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!