Please help me decide. For wedding photography career

[Mark Dickenson]

Hi I am Mark and I am starting as a Wedding/Events/Portrait Photographer. 

My Gear:

1. Sony A7ii

2. Tamron 28-75mm f2.8

3. Sony FE 85mm f1.8

4. Sony FE 50mm f1 8

I am planning on selling my Tamron 28-75 and get the Sony FE 28mm f2 with the 21mm Wide Converter and a Sony Zeiss 55 f1.8.

What should i do? 

[bluesnappa]

I think you would be better getting a 70-200 f2.8 as well as keeping your 28-75 (or get a 24-100 f4) and a body for each. This would give you a great choice of wide to telephoto and with two bodies you would be ready to shoot at the speed required to capture the moments. Wedding photography is like sport, you cannot miss the important moments and you need to be ready and able to shoot whatever is in front of you. You cannot ask for the moment to be repeated. The 85 will make some nice bridal shots prior to leaving the house and once those have been done, then the zooms come into their own. Having done a few weddings, this is the way I work, 2 bodies, 2 zooms and an 85 f1.4. (The 85 is a luxury and I can do a wedding easily with just the zooms). Hope it helps. 

[Photodog]

I photographed wedding for 50 years, but it is a young persons game so I don't do it any more.  Equipment is a small fraction of what is needed. First great people skills, second while you have fewer church weddings it is extremely important to get clergy on your side.  I always found them before they found me.  Then I a laid a short speech on them about how I understood it was important that I was respectful and was not to distract from the ceremony in any way.  One time I was headed into the sacristy and overheard the priest telling an associate to find the photographer and give them a huge list of thou shall not. As I walked in the priest said forget it we are working with Tom today everything will be real smooth.

Many times you have to keep the Bride and her mother separated as the mother is not happy with the brides choice of husband.  When something small goes wrong, but because of the stress of the day it gets blown up, my line was "relax, the guests have no idea there is _____ problem and nobody got killed"  It generally broke the tension.

As for equipment. MINIMUM! of two cameras, two flashes.  Three times more batteries, memory cards etc than you think you need.  A spare car key in your bag, just in case you lock your keys in the car at the church, you can still get to the reception.  

Obviously I could write a book, but main points are people skills, think, and at least two of all major equipment.  (I once had 4 flashes die in one wedding) 

A cropped sensor camera is fine for your second piece.  A6000's are a great buy at that moment.