Just wanted to clarify that this project is NOT about poking fun at specific photographers. We’re all beginners at some point! Unfortunately I have worked with photography clients who have little to no photos of their wedding day, or what they do have is very low quality, because they chose to prioritize their budget in a way that photography was not allotted a high enough amount to hire someone with the equipment and expertise necessary to handle the challenges that wedding days represent. Submissions can most certainly be anonymous (send them to jenna {at} jennacole {dot} com if you would like to keep your information private) and we won’t be including watermarked photos or identifying who took the photo in any way.
My sister is collecting stories from people who hired “Uncle Bob”* for their wedding photography, a project inspired by Annie of Marry You Me:
“Someones uncle” as your sister puts it totally took the pictures at my MIL’s cultural hall reception for us. Some were so blue or yellow we look like aliens, several with no flash, and my personal favorite about him was when he took posed pictures of the families (with me sitting down in a chair, awkward!) for 45 minutes and then goes, “Oh just a sec folks – there’s no film in the camera. Be right back.” I thought he was joking, but it was all too real.”
Annie’s comment was prompted by this link I tweeted a few days ago, a Craigslist posting made by a professional photographer who I assume was frustrated by the number of people around her turning to inexperienced people ill-equipped to handle the challenges wedding day photography presents. I know there are many painful stories out there to be told (even stories of professional photographers who were paid lots of money and failed to provide what was promised!), but Shay is looking for those who can look back on their experience with a bit or mirth and talk about what they would have done differently. If you were a guest at wedding with an Uncle Bob photographer and have a story to tell, we would love to hear those as well!
I didn’t hire a photographer for my hometown wedding reception, something I regret. We worked hard to make the event come together, paid for a caterer and tent, and I only have a handful of photos from the event, many which look like this because we handed an expensive camera over to a family friend:
Expensive cameras do not equal good pictures my friends.
Email Shaylene at info@shaylenecarter.com to share your stories (picture proof would be much, much, much appreciated!)
*From Urban Dictionary: A term created by wedding photographers to describe a guest at a wedding with a SLR camera with big lenses and a flash gun. Uncle Bob has little understanding of his own equipment which is often better than the official photographer and likes to get in the way of the wedding photographer spoiling and directing shots.
P.S.-Weddingbee readers, if one of you feels like posting a link to this post on the WB boards to spread the word a bit more I would really appreciate it!
January 12th, 2010 on 2:48 pm
Oh, the horror!!!
I’ll tell you, probably the second most common email I receive is from couples with terrible wedding photography stories. In the next 6 weeks alone, I’m doing two Bride&Groom sessions for couples who have no portraits from their wedding day, despite having paid upwards of $2K for wedding photography. In each of these cases, the “photographer” was an Uncle Bob who decided to start charging, and in each case, this wedding was his or her first. TERRIBLE experiences.
There’s also a wedding on my blog from a year ago… one that I attended as a guest. Luckily, I had my 40D in the car. When the Uncle Bob photographer made the bride cry before the ceremony by refusing to listen to what she wanted, I ran back out to the car, got my camera, and tried to salvage things for the poor girl. I didn’t have near enough equipment to shoot an entire wedding, and wasn’t at all prepared… but still, my pictures are what’s hanging on their walls.
It’s instances like this that make me think some sort of licensing organization might not be so terrible for wedding photographers. Too many people don’t know the difference between a true legitimate business person, and “girl with camera”.
Sad.
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January 12th, 2010 on 3:21 pm
Oh, I hear about this all the time. The thing that frustrates me even more is when I see experience photographers who are providing inconsistent, terrible quality work. Gah! There’s a few who are popular in my particular community in Sydney and they get paid a fortune to provide junk to their clients. So frustrating.
I never, ever bring my ‘big’ equipment to weddings unless specifically asked. Even then, I am loathe to actually bring it out.
I plan to be a wedding photographer, but I am doing loads of assisting and second shooting before I dare charge for a wedding.
I have had this issue at every single wedding I have second shot at so far. The worst, though, was a venue owner with a 20D and kit lens who continually jumped in front of me and ended up kicking rocks at me when I started walking in front of him! He shadowed myself and the primary photographer the WHOLE day. I can’t believe how unprofessional and rude it was. He told us we were ‘fools’ to be inconvenienced by manual exposure, that auto and a kit lens is all you need to shoot a wedding, then wondered why his backlit shots were underexposed on skin.
