08.19How not to hire a wedding photographer
This article was written by Mike Panic
Read 2416 times, 2 so far today
Consider this more of a rant than an actual how-to article, and possibly a bit one-sided as well since I am a photographer. You need a wedding photographer, you’ve made the decision to get married and you want to remember that day as best you can, for as long as it takes until you get divorced. You have a budget though, so there are things that need to be taken into consideration and places where you need to shave some money out of the budget to pay for more important things, like booze.
What are you to do? You know hiring a professional wedding photographer is going to cost you some serious money, but the photographs they produce will be simply amazing, what other options do you have? Craigslist! Perfect, chances are you can find someone on here for half or maybe even less than a pro and because they probably shoot digital, you’ll still get amazing photographs, let’s work a deal. This is a directly from a Philadelphia listing:
I NEED A PHOTOGRAPHER AT A WEDDING IN 2 WEEKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MY BEST FRIEND IS GETTING MARRIED. SHE NEEDS A PHOTOGRAPHER. IF YOU ARE LOOKING TO HAVE A PORTFOLIO MADE FOR SCHOOL OR SUCH. EXPERIENCE IS NOT NECESSARY BUT YOU MUST BRING SAMPLE PHOTOS OF ANYTHING SO I CAN SEE HOW CLEAR THEY ARE AND HOW PROFESSIONAL THEY LOOK. IF NECESSARY I WILL PROVIDE PHOTO ALBUM AND HELP PURCHASE YOUR FILM AND WHAT NOT. THIS JOB IF FOR THE RIGHT PERSON MUST HAVE GREAT PERSONALITY. I WANT TO HELP YOU BETTER YOURSELF AND YOUR CAREER WHILE YOU HELP ME REMEMBER THIS EVENT FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE………..SERIOUS INQUIRES ONLY. YOU WILL BE COMPENSATED FOR THIS AS WELL!!!!!!!! NOTHING IS FREE DON’T EVER SELL YOURSELF SHORT. I WILL PAY YOU WHAT YOU ARE WORTH.
I’ll break this down as best I can to show you how wrong this really is.
I need a photographer at a wedding in 2 weeks. Most weddings are planned months in advance, thus, photographers are booked months in advance. That doesn’t mean that you can’t find one, it just means your selection will be drastically reduced to who is available and you may need to pay a premium because of the short notice. You don’t take a package to the post office on Thursday and ask to have it shipped overnight for the same price as regular mail because you forgot to take it in on Monday, do you?
If you are looking to have a portfolio made for school or such. I’m sorry, that doesn’t make sense to me, are you in the print, book, or binding industry?
Experience is not necessary. Fine, you shoot it then!
Must bring sample photos or anything so I can see how clear they are and how professional they look. Wait a minute, you just told me that experience is not necessary, now you want to see how clear they look, whatever that means, and how professional they look? Clearly you must be confused, I know I am.
If necessary I will provide photo album and help purchase your film and what not. Most wedding photographers have access to albums that are not usually available to the general public, if you want something nice and you want it to last, get it from them. I’m not sure of many photographers these days that use film, so that won’t be of much help.
This job if for the right person must have a great personality. And I agree and willing to go out on a limb to say that most wedding photographers enjoy working with people and capturing the moments you have. If they didn’t, they would shoot wildlife or landscapes.
I want to help you better yourself and your career while you help me remember this event for the rest of my life. Thank you so much for your deep concern about my persona life. Shooting your wedding will not help me in any other way than financially though. Unless you are a booking agent or have a dozen friends who are getting married who are not low-balling, cheap bastards, or you are the advertising representative for a magazine or billboard company, how exactly do you plan on helping my career?
Serious inquiries only. For serious?
You will be compensated for this as well!!!!!!!! Wow, 8 exclamation points. You must seriously be willing to compensate me; however you have not listed what your budget is.
Nothing is free, don’t sell yourself short. Again, thank you for this great life lesson.
I will pay you what you are worth. This is somewhat confusing to me. How are you to justify what my worth is, especially if you are looking for someone with little or no experience? Is this to say that you are willing to let them eat at the wedding and that should be compensation enough? Maybe gas money?
Here’s the thing, photography is very much a form of art. It is much more than a wedding album or the cost of film, you are paying for someones talent and time. Looking for an inexpensive way to get a wedding or any event photographed is not a bad thing, hiring students or assistants for the event is completely acceptable as well. That said, an understanding should be made that when you hire someone like this, you need to accept the fact that accidents could happen, you may not get you the best quality images, they may miss critical elements of the event or be slightly out of focus, etc., these things all could happen, it is the price you pay for accepting someone of lesser talent to save some money.
Photography is service; you pay for the talent of the photographer much in the same way you pay for the talent of a chef at a good restaurant. At the restaurant, food is the outcome. With a photographer, prints are the outcome; these trigger memories for all involved. I know of no one who has gone to the grocery store to buy a steak and taken it into a restaurant and asked the chef to make it for them, why would you do this to a photographer?
Don’t tell me how shooting your event will help build my portfolio; chances are I have enough friends and family to shoot for free to help me build a decent portfolio. Let’s not get this twisted and make me feel like you are helping me out, you, the client, are in need of service. Unless you have several friends who are in need of paid photography service or you can grow my business by means of free or cheap advertising, don’t insult me.
