WEDDING PHOTOS: WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET?……..MAYBE
ATTENTION BRIDES, When you sit down to interview a potential hire as the photographer to shoot your wedding there are a couple quick things that you can use to determine if your potential hire is in the “ball park” of acceptability.
Make sure you see a group of photos for an entire wedding that he/she took themselves. More than one would be even better. If the potential hire can’t or won’t produce photos from an entire wedding it’s usually for one of two reasons. 1) If you saw one of their entire weddings you would likely be aghast at the poor quality. 2) They have trouble finding a satisfied customer that would give them a recommendation.
The reason you want to go to that extent is because you are looking for a consistent high standard of capability. In the commercial arts consistency is not easy to find.
Plus, you are also well advised to get three references from the photographer, if possible. The criterion here is you want to speak with three of your potential hire’s former clients where the client has already seen their wedding photos.
If you want to see wedding photos produced by someone I recommend click the link and go. Please let her know I sent you.
If you want to know more about me click the link.
Or visit my radio show: www.garyjamesradioshow.com Best Wishes,
Gary James
copyright Gary James 2008. All rights reserved.
How to Hire a Wedding Photographer
“You can’t take it back” is the phrase I often use to get the attention of a bride who wants to know how to hire a wedding photographer.
When it comes to wedding photography the Bride is usually the one who most often makes the decision of which wedding photographer gets hired to photograph her wedding be it wedding portraits, wedding photojournalism, or somewhere in between.
Yet, statistics show that at least 3 out of 5 brides who hired the photographer that photographed their wedding will not refer that photographer to another bride as a potential hire. Given the fact that women are typically such prolific shoppers when it comes to their “special day” it’s a wonder how that number could be so high.
The main reason for such a high error rate in hiring a wedding photogrpaher boils down to judgement. What often happens to bride’s who end up unhappy with the photographer and the photography they paid for is they will often over look the fact that on the day of their wedding they are in a position where they will necessarily rely on the judgement of the photographer.
This point cannot be over emphasized. If your photographer’s judgement stinks they can easily return much lesser quality images than what they showed you in their studio. PLUS, a photographer with marginal judgement can also ruin the atmosphere of your day as well.
Those two aspects combined are the main underlying reason why so many brides will not refer their photographer to another bride. The judgement I refer to is known as the ability to “see the production value” of a special event and that is the topic of my next blog.
My name is Gary James. I am a producer by trade. For nearly 15 years I successfully applied my production skills to work as a professional wedding photographer. I now produce original content in various forms for the internet, including this blog.
Meanwhile, please allow me to refer you to the web site of my former business partner. Her name is Kelly and she owns her own photography studio. Kelly has the heart and the “eye” to capture as images the inherent production value of a bride’s wedding day.