One thing I will state is that there are some people on Craigslist who are well-meaning and trying to make a start on their careers. Do I agree with their methods? Not at all.
I am also loathe to always assume that Uncle Bobs are bad. Some of them might be perfectly equipped to handle photographing a wedding, in which case, all power to them.
Jenna, I did wonder about the photographs from your hometown reception. It is such a shame that Shay (from memory) couldn’t be there to shoot!
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January 12th, 2010 on 3:28 pm
The only thing I wish had happened at my sister’s wedding - we should have created a shot list, and stuck to it. And, we should have insisted on specific family photos.
It was a small, VERY casual wedding. The photog was very good, but without direction, we now have a lot of pictures of our neighbor’s parents and virtually none of the parents of the bride (my parents.) There are literally only a couple of my mom. We almost wondered if the photog mixed up the parents, thinking that the neighbor parents were the parents of the bride.
Any rate, it’s up to both the photog and the bride to agree to those things ahead of time. Photog should know better, though, as it was her profession. Families don’t always get their stuff together, so it’d be my suggestion for anyone in wedding photography to come with a shot list of basics they cover, and ask the bride if there are other shots she wants. And do that weeks in advance so the bride can think it over, and maybe make changes once people have RSVPed.
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Jenna Reply:
January 13th, 2010 at 3:44 am
Shot lists for formals are really important I think! Plus formals are usually done in the beginning so it gives the photographer a chance to figure out who everyone is and photograph them throughout the rest of the evening accordingly.
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January 12th, 2010 on 3:53 pm
Although I have (thankfully) not experienced this, I wholeheartedly agree: A good camera does not equal a good photographer. It takes a special person to be a wedding photographer and produce good pictures.
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January 12th, 2010 on 3:58 pm
I had a really weird photography professor in college named Kermit. He did film photography and said he once shot a wedding but didn’t sync the flash right with the shutter speed, and NONE of the pictures turned out. He said angry was an understatement. I guess he learned from his mistakes enough to be able to teach us? LOL. This is why I love digital… you can see on your little screen that yes, the pictures are being taken!
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January 12th, 2010 on 3:59 pm
Years ago (before I even had an SLR), I was maid of honor in a friend’s wedding. They were on a tight budget and the bride’s stepsister (or some other similar family member) was supposed to be doing the pictures because she had a dSLR that she knew her way around.
On the wedding day, the bride and I showed up at the ceremony location to await her arrival. We were already dressed and she was the only person we were waiting on to start the ceremony.
She was 20 minutes late. And she showed up without her camera.
Apparently it had gotten locked up in her studio or something and she couldn’t get to it. Someone else let her borrow their film camera, but all the pictures turned out bad because she obviously didn’t know how to use it.
I stepped in and took as many pictures as I could during the reception with my P&S (I was MoH, otherwise I would have gotten the ceremony too) and created an album for them as a wedding gift. These are pretty much the only pictures they have of their wedding day now.
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January 12th, 2010 on 4:11 pm
this is just terrible :/
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January 12th, 2010 on 4:16 pm
…but it’s really hard too, when you’re paying for it yourselves and you’re on a budget, and your fiance thinks it’s perfectly acceptable “just to get those disposable cameras and put them on the tables and that’s how we’ll get our wedding photos.” It’s hard to justify spending 2k, 3k, 4k, or … I saw a photographer in the DFW area for 8K … when your budget is 10K. Lo, the arguments my fiance and I got into about how much was appropriate to spend on a wedding photographer. It’s sorely tempting to go to Craigslist, or wherever, and find yourself an up-and-coming photographer who works a little cheaper (Great Recession, yo!) who might provide you with approximately the same percentage of acceptable-awesome range photos that a more expensive photographer would give you. Because (and this, again, is the boy’s argument) you’re only going to put a few of the family photos around your house, right? And not really look at the others … so all you need to do is get those right and you’re okay? [FWIW, I don't agree with this, and don't have any desire to stare day in and day out at his and my fugly relatives. Just sayin'...]
