Weddings... I don't get it.

Lets see. You meet with the couple for a couple hours 18 - 36 months in advance, sell them a package and schedule engagement pix. On a day between the 60 - 80 weddings you have scheduled from years before, you squeeze in a few hours, often on location way out of your way to shoot the engagement shots. This while trying not to rush them, giving them your undivided attention and convincing them they are your most important clients ever, but still making that portrait shoot in the executives home on the other side of town. As the "event" nears you need to confirm they are still engaged. Maybe negotiate the balance of the deposit that's due, or explain that sorry honey, but your deposit is non-refundable. And besides, the check was signed by your ex-boyfriend. If it's canceled, you race to fill the weekend, if not start planning. Contact the minister and see if he has flash restrictions, or places he does not want you to shoot from. Schedule a meeting at the church and meter the alter, see what external lighting you might need to set up. Visit the reception hall and do more of the same. Contact the DJ and MAKE him understand the needs you have for him to keep his light show off until you finish, negotiate a time with him to do so that you both can agree to. Go to the rehearsal, shoot it if that's in the contract. If not shooting, talk with the party to let them know what you will/won't shoot and where you will be and where they need to pause or stand for this or that shot during and after the ceremony. This is when you will get your first full dose of the evil Mother. His or hers, don't matter, one of them will be your worst enemy after the bride gets what she wants. The Bride claims that title until they say "I Do". The rehearsal is the time to deal with them in a preemptive manner as best you can while keeping that butter won't melt in your mouth smile tattooed on your kisser the whole while. Next comes that "special" day. ALL day. Don't expect to show up 30 min. before the service and have everything go as planned. Never did I attend a wedding and it go as planned. Then the reception. Expect a drunk relative to spill a drink on your camera, or worse in your pelican case. The DJ will play the "Let's pi$$ of the photographer game all night. If you are lucky the best man wont make a pass at the bride or your wife after he's had a few drinks and get his teeth rearranged. And there's more, always more. But let's move on, to editing, ordering prints, frames, mattes, and albums. Then assembling the package. Hopefully you did your part and exposure is right on, composition is outstanding, and the processor or printer did his job without a huge color shift to bright magenta. Now spend an evening assembling the album, framing the large prints and getting the mattes right. Including the appropriate packaging, wrapping, boxes, and written material that makes a pro look like a pro. Schedule a time good for you and them, mainly you and show/present the package. UNLESS, by the time they are to show up, they have already filed for devorice. (Try getting the balance paid then.) But I digress..... Sell your reprint services and advise how long prints will be made available for what price. Collect the remaining funds if needed and wipe the sweat off your brow. Anyway, if you smoke, it's time to light up a congratulatory cigar. I just have a diet Coke. Then race out the door and make it to that pet protrait you wonder why you scheduled anyway.

Yea, one and a half to three years of grief, planning, expense, and abuse for a couple a grand is really hiding behind all that expensive equipment. Makes me wonder why I quit weddings. NOT!
Yup, like I said, I'm glad I don't shoot weddings.
 
To answer the original question:

I shoot pictures at weddings because I like to take pictures, of anything. If was ever hired to do it then I would be doing it because I like to take pictures and also that I like to make money. There's a lot worse ways to make a buck.

So that's that.

I will say that, being a photographer myself, I appreciate the talent that it takes to make unique and beautiful images. That said, wedding photos are one of the most overpriced things on the face of the planet. Why do people pay $2000+ for a bunch of pictures that they never look at? I guess some people do look at them, but no one that I know. I will be just as happy getting a friend to take a few pictures at the church, and then pick and choose from the reception photos.

Do I want nice pictures of my wedding? Yes. Do I think they are worth $2000? not a chance. If someone was willing to pay me $2000 to shoot their wedding would I do it? Absolutely.

I will say this, nice photography is nice photography, no matter if it's weddings or whatever.

I think that's it.
 
Heh... I spent a LOT more than $2,000 on my wedding pics.

I'm glad every day that I did.
 
I couldn't agree more.

Personally, I don't feel nearly qualified enough to shoot a wedding. I'd do it if someone asked, provided they knew the caliber of my work, were totally ok with it, and I'd also get someone to second shoot for me.

The attraction, I think, is the money, and also...people are all dressed up for weddings, everyone looks good, you know you're going to get a lot of pretty shoots (assuming you know what you're doing).

I, on the other hand 1. don't love to shoot high pressure shoots, which weddings are, and 2 shudder a little at the thought of trying to figure out how to get detail and how to capture the white balance between the groom's black tux and bride's white dress.

Oh...and I spent about $500 on my wedding photography (we couldn't afford anything better, it was at the last minute...we didn't even know we were going to HAVE a photographer at all). I wish I wasn't a photographer myself, that way I wouldn't know how bad they were. *cries* She did try, and they weren't as bad as they could be. But they are bad. I wouldn't say we didn't get our money's worth, they're just not great photos.
 
As in any other business you will find photogs catering to all income levels in the wedding photography business. So I don't see why an "overpriced" photog should bother anyone, unless s/he has a gun to your head ;). You can get a stock photo for few cents at istockphoto.com, yet, ad companies hire photographers for several thousand dollars. Why?

Price is what the Customer willingly pays for the value they see in a product.

I had never heard of Jeff Ascough when I got married. If I did, I'd have flown him in from London to cover my wedding. Is it because there aren't competent photogs in the US? Certainly not. It's just that I (the customer) place value in his work and that is what dictates the price.
 
I am a newb and I have no desire whatsoever to be a wedding photographer.

I would, however, LOVE to be allowed to photograph a wedding for my own personal amusement. I think I could get some really great candid shots from a wedding.
 
I am a newb and I have no desire whatsoever to be a wedding photographer.

I would, however, LOVE to be allowed to photograph a wedding for my own personal amusement. I think I could get some really great candid shots from a wedding.

I feel approximately the same about honeymoons.
 
Years ago when I first got into photography, I shot a few weddings. It did not take me long to realize that my personality was not suited for this type of work.

It became obvious on my last wedding shoot. While I was showing the new bride her proofs, her mother and her were fighting and bickering about every little thing, much like how they acted at the actual wedding.

After several minutes of this and after feeling like my head was going to explode I told the new bride that in the end it pretty much would not matter which shots they went with because the odds were good the album would be in the trash within two years when her husband divorced her.

She started crying, the mother almost attacked me- I barely got out of there alive.:D

That was the last wedding I ever shot. There is way too much BS involved. And for anyone who thinks that wedding photographers are overpaid, they do not have a clue as to what this type of work is like. My hat is off to wedding photographers.:hail:

I have been a photojouranlist now for years. I had rather shoot in Iraq than ever shoot another wedding. :mrgreen:
 
I'm loving this thread. From the first post I knew that this was train wreck waiting to happen. This has been one of the most fun threads to follow. :lol:


Sorry, I just had to reiterate my feelings on this thread. The Great Chatsworth Train Wreck on August 10, 1887, has nothing on this one. :mrgreen::lmao::mrgreen::lmao::D
 

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