If you’re the sort of people who spend ages scouring the internet, reading wedding blogs by photographers and non-photographers about finding your perfect one (wedding photographer that is), no doubt you’ll already know exactly why you have to fork out so much bloody money to get a decent one. So there we go, you don’t need another blog about it do you?
Actually you do….you do because most of what you’ve read is complete rubbish - yep, it is. Being the helpful chap I am, I’ll tell you which bits are crap:
The crap
My cameras cost a lot of money and so does all my other equipment, I need to buy a new camera every year especially when a new one comes out too, and all the lenses - my stuff costs an absolute fortune!
You’re paying for the time it takes to edit your wedding, not just the photography on the day, that can be anything up to 4 weeks of work you know…
My editing software - it costs a lot of money too, it’s professional stuff not instagram filters !
So does running a business, there’s insurance, website hosting, online galleries and all that other expensive stuff to think about
Then there’s the training, those courses are expensive you know - I need to keep up with all the latest trends, and new editing gubbins!
Not forgetting all the emails, phone calls, visits it takes to keep you lovely people happy - that’s time, and time is money!
What you should actually pay for
The photographer’s ability to take damn good pictures
…and do it consistently throughout your day
That’s it - you’re paying for talent, capability and someone who gives you a gallery full of top quality meaningful pictures of your wedding day.
IT DOESN’T MATTER how much I choose to spend on geeky photographer crap every year, it doesn’t matter how long it takes me to do stuff, it doesn’t matter what it costs me to run my business - all that really matters to you is the value you place on the end product.
You know the problem with blogs these days? Everyone’s trying to write a sales pitch - no-one mentions the photography itself, as in the quality of it, the consistency or the capability of the photographer. It’s all about justifying the cost of running a business. I’ll be honest here - I don’t think you care how much it costs to run a business, all you really care about is how your pictures are going to look - and good for you, that’s all you should care about.
Look at it this way - when you go and buy your wedding dress (let’s face it that’s probably the most excited you’ll feel), you put it on, look at yourself in the mirror, think “Holy fuck I look amazing!this is the one!” Then you walk out and the people there with you get all teary eyed and tell you “OMG you look amazing, that’s THE one” you’re all giddy as giddy can be!!! Do you then start asking, how long it took to design, where the material came from, how many stitches are in it, how long the designer trained for? Do you heck as like (unless you’re a bit weird of course), no - you think “I need this dress in my life, I love it!!!”
What I’m trying to say here is the end product is all that matters, I don’t expect you to care how much it costs me, I only want you to care enough about the pictures I make to pay the price I’m asking you to pay. If you think my pictures are worth it, great..if you don’t, then good - because I certainly don’t want you to get your pictures back and think “What the shit are these” !
Do your homework, love the pictures first, then love the approach.
