Let me preface by saying that event photography is by no means my forte, and I honestly don't have much experience at shooting weddings. However, it is something I love to do and would like to get better at; so although my camera gear is geared towards landscape, astro and macro work, I have put some time and effort into making it wedding-ready. I will also say I've never been paid for a wedding shoot and don't ever expect to be, but I have been asked to shoot as a friend-photographer several times and am more than happy to do it for the love.
I am passionately a Pentax shooter. Wedding photography is arguably where a Pentax camera is at its weakest, but it can be used successfully. The core of my setup is my trusty K5ii, which despite its age has enough low-light performance to operate well in a low-light reception setting. The K5ii has excellent resolution, colour depth and dynamic range, and has top-notch ergonomics & controls which means it becomes an intuitive extension of myself when I'm shooting.
My back-up camera body is the Pentax K100d Super. I found this for $40 in a local secondhand shop, and its a great little toy. Its usefulness in a wedding setting depends largely on whether the wedding is indoors or outdoors, but when there is enough light to use the K100d below about 800 ISO, it produces outstanding images on its CCD sensor that have an old-school, film-type look to them. I think that this camera encourages you not to play by modern rules (rapid-fire shooting at 3200+ ISO), but instead takes you back to a film photography approach of carefully lining up your shot and relying heavily on your flash.
My two main lenses are the Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Macro, and the Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8. I will generally use the 17-50mm for candid & group shots throughout the wedding, and rely on the 90mm for special portraits, ceremony & speeches (such as the above shot). Between these two lenses I have 90% of situations covered. I also bring along my Pentax 35mm f/2.4, but this is mostly just for backup (and will probably be replaced in the future by a Pentax 21mm). Occasionally I will also use a Zenitar 16mm f/2.8 fisheye for particular shots, such as this shot here:
For lighting I use the Yongnuo YN585EX with a diffuser cover permanently mounted. Although this flash can be a bit quirky to operate sometimes, it gets the job done, and really helps my older cameras to punch above their weight.
And that's it. A small enough kit that I can fit it all in a small bag (or these days, often in the pram), but with enough punch that I can deliver some memorable photos to my friends. Moreover, the whole kit is extremely versatile, and in fact most of my gear was bought primarily for other uses (mostly macro and astro shooting); the Tamron 17-50mm was the only bit of gear that I bough specially for event shooting.
As I said at the start of this post, I don't claim to be an expert at wedding photography, but hopefully this post has inspired you to have a go, and especially to make the most out of what gear you have. Happy shooting!
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