Be aware of your timeframe, the less time you have to an event, the less photographers you will have to choose from. Additionally, you may need to pay extra because of the short notice.
Be realistic with your expectations. If you want great, long lasting images, get someone who has been doing this for a while and has an established portfolio and a list of people who have recommended them. If you are on a tighter budget, don’t expect to get the best of the best, realize that there could be some speed bumps along the way.
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Perhaps this was posted by one of those BRIDEZILLAS they show all the time on the WE channel.
August 19th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
The sad thing is that there is a posting like this on the Milwaukee Craigslist at least once a month.
“Build your portfolio!” is usually in each of them which usually gets me to chuckle as you know that is code for “we don’t want to pay you much.”
August 20th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
I think I can speak for most wedding photographers when I say this happens at least once in your photographic career. It doesn’t take someone doing the Da Vinci Code to figure out that whoever accepts the job will be working for skittles. I will say, if you are starting out shooting weddings, it is a good life lesson…no really it is. However,there is nothing wrong with saying “No” in situations like this. I am certain a family member of hers will be the one shooting in the end, and that will probably be alright with her. This is just another example of people that are willing to pay more money for little things like booze and center pieces than for the pictures that are reminder of the best day of their lives. I know when I look back on my wedding, I could care less about how much Uncle Harry drank, but whether or not I got an “in-focus” photo of my wife and our grandparents. Thats the memory of the day I would pick. Dennis Miller said it best, “Of course it’s just my opinion, I could be wrong.” I wish her luck in her quest, I am currently unavailable for that date.
August 20th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Thanks for this post as it has come at a very opportune time for me. A couple people have asked for proposals for shooting their weddings. I’ve always been a little leery about it simply because it seemed like a lot of pressure and I didn’t feel I would be compensated adequately. This provides good points.
I’ll see how it goes. The idea still doesn’t excite me as much since I much prefer shooting still life and landscapes rather than portrait/studio/humans.
August 23rd, 2007 at 5:15 pm
This reminds me of my own wedding, many years ago.
A good friend who worked in the photography field, said that she would photograph our wedding as her gift to us. I liked her work, was young and foolish (college senior) and we heartily agreed, thinking we’d get wonderful results. On the big day, she seemed to do a professional job, bringing backup equipment, taking shots with both cameras just in case, etc. She even shot a roll to send directly to my mother for development (who couldn’t attend for medical reasons). Very thoughtful!
After our honeymoon we learned that, while my mom had gotten the backup roll printed, the other three rolls had been lost by the photo processor that my friend used. She said she’d always used that processor and never had a problem, etc. But they were gone for good. So we had about 24 shots to choose our favorites from, instead of 100.
Thankfully she got some very nice shots in that one roll, but still…
August 30th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
Great response. I am a wedding planner and go through similar situations with those putting a friends wedding together and now thinking they are full fledged planners. They offer to work for nothing, or low rates etc. I feel that a lot of brides today need to be educated. Not everyone is trying to rip them off. They have to realize that this day is not a dress rehearsal. There is only the one chance to get it right
December 20th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
I’m in the DJ biz and it is the same for us. There is much more that goes into doing a wedding than showing up and pushing the PLAY button. A professional DJ will meet with the bride and groom several times, will visit the venue beforehand, will coordinate w/ the vendors, will have insurance, will be members of professional organizations, will have a legitimate business, will use contracts, will have good equipment and lots of adequate music across several genres, etc. And they will charge for their professionalism. Then you have bottom feeders and wannabes who will charge $150 for 4 hrs. Often the bride and groom who do not know how important good entertainment is at a wedding will shop for the lowest price rather than professionalism. And they will get what they pay for.
December 22nd, 2007 at 11:23 am
Hilarious. I can’t speak for everyone; perhaps there are some naive brides and grooms out there hoping to get something for nothing… However, it seems to be the unstated assumption that the actual wedding ceremony/reception is “THE MOST IMPORTANT DAY” of one’s life. Please. Can we get any more melodramatic? The event is indeed significant, but it’s significant because it represents a new future (and all the things that simply can’t be captured in any physical/visual sense)- not because you wore some foofy dress or were surrounded by loads of matching rented decorative items that travel from wedding to wedding like a circus menagerie. It’s not that I don’t value photography or think that good work is worth paying for. To the contrary. I guess I just wish we concentrated on photography as an artform and less as a part of a consumerist culture that misses the point of that “most important day,” and instead tries to mash a beautiful symbolic moment into a packageable material form - and that goes for all the wedding planning shenanigans. What a racket. Seriously, maybe I would be more enthusiastic if wedding pics didn’t all look the same - but I suppose that’s a criticism of customers, not photographers.
And this is more of a personal note: any thoughts on having to tack on thousands of dollars to an already healthy stack of student loans (at 6.8% -thanks Uncle Sam)? It’s all well and good to bemoan people’s
“cheapness,” but is it really surprising that some people have to sacrifice quality photographs in order to avoid mortgaging their futures even further?
May 9th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Perfect! Thank you. Craigslist IS now the walmart of the internet an it’s getting worse.
April 14th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
I am a professional photographer and I have to ask are you indeed a photographer ? the reason I write this is I am concerned as to why any photograher would bother to go to these lenghts to post this ???
Its complete rubbish…
June 24th, 2009 at 4:58 am