Put another way: a friend got married a few years ago and hired a pretty middle-of-the-road photographer for her wedding. The photos weren’t bad, but they weren’t awesome. For me, personally, searching for a wedding photographer at this moment, I look at those photos, and what they spent on the guy and think that they were okay, but not spectacular. And I can get “okay but not spectacular” photos at half the price if I take a shot at a younger photographer. Am I gambling? Yes … I am. But I try to look at a body of work, a blog or whatever it may be, and try to get a feel for the style, and if we like it, then we’ll take the next step. I’m still not sure how anyone can charge eight thousand US dollars in this economy, but if they’re making it work, okay then.
[And in the interest of full disclosure, I contacted Jenna with an inquiry for photographing our wedding but she was booked that day, and I was bummed because after a two day argument with Mr. Disposable Cameras at the Reception, he'd finally relented and agreed that we could afford her.]
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Jenna Reply:
January 13th, 2010 at 3:48 am
Kate, makes me so sad that I can’t help you out with this! I hope you end up finding someone that Mr DCatR can agree on.
Your question is a valid one though, and there definitely isn’t an easy answer. Many times though, I see brides allotting their money to other areas of the wedding where they could maybe save money and put it toward their photography? Also, a photographer doesn’t need to cover the entire day, which is usually what you are getting charged 3/4/5 thousand for. Even hiring someone for just the ceremony and formals afterward could make a big difference in your satisfaction surrounding the day.
Probably the most important thing to remember is that everyone has different standards. Some people are ridiculously happy with atrociously bad photography, because they don’t care, or it isn’t important to them, or they haven’t been exposed to anything else. All the better for them I think!
I don’t advocate that everyone make photography their number one priority, but I do hope to help people understand that putting any amount of money toward someone with no contract, no backup equipment, and little experience is a very risky idea.
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Kate Reply:
January 13th, 2010 at 8:36 am
Awww, don’t be sad! Now we’ve moved on to fighting about our new puppy
I do appreciate the suggestions, as well as the questions to ask listed below in another comment — those are good, and I probably wouldn’t have thought of them on my own. Also appreciated was the alternative photographer you suggested in your reply to my inquiry.
I’ve also been browsing the pages of your fledgling photographers in the DFW area — I know we’ll find someone.
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January 12th, 2010 on 4:26 pm
My dad has practiced photography as a hobby for about 20 years now. He’s quite good, has lots of fancy equipment and lots of family friends ask him to photograph their weddings. Although these requests are great for his ego, he always turns them down. And for good reason. A wedding day only happens once, there are no do-overs, and brides can have exacting standards. If you aren’t a professional who has significant experience and training photographing WEDDINGS, why in the world would you want to put yourself in that position?! Leave it to the pros, people!!
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January 12th, 2010 on 5:00 pm
Ehhhhh…..I don’t disagree with the merit of your argument, in that I am sure (almost all) professional photographers are better than (almost all) amateurs with a camera. But I have seen a lot of really aggressive criticizing by professional vendors of all sorts of anything “less than” whatever that professional vendor provides, and it really turns me off. I don’t believe there’s some crisis of ignorance out there of the public at large believing that professionals are equal in quality to amateurs. And it just rubs me the wrong way when a professional, who one would think could let their portfolio speak on its own, goes out of their way to denigrate an amateur. It just seems part and parcel of the frustrating, overly-aggressive marketing by a lot of wedding professionals (and I put DJs at the top of this list) that seems aimed at making engaged people feel bad for not spending more.
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Angela Reply:
January 12th, 2010 at 6:33 pm
Agree with TJ here. This kind of talk from “professionals” always turns me off a little, especially since these days, what makes one a professional seems to be a website and a price list. Plenty of Uncle Bobs have been pursuing photography as a hobby since before these professionals were born, and are likely as qualified to shoot a wedding.
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Jenna Reply:
January 13th, 2010 at 4:16 am
Ah yes, you think I have the case of “the grumpies” (http://blog.danesanders.com/2008/01/03/13-things-that-define-your-photographer-dna/) or that I am greedy. Understandable.
I have no problem with those who are just starting out and charging a meager amount to build a portfolio (I did my first wedding, shot for 13 hours, for $400), but I think their is a “crisis of ignorance” when it comes to asking questions like:
“Do you have a backup photographer in case you can’t be there that day?”
