preferred to just throwing a link on Twitter), I sensed others looking at me funny. Texting or typing in a church isn’t broadly embraced … and I don’t want to become that guy who obliviously and rudely focuses on his personal electronic device when he shouldn’t.
Other miscellaneous notes: In case you’ve ever wondered, it’s not easy to catch the Electric Slide on an iPhone:
Fig. C: It's electric!
Or here’s a curious one: Someone else’s flash impacts the ability of the iPhone to properly process the image. Or I could say the reception lighting was just very odd:
Fig. D: Turn around, bright eyes.
But sometimes, if you have the right light, the right subject and the right moment, everything does come together:
Fig. E: The happy couple.
Being able to send this picture, showing Fred and Michele veritably glowing in the aftermath of the wedding ceremony, pleased a lot of people following my updates. And, in the end, sharing such meaningful experiences is really what social media can do best.
I don’t think you should quit your day job to become an iPhone wedding photographer, but still, this is pretty cool. Congratulations to Fred and Michelle!
Lighting is everything. But did you get glares from non-iPhone users? People who don’t understand the necessary twitter addiction? That would probably be me. On the other side of the social divide.
PORTLAND LAURA: At a previous job, a co-worker said, ‘It’s a good thing Tim’s a good writer, because he could never make a living as a photographer.’ So iPhone = even more challenging.
SEATTLE LAURA: The glares were from people who probably only heard about Twitter in the context of Oprah Winfrey or Ashton Kutcher, so they probably just assumed I was sending text messages.