Photographers of the wedding persuasion

[F5 Dave]

Well I’m in trouble again I guess.

Situation: Bec has seen a photographer & liked his work (lets call him guy 1), & we agreed to meet another at my place.

2nd guy comes over & I’m very impressed. She isn’t so. Sez he only has one style which is formal where she wants candid photos.

After a day or so she sez maybe we could use guy no. 2 as he is considerably cheaper, but I should meet guy no.1

So I does with her today. Um, to be honest I am not as impressed, I think the other guy is a better photographer. Guy one teaches but only does say 10-12 weddings a year. Guy 2 does 95% weddings & has been for 10 years.

So is it possible guy 2 is incapable of providing candid photos? I would have thought that wouldn’t be that hard to do.

Lets throw in the mix of $$

Guy 1 ~$1700 album extra, like $400-800 extra, but we would probably do that ourselves.

Guy 2 ~$850 album extra, like $300.

I feel like the first guy is taking the piss, what does that work out per hour for heavens sake. Now ok I realise that this is how they make a living & there are a lot of uncharged hours so I’m not trying to undermine a good photographer’s trade, far from it.

So what is my question? Heck I dunno. I think I am going to lose this battle & feel ripped off, disappointed & have to pay the premium price for the privilege.

Know any good photographers we should look at too?

[White trash]

Yes I do, but I'll let them nominate their services.

[F5 Dave]

Does Jimbo do weddings?

[White trash]

Does Jimbo do weddings?

PM him. I'm not sure. He does bloody excellent work though and if I'm ever stupid enough to get married again. He'll be chief Lensman.

[Skunk]

We used Lifeworks. Michelle to be exact. $2500 including albums. 175 photos at various sizes up to 8x11. Beautiful shots. As per our requests nothing very formal. That included photos at the reception.
High price? Yes. But they do cheaper options and can't say enough about their flexibility (for the type of shots reqd etc )
Web Lifeworks Studio

[Biff]

$2500!!! Far quinnell!!!
I'll stick with a mate and a digi cam thanks. No actually. I'll stay as a 'de-facto'. What the fork that means I don't know, but I do know that I find the term insulting.

Apologies for the semi hijack.
Carry on.

[vifferman]

When we got married, I was a poor student, so I thought if we got lots of film, and got several friends to take the photos (several of whom were reasonable photographers), we'd be sure to have at least some decent photos. EHHHH!! Wrong!! Big mistake, deeply regretted.

Do it properly, Dude. You don't need to go overboard on expense, but make sure you're both happy with the work of whoever you choose to do it.

[jazbug5]

Hmmm.

If I were you, I'd ask guy no. 2 to show you some more 'candid' work. Is he a little older than the other one?
The fashion has become more and more for an informal approach to wedding photography: B&W reportage style, a little more experimental.
Funny as this may sound, this is quite a different set of skills to those required for more formal, 'formulaic' photographs. Now, hopefully the guy's capable of both styles, but then again, he may not be as good at capturing those 'moments' that happen behind the scenes that your Mrs is probably keen on. That takes a certain sort of eye, and an ability to think quickly on your feet.
You're (hopefully) only going to do this once, so it's worth getting the right guy; I have no idea what the going rate is over here, but I'd say your best bet is going with personal recommendations.
I've been asked to do (and have assisted at) wedding shoots, but personally I find it kind of scary- I'd feel too awful if I didn't get everything just perfect...!
Good luck- and if I see anything/anyone that can help, I'll PM you.

J

PS: Other option might be to get someone who's more of a reportage photographer (there's a lot of good amateurs/students) to do some B&W stuff for cheap? I could ask around, but I know of at least one person on here that fits that bill... step forward, chap.
Then the cheaper 'formal' guy can do his thang without fluffing about changing film/cameras (s'pose he might be digital, of course...)/headspace.
Um.

[jimbo600]

PM him. I'm not sure. He does bloody excellent work though and if I'm ever stupid enough to get married again. He'll be chief Lensman.

Cheers for the nod Jimmy.

F5 here's the guts. My missus does wedding photography. She used to work for The Wedding Studio in Auckland. She now does it for herself from time to time. Rates are silly cheap and as a bonus to Kiwibiker dudes I rock up as well and do candid photography on digital so you can see them at the wedding reception. Two photographers for the price of one. If you are interested PM me or call Kathy on 021 454 755. Don't whatever you do leave your bike in her kitchen early in the morning though or you'll be charged angry tax.

[jrandom]

she wants candid photos...

So your wife likes, er, 'candid' photography. Nudge nudge, wink wink, know what I mean, eh, squire? Wicked, eh? Wicked!

[jrandom]

if I'm ever stupid enough to get married again...

Shudder.

Like I keep tellin' ya. One bourbon, one scotch, and one beer. Rinse and repeat until the self-destructive urges fade.

[White trash]

So your wife likes, er, 'candid' photography. Nudge nudge, wink wink, know what I mean, eh, squire? Wicked, eh? Wicked!

A nod's as good as a wink to a blind bat.....

[ManDownUnder]

I think the guy1/guy2 thing is being address - I like the comment about asking guy 2 to show some more of the candid shots.

A couple of things...
1) Buy a bunch of happy snapy throw away cameras and drop them onto the tables at the wedding/reception/wherever appropriate. A lot of those pics will be riotous!

2) Ask for negatives of the photos taken by the pro. If none are forthcoming (i.e. not part of the package) scan the pics as soon as you get them or get negatives taken off them. I'm not suggesting your rip off the photographer (my Dad is a pro photographer)... just protect the images. If you lose them for any reason you need to get them back and if the photographer loses them/doesn't storte them properly, goes out of busines... etc

rant over
MDU

[F5 Dave]

I think the guy1/guy2 thing is being address -. . .

being a dress?

Don't start me on about the dress, she was going to make her own but then went trying them on & decided to buy the most expensive one in the shop $2200. Sheesh.

Oops, I guess I got started. For a hippy sort of girl who has travelled the world living out of a pack on a few $ a day she sure has formed expensive tastes.

With the reception we had sort of lined up a friend to do that & concentrate the money on the start & service.

Jimbo. Sounds good to me, I'll float it past the girl & see what happens.

I'm not sure where your kitchen is, but I am looking for some storage space when I get around to shifting for a while.

[Cajun]

Dave - just a comment make sure you get your negatives, we got our negatives back, photographer keeps them for 1 year, then we get them to keep, so we can get any photos remade we want. ours was kind enough to put them all on cds also, low and high quality version of each photo.

Cause sooner or later a photo gets damaged or someone wants a certian one with negiatves you can get it reprinted alot easyer