Using your friend or relative to take your wedding photos...

Ok, so I've been going back and forth on whether or not to talk about this on here... but after talking about this with one of my closest friends after a disastrous photo-tastrophe happened, I have decided to let it all out.

I know planning your wedding is stressful, I know believe me, I've been there, done that. It sucks. I'd rather have a root canal than plan my wedding again. You have everybody telling you how you should do things, who you should use and what you should have at YOUR wedding. It's annoying to say the least.

One of the biggest decisions you have to make is who your wedding photographer is going to be. This is a huge decision for a number of reasons. I don't know, but if you're like me, I don't remember anything unless I have a photo to remind me of it. Go to your closet, pull out a shoe box of photos from 10 years ago, do you remember any of those events actually happening? Probably not until you actually looked at those photos. Photos trigger memories. This places a huge importance on photography. You're only going to remember what you have photos of.

Here are the reasons I hear for why someone chose a friend or a relative (or a friend of a friend, of a stepmom's 2nd cousin twice removed) to shoot their wedding:

• "They have a really nice camera and filters."
• "Good opportunity for them to build their portfolio."
• "They took some photography classes."
• "They won some awards at the county fair."
• "I feel comfortable with them."
• "They always have a camera in their hand."
• "I trust them to show up."
• "They were inexpensive."
• "It's their wedding gift to me."
• "They know how to make a photo black and white and make one color pop out."
• "They promised to get the images back to me fast."

He may look like he knows what he's doing...

Now, we all start out some place. I am by no means knocking people who are breaking into the business, I'm just trying to make sure you get fabulous wedding photos. You getting fabulous wedding photos is at the end of the day my main concern. I really just want everyone to understand that there is a huge difference from someone who does this as a hobby or as an amateur to someone who does this full time.

Now, I don't know how many of you know me personally, but without giving out too much detail of what happened with my friend. Here are some things to think about when hiring a friend/relative to shoot your wedding...

• What if their nice camera breaks? Do they have a backup camera?
• Do they have quality wide angle lenses to make sure your whole family is actually in the photo and not warped at the edges?
• Do they have quality lenses that can be used in low light situations such as churches and reception halls so that a flash is not needed every click of the camera.
• Do they have a telephoto lens that can be used so that they are not disruptive during main events of the ceremony and reception but still receive up close images?
• Do they have professional flashes and backup flashes?
• Do they have extra memory cards, in case their memory cards reformat half way through the shoot or fill up? 
• Do they have extra camera batteries, since camera batteries have a battery life of only so long?
• What if they are sick, who will cover for them?
• What if you pay them, they shoot over your images, and don't have the money to pay you back? Do they have liability insurance?
• Life may not be like Jersey Shore or Real Housewives, but there always is drama. If you're using someone you know personally, think about how things change everyday in your life. Example.. your Mother's in law's sister's daughter is shooting your wedding but the mom and the sister got in a fight and now there's a feud and you don't know if she'll show up.
• Photography isn't cheap for a reason. There's one day in your entire life that needs to be documented, your wedding. People don't even pay photographers (not in Indiana anyways) to document full birth days (as in the hospital, popping out a kid) but they do pay us to document the wedding. This is the start of your new life. Everything starts here. This is why it's crucial that you pick the right photographer. It's not just about a nice camera and some photography classes. A lot of what photographers do actually is done after the wedding.

Even my own parents will say, "I don't know how people pay you that much to take wedding pictures..." Well... it's not just the wedding pictures that you're paying me for. Here's what you pay us for. :)

Here's an example of one of my standard wedding workflows including an engagement session:

New Contact Email

Respond To New Contact Email

Go Back & Forth 5 or 6 Times Before Booking

Send Booking Contract

Send Follow Up Emails/Scheduling Emails/Wedding Tip Emails

Schedule Engagement Session

Send Engagement Session Tips/Locations

Finalize Engagement Session

Prepare Equipment for Engagement Session (charge batteries, clean lenses, etc.)

Go to Engagement Session

Shoot Engagement Session

Back up Engagement Session to online server

Edit Engagement Session (1 business day)

Burn Engagement Session CD/Mail Out/Upload to online Gallery

Schedule Pre-event consult

Pre-event Consult

Prepare assistants/associates for wedding day

Prepare Equipment for Wedding Day (charge batteries, clean lenses, etc)

Shoot Wedding Day

Back up wedding images to online server

Edit Wedding Images (3-14 business days)

Burn Wedding Images/Upload online gallery/Mail out

Email Confirmations

Send Album How To Guides & Print Order Guides

Design Albums (1-7 business days per album, could be upto 3 albums per client)

Email album proof

Order album

Mail out album

Pick out images for blog

Put images on blog

Put images on social networking sites/Tag clients.

Wowza! That's just one wedding workflow and we had 76 weddings last year. DAAAAAANG. As you can see, to properly do this job, it has to be full time. This is why you pay us the mulah. When you pay a professional photographer you pay them that amount to know that if something does happen, they have the insurance in case the unexpected happens... they have a network of photographers in case yours is unable to cover it. Unfortunately, if you go with a friend of a friend of a friend, you don't have that reassurance.

I know that with all the buzz words flying around photojournalistic, printing rights, candid, high resolution, that picking a photographer can be UBER confusing. If you have any questions, please let us know. That's what we're here for. :)

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brooke photography

Comments

[Susan]

Thank you SO much for writing this blog. I plan to send it to any of my friends or relatives that ask me to take their wedding pictures. Whenever I get asked, I just want to scream: Yes, I am ALWAYS taking pictures when you see me and YES I enjoy taking pictures at family functions (birthday parties, baby & wedding showers, etc)....but I am in no way capable of or even want to be responsible for taking pictures of the most important day of your life! I always feel bad telling people no, but I also feel bad that they don't respect their wedding pictures enough to get a pro!

[brooke and pedro photography]

No problem!! Thanks for reading! :)