“What backup equipment do you have?”
“Do you have the necessary equipment to handle low light situations?”
“Can I see a full wedding example?”
Not to mention things like contracts, which seem to be the downfall in many situations.
Even budget brides are investing $5000-$1000 in just one day. Is it worth it to pay someone 5%-10% of your budget if they are going to forget to bring a memory card, or drop their camera as they get out of the care and have no backup, or give you back a disc full of blinks and blurry shots? The day only happens once, and most brides with bad experiences seem to mourn over it whenever the topic comes up. To me that suggests this is something they would like to have been warned about.
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Chelsea McGowan Reply:
January 13th, 2010 at 8:50 am
Agreed, Jenna. Obviously, we all started somewhere. My first several weddings were exactly what you described… long days, with really no compensation other than costs.
It sounds to me like this commenter is annoyed that all it takes to call yourself a “professional” these days is throwing up a website, and frankly, so am I!
There’s nothing wrong with needing to save money, and if you have someone in your circle who can provide photography for much cheaper than hiring a professional, more power to you. But I don’t think it’s snobby, or wrong in any way to point out that there’s a risk with that.
I have an uncle who’s a dentist. If necessary, he can pull out my tooth and do a great job.
But does that mean EVERYONE’S uncle should perform dentistry? Um… no.
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JessicaMayBe Reply:
January 13th, 2010 at 11:58 am
MY frustration was that I found a “budget photographer” who showed me his whole portfolio, including one nicely shot full wedding. Some of his shots were AMAZING, some were just pretty good.
Then, he comes to shoot OUR wedding. We had a contract, back up, all of that, including a second shooter he was ‘training.’ This guy who was sweet as peaches when we met with him was now super mean and insulting my bridesmaids. And he SUCKED. I realized that most of the AWESOME shots must have been set up by someone else because he had absolutely no eye for composition. “What do you want to do next?” Allll lined up in a row, it was ridiculous. The second shooter was SO MUCH better than he was.
It was depressing. Thankfully one of my bridesmaids had a nice camera and photography classes in high school and college, and she got some good shots. Those, plus any shots from our photographer I was able to save through the magic of photoshop, and some random ones other guests took and gave me, are what I have of our wedding. All together it’s not bad, actually, but there’s definitely not a “feel” to the wedding because of the hodge-podge.
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January 12th, 2010 on 5:44 pm
I cannot even begin to tell you how awful my wedding photos were. It brings tears to my eyes to think about it all. My dad took my BFF’s wedding photos and they are amazing! He’s been a photog forever, but on my day he had to just be my dad…so we used someone else. Worst mistake of my life.
I would give anything to go back and chose differently.
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January 12th, 2010 on 6:58 pm
I have friends that never got their photos back, and for one of my friends she has been married for two years and is still trying to get the photos from the lady.
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Kelli Nicole Reply:
January 15th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
On the flip-side of that, I had a client years ago that never responded to my emails and never bought any pictures. Later on I looked her up on facebook and she was married to someone else…I guess that’s why she didn’t want them!
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Emmie Reply:
January 16th, 2010 at 12:05 pm
Hahaha, that is really funny. I guess she knew from the start!
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January 12th, 2010 on 8:38 pm
I have such mixed feelings about this subject. One one hand, those really are some horrible stories. But like Kate and others have mentioned, I’m not sure what people with teeny tiny budgets are supposed to do. I know its smart to scrimp and save for a good photographer, but you can only do so much.
I had a wedding budget of about $3,000 - a good photographer could easily have cost as much if not more than my entire budget. I found my photographer for $300 on craigslist. Granted, she had a degree in photography and some lovely landscape shots in her portfolio, just not much experience with portraits in general and weddings in particular. Looking back it was probably a stupid risk - but it worked out great. I thought she was wonderful and we have some great pictures. Not the best ever, but I’m happy with them, and frankly I think they’re better than many pictures I’ve seen some of my friends end up with from professionals they paid 5x more for.
