ET phones home

Ring, ring.

At least once during every wedding I get on my phone and dial Amba.

"Hello. Everything alright?" he answers.

What comes out of my mouth in answer to that question varies from wedding to wedding. Sometimes it's a simple 'all good, how are you and the boys?". But other times it's more like "I'm stuck on Kings Way, there's a truck on my arse, I'm lost, and I have to be at the hotel in 3 [expletive] minutes!"

Amba cops it all - I dropped my camera bag in a puddle and put it on without realising and now my back is all wet and I smell funny. I'm starving and I forgot to pack any food and it's another 3 hours until the canapes are served. My 80-200 stopped focussing right in the middle of the ceremony and I freaked out! What does [expletive] EE mean and why is it flashing at me on my screen?

He knows not to be more than two steps away from his phone while I'm shooting a wedding, and an unspoken rule that he needs to pick up within the first 3 rings or there is the potential for my head exploding on the other end. Any myriad of things have gone wrong for me on wedding shoots, and Amba has helped me solve every one. Just last week he was checking rain patterns, the week before that my shoe had broken and he reminded me I had a spare pair in the back of my car.

Working on my own 95% of the time means that I don't have anyone to help me when things go wrong, so I need Amba's help. Usually the phone calls take place when I get in the car going between locations, and most them involve a fair amount of cussing at one thing or another that's frustrated me (bad light, traffic, bad choice of uncomfortable underwear).

Amba also knows me well, so knows how to respond to me when I call. "Just take your next left off Kings way, pull over and breathe" "Have the kids left any food in the car that you can eat that isn't too stale or covered in sand?" "EE means you've bumped your focusing ring on your lens you idiot." Amba can talk me through anything, talk me down from anywhere, talk me up off the floor.

So while you guys don't see him much, and he's not officially part of my business, I couldn't run it without him. More importantly, I couldn't get through a wedding day without him.



This shot was taken at Nicole and Paul's recent Wye river wedding which I'll blog more of soon. The phone call to Amba that day was just as I was coming back into phone reception range, to check to see how he went with a visit with the children to my mother (sometimes, it's not just me that needs to debrief!)


* Meaghan

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