There is one thing about hiring a wedding photographer that you will not experience any where else (that I know of) and that is you never really get what you pay for….Well, let me rephrase that, you never get what you pay for at the time of actually hiring the photographer. Ummm that doesn’t sound good either, let me explain.

Just imagine you go to your local Ford dealership and buy a Focus, but when you show up to pick up your new wheels the salesperson hands you the keys to a Mustang Shelby GT500 (Sorry ladies, I am a guy you know…so car analogies it is). Well that is what you get when you hire a wedding photographer.

You see, you are hiring your photographer a good year in advance. You are seeing the work they are producing TODAY, but what you will get is what they will be producing a year from now. That’s 12 months to practice and refine their technique and style. How much can 12 months do? Well look at California based wedding photographer Bonnie Tsang

Ms Tsang is at the top of my list of favorite photographers, I just adore pretty much every picture she makes, but it hasn’t always been like that. A few months ago I was talking with a few fellow photographers who belong to an online community with myself and Bonnie. The topic of Bonnie happened to come up and a link to Bonnie’s very first blog was mentioned. I was curious so I clicked it. I wasn’t really surprised with what I saw, the images looked about how I would have expected from a beginner. But what did completely floor me was how old the blog was. Considering the difference in the quality of the images, I figured this work had to be at least 3 years old….They weren’t 3 years old, they were only 12 months old!
It has only been 18 months now since Bonnie joined the ranks of wedding photographers, already she is being featured in magazines and the most popular wedding blogs on the net, not to mention being hired to do wedding from New York to Hawaii. Can you image what she will be doing in 5 years?!

So how much of a difference does 12 months make? A whole hell of a lot if you have hired the right photographer.

Side Note: Bonnie also does an amazing little food blog, so if you are interested in seeing pictures of saliva inducing food and hip little eateries, head on over and check it out.

I have mentioned it before, I would rather have a couple hire another photographer and adore their images then hire me and be so so about the results. I have come to realize how important the imagery from a couples wedding really is, not because I am a wedding photographer, but because I made the mistake of skimping on my wedding photographer.

I married my wife in a very small ceremony at Niagara On the Lake with only my wife’s parents, her sister, and my mom in attendance. I have no regrets on the size of our wedding or the location, but if I could go back in time and change one thing, that one thing would be the wedding photographer we choose. Now I am not saying that our wedding photographer was bad or anything, but we purchased one of those $275 one hour packages where at the end the photographer quickly printed off all the images and handed over the negatives and the 4×6 prints.

That was 7 years ago and looking back we are still kicking ourselves. What makes things worse is the fact that I am constantly looking at amazing work from other photographers and it really drives this fact home…what we could have had.

I never want one of my couples to have the same experience…NEVER! This is the reason why it is so important for couples to look around and see what’s out there. They need to look at a lot of work from numerous photographers to make sure they are choosing the right photographer, a photographer who’s style fits their needs and taste. To help out with this, I thought I would post some of my favorite photographers in the London market.

“What?! Are you NUTS! Why would you link to your competition?”

Well that’s simple, I don’t see other photographers as my competition, I see them as colleagues. I am not afraid to introduce you to them because in the end, I want you to hire me because my style is the one you love, not because my prices are lower. So without further ado, may I introduce…

Eric Rockburn

I met Eric and spoke with him briefly at this years Bridal Expo and right off the bat I loved his style. Being a schooled graphic designer as well as a great photographer, his creativity showed in everything he did from his logo, albums and his images.

Joey Kittmer

Like Eric, I met Joey at this years Bridal Expo. I was walking by his booth and the very first thing that caught my eye was this amazing print of a couple standing out front of a castle. Joey has a great combo of conservative images with an edgy processing style that just blends very well.

And last but no where near least…

Heather MacEachern of HRM Photography

Heather is the photographer I would have hired for my wedding if time travel were possible. I have been a fan of her work for a while now. I bugged Heather on Facebook (she is a very busy lady) and finally was able to meet her face to face a few weeks ago. Not only does she have a very refreshing and relaxed style that I love, but she has the personality to match. I would say she is the kind of photographer I am working to be, but unfortunately that prize goes to Ben Chrisman.

These are just three talented shooter from the London area, but there are so many more. When I first started in wedding photography I was really surprised at the amount of great wedding photographers in this area. To add to the pot, many a time I have seen photographers from Toronto, Kitchener/Waterloo and Windsor dropping by to dip into the London market. Really, it is an honor to be among such talent and if nothing else, it will drive me to improve my own work. Nothing kills ambition like being in a stagnate market (just look at the cell phone companies), you need to be surrounded by creativity to give you that push to grow.

A while back I was wandering the forums of one of the many sites for wedding photographer and happened to stumbled across a proposal shoot done by a very talented photographer. I was absolutely blown away with the emotion that was captured. From that point on I have been on a quest to shoot one of these myself.