On the other hand, we also found the person who did our engagement photos on Craigslist for a dirt cheap price. She was very uncle Bobish, minus even having good equipment. She showed up with a point and shoot, gave us no direction and just generally didn’t know what she was doing. While we ended up with a few half-way decent pictures, I really wish we would have just had a friend with a decent eye wander around with us for an afternoon - I think we would have been equally happy with the results, and may have even ended up with something that reflected us a little better as a couple. Granted, they are only engagement pictures, but it still bothers me. I really hope I can talk Zach into doing a “duet” type shoot someday so we can have some nice, more casual pictures of us.
Based on my experience, I’m not really sure what I would recommend for people like us with such a minuscule budget. Bad pictures of such an important event really are a tragedy, and its best to just try to find the money for a established pro. But at the same point, I can’t pretend that taking a risk never works out, and when you have so little to spend its really hard not to take the gamble.
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January 13th, 2010 on 7:59 am
in a desperate effort to save money, my now-husband convinced me to hire his friend equipped with what i think was a nikon d70 or d100 to shoot our wedding. she had wedding experience and she did our engagement pics, yet i was wary and rightfully so… she shot me and my bridesmaids in the morning, then a few first look pics of me and hubs and did a great job. however, 5 minutes before the ceremony she pulled me aside to tell me her battery was low and she forgot a backup. she estimated she could take another 15-25 shots.
to this day i don’t know how i kept it together. i guess maybe because hubs and i are fairly photogenic it wasn’t a total loss. the grand total of photos for the day: 95. actual good, usable photos: about 80. i still get guilt trips from my family about the lack of formal portraits.
my lesson: you get what you pay for, so if it matters, spend a little more.
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January 13th, 2010 on 8:03 am
p.s. i nominated that craigslist post for best of craigslist.
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January 13th, 2010 on 10:46 am
I am playing devil’s advocate, but I imagine when you were starting out and offering really cheap/free sessions, other established, professional photographers in the area might have looked at you as an Uncle Bob. You obviously have always loved photography and the talent is definitely in your genes, but those in the pro world may very well have seen you as the person you are warning us all about right now. So there’s a fine line here.
I think budget brides can be overly optimstic about finding “the next undiscovered talent” on Craigslist or the Weddingbee classifieds. What’s very helpful about this post is the comments you have made about things to ask potential photographers, such as whether they have backups, what kind of equipment they use, etc., etc. This sounds like the best piece of advice for distingushing between Craigslist Uncle Bobs and genuinely talented up-and-coming shooters who know their photography and also know the business.
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Cécy Reply:
January 13th, 2010 at 12:13 pm
I think you bring an excelent point.
The questions and the answers coming from it are probably the only way to know.
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Hannah Reply:
January 14th, 2010 at 12:07 am
I know a lot of photographers see me as problematic because I am offering free sessions whilst I build my portfolio.
I am not, however, charging cut price rates to get wedding experience. Instead, I am shadowing other photographers (who have been endlessly supportive as they, too, starting from the ground up in the business) to learn the ropes. I have a big issue with Craiglist photographers who have never, ever second shot before going primary - even if their rate is cut price.
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January 13th, 2010 on 10:55 am
I loved my photographer and we were able to easily afford her even on our limited budget - when my future daughter(s)/other friends get married, I’m going to encourage them to make photography a priority in the budget. For me, the photography is pretty much the most important thing - I didn’t care how wonderful my flowers were or how spectacular the food, because those were all things that just lasted the day - the photography (or lack thereof) lasts forever.
I thankfully don’t have any horror stories - but from what I hear about my sister in law’s wedding (I wasn’t there), their ‘friend-of-a-friend’ photographer was a little hung over that morning…and they were taking pictures at the Manti Temple. :{
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January 13th, 2010 on 11:37 am
My sister-in-law and I got married within a week of each other. I hired someone to do my photography, which I am very happy with. My inlaws, on the other hand, decided that they didn’t want to spend money on a photographer, so they went out and bought an expensive point and shoot and did all the pictures for my sister-in-law’s wedding. I couldn’t agree more that just because you have an expensive camera doesn’t mean it will take good pictures. They also had everyone that had cameras take pictures, and those were their wedding photos. The past few days, I’ve been putting together my wedding album. Reading this post and going through my pictures makes me so glad that I hired a professional photographer and that I don’t have to rely on the random hodge podge of photos that my inlaws took.
