Hire a professional photographer!

Congratulations! You’re getting married. You’ve booked your venues & now you’re moving on to the next items on your checklist. You’re thinking of hiring a pro photographer.

But Uncle Bob is now offering to do your wedding photography as his gift to you. It’s tempting. He’s got a great camera & has taken some great landscape images.

Admittedly, it sounds good on paper & it’d be great for the budget. But don’t do it! Or before you do, ask yourself “How would you feel if you didn’t have any photos from your wedding day?” If the answer is “Not happy”, then seriously DO NOT DO IT! There are good reasons to hire a pro photographer.

Some people make a job look effortless so it’s easy to think “How hard can it be?” Or sometimes, if we know little about something, we underestimate what’s involved. How many times have you thought something looked easy ’til you tried it yourself?

It’s all about the camera, right?

Many times people make the false assumption that a good camera means a good photo. Wrong! A lousy photographer will take bad images with a high end camera. And a good photographer will take decent shots with a smart phone. Photography is about light, composition & capturing a moment more than it is about a camera.

Great fresh food ingredients in the wrong hands doesn’t guarantee a tasty dish! They’ll probably make a “right meal out of it”! ?

Why do I need a pro?

The reasons couples hire a pro photographer are the same reasons you hire a professional venue, celebrant, band, ceremony singer, dress maker. You get my point? You want the job done right. On your wedding day of all days, why would you entrust an amateur with something as important as your wedding day images?

And to go a step further, the different disciplines in photography are also different. A good landscape photographer doesn’t necessarily make a good wedding photographer & vice versa. The skill sets required are different. A landscape photographer needs patience in abundance. They often work alone & all hours of the day & night.

A wedding photographer needs good people skills, be able to work fast while thinking quickly & adaptively.

Good reasons to hire a pro wedding photographer

The soft skills of a good & competent wedding photographer

They will:

Be a good people’s person & a calming influence at all times of the day. They’ll be able to steer & quietly manage when needed. And it will be needed.
Know the format of a wedding day & the duration of each part & will be able to guide you on your timeline.
Anticipate shots in advance & be well placed to capture the candid & emotional shots. This only comes with experience.
Find it easier to quickly & efficiently set up the family group photos. Sometimes being an outsider has it’s advantages & Uncle Bob will find it hard to get co-operation from you all!
Know how to use ambient light & won’t have you squinting in the sun or backlit so that you’re in shadow.
Have experience in all weathers & will be able to react quickly to sudden changes in light or weather conditions.
Be well aware of the rules & expectations of the celebrant & establishment, whether it be a civil venue or church wedding.
They’ll have a plan ‘B’.

The technical & business skills of a good & experienced wedding photographer

They will have:

Several camera bodies & lenses, spare batteries & lots of memory cards.
Office backup disks. If one disk gets damaged they’ll have another copy of your image files, preferably stored off site.
Photography software to post process your images, making the best of your wedding photographs.
Album software to create a story of your day.
Public liability insurance. This sounds boring until its needed!
Some accreditation to a professional body or organisation that enforces minimum standards of membership.

I love wedding photography but it is a hard day’s work.

It’s often a race against the clock from the bride’s preps to the groom, to the church, onto the location afterwards, squeeze in the family photos & then back to the hotel or venue in a timely fashion. All the while usually dicing with the ever changing weather, sometimes an awkward priest, traffic, hotel staff & all within a fairly ambitious time frame.

Everyone isn’t cut out for it & it’s a lot to ask of Uncle Bob, who in all likelihood doesn’t know what he’s let himself in for!