Some advice you will probably ignore

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Say you have lost your mind. Say you intend to get married. But I repeat myself.

Having now made a whole lot of people mad, I'm gonna make some more mad.

Do yourself a LONG TERM favor. Hire a real professional photographer.

I write this as a former pro photog and a full time newspaper editor who's had to work with the WORST wedding pictures you can possibly imagine for announcements in the newspaper.

Seriously. You can get a buddy with a digital camera to do the wedding. You can get someone who does photography as a hobby. You might get good pictures.

I can guarantee you will not get AWESOME pictures.

Why? 'Cause a real pro carries enough lights to give you a sunburn, has the experience you want and has the knowledge you need. The flash that mounts atop a camera is good. It ain't awesome. Awesome are the big lights with umbrellas and stands and hoods and backdrops and on and on.

Consider these pictures:

Sharp, well lit, full frame

Fuzzy, poor framing. bad lighting

The pic at left is very good. Could be a little lighter for my taste, but that's handled in editing. The pix at right, not much hope there. An out of focus imagine is just always gonna be that way. Cropping and some lighting can be adjusted in editing.

Excellent! notice how well lit everyone is.

And who is that guy in the very front of the picture? Nice hair!

 As you can see in these examples, LIGHTING makes a massive amount of difference. The kind of camera used also makes a huge difference. If the photog in pix 2 had used a GOOD telephoto, he could have caught the scene at the altar much better. 

A good idea gone bad.

Wow. Just wow. THIS is the mark of a pro,

Pros also have the experience to know what works, when it works and how to set things up ahead of time.  Above in Pix 1, the photo had a GREAT idea and blew it. Bad lighting. Angle could have been much better.

Pix 2, now that rocks. The couple will remember that for a long time.

Oooooo. Call the fire department cause this is smokin'

GREAT pictures can happen by accident. GREAT pictures on a regular basis are not an accident. They are the work of a person who knows what he is doing.

A good pro is also going to pose people. See above. Sometimes chillun can't be posed, but in my opinion the chilluns is what makes weddings fun and how they act and appear in pictures are the best memories.



Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I did wedding photography. When I was booked to shoot a wedding, I had three standard contracts. Contract 1 was the cheapest and had the fewest pix. Contract three had the most pix and was the most expensive. Each contract spelled out what pictures would be taken and when. Costs for extra pix was also identified. I'd also do more or less, depending on what the wedding party wanted.


M'point is, everyone knew going in what was needed, what was gonna happen and what they needed to do because I knew what to do. I had the experience to do it. I was a pro. My prices reflected that.

No, it wasn't cheap. Yes, my customers were completely satisfied with my work.

As my momma told me years ago, you will get what you pay for. G'head let a buddy shoot the wedding for free. Or, grit your teeth and get someone who'll make the pictures your grandkids will talk about in detail rather than wonder who the hell is that in the picture.

Hey. These are your memories. Make of them what you want. You have to live with it.