If you think about it, the wedding day is full of tears, but I really don’t think it comes close to the emotion that is displayed after that ring makes it’s very first appearance. Better yet, there are the mixed emotions playing across the face of the would be groom as the given time gets closer and closer. Will she yes? Will she say no? Ladies you may think that you are making it obvious and you may have been together for years and years, but the possibility that you will say no is still there, that wee little chance is enough to make us guys very nervous.

I remember when I proposed to my wife Carrie, right in the middle of the frozen foods section of our local grocery store…I know, I’m a huge romantic! But the point is, I was extremely nervous and if I had thought of hiring a photographer before hand, that guy or gal would have gotten some pretty great shots of my face alone!

One of the biggest problems with hoping to get hired to cover a proposal is that it’s up the guy to hire you. I’m all for being PC and I know the wedding day is as much about the Groom as it is about the Bride, but lets face it, us guys figure that the only thing we have to do is buy the ring and ask the question, that’s about as far as we plan. So that leaves the ball in the hands of all the female readers out there. All you sisters, mothers and friends need to push your would be groom into taking things just a little further and hire me (or another talented photographer) to hide in the bushes or at the other table across the room so I’m ready to capture that moment when she opens up that little box and screams the words “OH MY GOD!!! YESSSS!”

So if you know someone about to pop the big question, or you happen to be shopping for a ring as you read this, just think how great it would be to not only have this great event frozen in time, but also have one less thing to cross off your list when you are planning your wedding day…What? I would hope you would hire me for the wedding as well!

About the image:

The excited couple you see in the above image is Brad and Lori Lynn. Lori has posed for me a couple of times back when I was building a fashion/life style portfolio. If you head over to my Flickr stream and check out the modeling set you will get to see more great images of the lovely Lori Lynn. This image was from my very first shoot with Lori and Brad tagged along to help us out. Ok, actually Brad was play the protective boyfriend, but as he soon learned there was nothing to be afraid of with little ol’ me and we got along great! At the end of the shot I did a couples shoot for Lori and Brad, turned out great!

When I first decided to go full time with the camera, I wanted to be a big time advertising or fashion photographer (yeah I’m laughing now as well). I did the rounds of TFP/TFCD shoots with local models to build up a portfolio all in the hopes of getting a chance at something in one of those fields, but once I started covering weddings I fell in love. Maybe it’s the fact that I have always been in the service industry the whole of my working career, but from working a car wash when I was 14 years old to doing deliveries, I have always adored making people happy. So wedding photography just clicks with me, there is nothing better then showing up at a couples home after thier big day and seeing the tears and joy in their eyes as they go through their pictures. I still think to myself “Man! My job is actually making people this happy!”. This may sound incredibly cheesy or corny, but it really is how I feel about wedding photography. In fact, I would rather my couples go with another photographer if it means they get the pictures that will make them cry.

With that little bit of information, I hope you will understand where I am coming from when I tell you this little story; A few months back I had an ad running on an internet classifieds site announcing my services as a second shooter. I figured it would be a service that may bring in some extra money and a way to shoot more weddings without the extra work of meetings, phone calls, emails, processing and so forth. I didn’t want the “make extra money” interfere with any weddings I was personally doing.

After a few days I received an email from a wedding photography/video/DJ service that was moving to town. I gave them prices and I have to tell you I was completely blown away with what their response!

…….I would not be interested in offering anything more than $10/hr
shooting as I can train a university student to be a 2nd shooter and
have them work for less. I can train that same university student
(with under 2 years experience) to become a strong, creative MAIN
shooter in under 12 hours. And still pay them less than $20/hr… I
value your own gear, that’s the only reason I would be in a position
to give you more – but not as a 2nd shooter.

What does this email say to you? It says to me that this operation doesn’t respect their clients and only sees them as another wedding to shoot. The disturbing fact is that their are a number of wedding studios that do just this.

I am not saying that if you hire Jack Smith photography that you should get Jack Smith himself doing the photography. There are a number of studio that use associate photographers, but they are nothing like the studio who sent me the above email. They use experienced wedding photographers and 9 times out of 10 you get to see their portfolio and meet with them before you sign anything, all of this means you know who you are getting and that they actually do good work. You also get to see what kind of person they are and if you will work well with them, this is very important!

What it all comes down to is do you really know what you are getting? Do you know that the person who is going to be at you wedding, tailing you for 8 plus hour really cares if they produce images that will bring tears to your eyes?

There is a ton of advice on how to pick the ideal wedding photographer, just Google “Choosing a wedding photographer” and you will get hours of reading material. Myself, I have always like the advice given by Jillian Kay over at Photo Lovecat about the 5 P’s. The article was written for wedding photographers, but any couple would do good to read it as well.

I have always said that years after your wedding, your flowers will be dead, you dress will be in some storage closet (unless you went for a Trash the Dress session) and your cake will be long gone, but your photos will still be there. The pictures will be the one thing that you will pull out to show your children, your grand children to show what you looked like the day you and your sweetheart tied the knot. That is something that is far to important to trust to some studio that is only going to be sending a university student with a few hours of training!