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January 13th, 2010 on 11:45 am
We decided to be the first wedding for a young photographer just getting into the business. I compiled shot lists, an event timeline (to the MINUTE, even photos of key family members so that she could quickly identify people.
Despite this, I have no formals with my grandmothers or extended family (despite specifically asking for them). There were very few guest shots, and they were poor in quality. The formals that we did get were nice (though she decided to have us photographed on a dirt firetrail rather than the grassy park I recommended). I could go on and on.
That’s the price of being someone’s first wedding. Her portfolio gave me no reason to worry, but the end result was a disaster. Not worth it.
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January 13th, 2010 on 12:28 pm
Our planned wedding budget was probablu $3-4000 dollars.
I had a great book called “Fire your wedding planner” that gave all sort of ideas on how to find a slightly cheaper wedding photographer (soneone starting etc.). I looked but did not find any.
Friends of ours knew a friend who is a photography student (more into landscapes though) and who took their wedding pictures. She only charges $400 for about 4hours, copies of the pictures, CD and and album.
We looked at her pictures and while they were not the quality of what I’ve seen on weddingbee, they were still nice.
It worked out for us, between her pictures and some guest pictures that came out really well. Yes there are some pictures from the reception that are out of focus. But we have pictures of everyone, some great formal ones, pictues of the two of us that we love.
Would I have loved those fancy pictures some of you have, yes of course. But could I afford it? No.
I would have had to remove the food I guess and let our guests starve.
I knew what I was getting into, I knew the risk. And I got what I expected.
I’m sorry to say but for me it’s not about the photography. Yes it’s great to have pictures you keep for the rest of you life, but is that really what matters?
My grand-parent probably only have 2 pictures from their wedding. Guess what they were married 50 years and as far as I know never regretted it. Because it’s not about the wedding, it’s about the marriage.
I had no plan of putting fancy pictures from our wedding on our wall. I open our wedding album maybe once a year.
Actually that was the family wedding, because when we really were married, we had a courthouse wedding, less than 10 people attending and the only pictures were taken by our family. They are still the sweetest in my heart not for their quality but what they represent.
It wasn’t always so important to have so many pictures of all the details of your wedding.
I think that more than getting angry at Uncle Bob, it’s a question of knowing what you are getting into. Yes some people have horror stories, but so do they with so called professional photographers.
I take personnal offense sometimes when I read those attacks toward people who don’t use a professional photographer. I don’t think bakers get as mad if your aunt is making your cake.
I’m offended because they seem to think that everyone can afford to pay $2000-8000 for photography. Well I’m sorry but I am not going to get into debt to give them a job! However nice their work is.
There is a lack of respect of those like me who just can’t afford wedding photography. While I understand their prices to a point, until wedding photographers provide decent affordable option their will always be Uncle Bob.
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Hannah Reply:
January 16th, 2010 at 4:09 pm
I can see your point, which is why I don’t care if someone gets their (capable) uncle to photograph their wedding or gets a very affordable (but still experienced) newbie to shoot their wedding. If they don’t want to pay the prices, or can’t, I was unlikely to get their business anyway.
I do care when people who could have paid the money for a photographer devalue what we do to the point that they think any guy with a nice camera can do it. Or think that any guy with a D70 charging $400 with the disc can do it. I get frustrated at the person with the camera and the person paying because they are completely missing how much is involved in wedding photography and how much is EXPECTED as well.
I personally think that going below $2000 on photography packages once you are established completely devalues the work that photographers do. At the end of the day, there is a huge amount of money and time invested in being a photographer and there has to be a return on that.
I think Jenna may have slightly misrepresented her point - given that she is very early on in establishing her company she can’t judge people for charging cut price rates or going in and shooting weddings relatively ‘fresh’. I think the issue is about not educating yourself about photography and just treating it as an afterthought or as something anyone with a DSLR can do. It isn’t.
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January 13th, 2010 on 12:56 pm
::sigh:: I really hate this topic. We had a really small wedding. Our #1 expense was the photographer. My brother with significant photography experience tried to give her a suggestion on location for group shots. She shot him down so he shut up. We later had to move to another location, and it is obvious from the pictures that my brother was right.
Now I really, really wish that I had begged him to take pictures instead of going with the “professional.” She sold herself as a modified photojournalist, meaning that she would incorporate some traditional portraits. I thought was great, but what I realized later was that all the great pictures in her portfolio were posed. She simply did not have the skill to do what we wanted, which was to capture the wedding & people enjoying themselves after.
