Why You Should Hire a Professional
Wedding photography is a tremendous amount of work but I love to do them because they are just plain fun to shoot. Everyone is happy (usually) and its just fun being a part of a family when their cherished sons and daughters tie that sacred knot. It’s an honor to be a part of a couple’s beginning, to historically record the first events of their life together. I personally love the hunt of that great photo. If I can come away from the wedding having accomplished getting some really great shots, it makes me feel really good. I am not talking about the run of the mill everyday wedding photos but those really great shots that evoke emotion every time you look at them. It’s like a hunter in the woods waiting for that one deer with the big rack. A great big warm feeling comes over me when that happens. Sometimes my hair stands up on the back on my neck its so intense.
Wedding photography is not for the faint of heart however; everything that can possible go wrong will at one time or another and has. I have had bottoms fall of from cameras, film not wind or get jammed, brand new compact flash cards quit minuets after using them, batteries that never took a charge and a camera that stopped firing for absolutely no reason except it was at a wedding and it could. I even had a lab ruin my film once after they ran it during a lightning storm and the power failed. I was lucky; I had another shooter with me whose film was separate from mine. You also have to deal with outside elements like harsh sunlight, pouring rain, dimly lit churches, and those little flower girls and ring bearers that are ,without exception so cute, but who will absolutely not stand still and can make the worst faces during formal picture time.
When Murphy’s Law hits, it’s the professional who gets through it. We pack extra everything, sometimes two or three spares and black electrical tape just in case. We make sure our batteries are charged and that spares are always within reach. Most of us I’m sure spend hours the night before the wedding or that morning, checking and cleaning equipment. Cameras as well as the lenses are wiped free of dust and any other debris. I had a friend show me his new video camera he got for Christmas just the other day. Right across the lens was his big finger print, a disaster for a wedding photographer because you know from experience that where ever the bride’s face was composed in your photo that is where the blurry fingerprint would have been.
I know many of us go the length to scope out an unfamiliar venue to be sure we bring the right equipment for that particular lighting situation. Proper lighting is essential to make those forever lifetime photos which elude many amateur shooters. Thousands of dollars are spent on the fastest lenses and the longest lenses so no flash is needed in the church and you are not in the face of the wedding officiate. Shooting the kids as soon as you see them also helps, if need be they can always be inserted into a photo later.
I think it’s important also as a seasoned photographer to bring your experiences to a wedding. I carry a sewing kit. I have shot too many weddings where the bride is getting dressed in the bottom of the church and a button or some bauble comes off a dress. I don’t know how many times I have used my scissors to cut off tags. It’s also nice to know tradition so when the bride is putting on the garter; she puts it on the correct leg. (right leg!)
I could have gotten my Master’s degree with the amount of information that wedding photographers need to keep up with today’s trends. Just a few short years ago we went from using film that you sent to a lab and photo albums with matted pages holding prints to shooting with plastic cards and flush mount albums. The upside of digital is full control of images; the downside is the hours it takes to process the files. Sometimes just making decisions takes hours, crop here, crop there, make it darker no make it lighter. Black and white or color. The choices in albums pages and covers are absolutely amazing too, but so are the hours you need to learn the software to create them.
Advertising has taken on a whole new meaning with websites and search engine optimization. It’s an all out war trying to stay on the first page of a Googled phrase. Years ago a key element in advertising was trying to make your business name as close to an A as you could so you would be the first in the phone book. Nowadays there are so many phonebooks I don’t know who to advertise with.
Even though there are so many changes, the day still remains the same, it still revolves around two people who fell in love. Brides and moms cry, photogs shoot the tears. Call it sappy but I like sappy. It’s a lot of work but at least I don’t have to write captions under all the photos.