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January 13th, 2010 on 2:34 pm
A couple more things that I personally had an issue with was the negatives and photo rights from my wedding (before the digital age, folks). At the time, I didn’t know to ask about the negatives, and only after the wedding did I find out that if I wanted the negatives, it’d be another $350. That’s a lot of cash, and I felt that should have been stated up front.
Also, after the fact, the photographer claimed that after three years, she was allowed to send the negatives to stock photography houses and/or use them in her own marketing materials. Which was something that was referenced in an addendum, which I didn’t see in the contract because it was on a separate form not included in the contract. She “accidentally” left it out and I didn’t know to ask. Shame on both parties (me included). I didn’t care if my wedding got included in her portfolio, but the horror of the idea of my wedding showing up in an ad?!?! I’d make sure if you’re the photographer that you’re really upfront about both things - if negatives / a CD are included for image reproduction, and if you plan to use the images later (or sell them to a stock photo house).
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Cristin Reply:
January 16th, 2010 at 5:44 pm
oh my! this is so unfortunate. Thank you for the warning. I can’t believe that!!
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January 13th, 2010 on 5:40 pm
Unfortunately, I think the problem goes deeper than “Uncle Bob.” I think people resort to “Uncle Bob” because even photographers who have no education or no experience in photography will charge incredible amounts.
I’m trying to keep my wedding around $20,000- making even a $2000 photography package ten percent of my budget. Every SINGLE in-state photography place that looks legitimate has base lines beginning from $2500-5000. This is ridiculous to me, considering that venue prices range from $100-10,000.
What I mean by that comparison is that the range of quality in venues is obvious…and reflected in price. The range of quality in photography is less obvious- and the prices reflect that too. The same is true of most vendors- if someone is new to floral arrangement or wedding planning, do you think they’d tell everyone? Probably not. They’d make it seem like they have more experience because they want the gig.
If I’m going to pony up more than $2000 for wedding photography, I need to ask myself more than the obvious question (do I like their photography?) I will then ask: do you have a formal education in photography? How many weddings have you shot in the two years? How long have you been shooting weddings? Who are your favorite wedding photographers? etc.
Regardless of trying to educate myself about all this, I’m still worried about making the wrong choice.
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Hannah Reply:
January 16th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
I think formal education in photography is irrelevant. Few people invest in a degree in photography because you learn more by doing than sitting in a classroom with this craft.
I think if someone has extensive experience second shooting and assisting then that should be valuable to you too. I have been doing assistant work where I am NOT allowed to even touch my camera. I carry bags and reflectors and I learn much more even than when I second shoot. I will have around 8 weddings second shot under my belt by July but have been present in a photography capacity at around 12. This is in a 7 month period. I don’t plan to go primary shooter at a wedding until December 2010 because I want to be prepared. And you can bet when I do that I will charge exactly what I am worth - which is more than $5 an hour.
I am lucky in that i managed to get a 12 month mentorship with a very successful photographer who is, as well, self taught. I assisted and third shot and now she wants me to second shoot when I am in her area.
If someone charges you $1000 for shooting your wedding - and then does a great job with pre-consultations, post-processing, album design etc etc etc - the payment per hour is going to be pretty low. It is not just about the 6 hours they are there snapping away.
I don’t care if someone gets their Uncle Bob to take the photographs, really. I DO care if people act as though they are getting the same results as they would from a professional photographer. It devalues the craft, completely. And the number of people who do that and are disappointed with the results is countless.
I always thought photography was overpriced - until I started studying it and decided to be one. The hours, workflow, equipment costs, liability insurance costs, equipment insurance costs and general business costs add up. A lot. And I am not a charity.
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emery Reply:
January 16th, 2010 at 5:49 pm
Eep- I just reread my post, and I should have been a lot clearer.
I said education because most of the art and design schools in my state require practicums.
I guess I felt confused/overwhelmed because one photographer with a bit over a year of experience was charging $2500 where someone with more than fifteen years was charging $5000.
I totally respect the expertise, immense editing time commitment and crazy overhead costs- it’s just hard to tell who knows their stuff.
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