Choosing a Wedding Photographer

Your Wedding Day should be one of the most memorable event in your lives. No other occasion demands so much expenditure of both time and effort as the organization of your wedding. The bride's dress is chosen only after viewing and rejecting numerous creations, the booking of reception venue after visiting many hotels, the vehicles are selected after viewing many cars from vintage to modern. You will both look a picture and your families will be so proud of you. It is important that you have a really good photographic record because when the cake has been eaten, the wine has been drunk, and the flowers have gone, only the photographs will remain to remind you of your wonderful day.

Some wedding photographers work from shops, others from their homes like myself. Some undertake all types of photography, others specialize in weddings and portraits. Some businesses photograph hundreds of weddings a year, others perhaps only twenty or thirty. How can you be sure that you are engaging a photographer who will do justice to all that preparation, who will capture forever those precious moments, and who will keep alive for all time the delighted faces of your families and friends? One who will make not only a record of the occasion, but who will keep alive the emotions you felt at the time?

Wedding photography is one of the most demanding areas of professional photography. The wedding photographer has to turn non-professional models into stars, using whatever locations are presented and in any prevailing weather conditions and do all this in minimum time. Also he/she should be the sort of person you would choose to invite to this, your most joyous day. Take your time, research diligently and you will be well rewarded.

Here are some ways to distinguish between a good and a not-so-good photographer.

Examine the photographer's work carefully. Here are some things to look for:

Are the specimen albums of single weddings and not just a selection of "best pictures"?

Is there a recent wedding to see?

Does the album tell the story of the wedding day fully and not just contain a series of similar pictures?

Is there a good mix of portraits, groups and story-telling pictures?

Are the groups tidy with everybody looking happily at the camera?

Examine the facial expressions the photographer has captured.

Do the prints show detail in the faces and dresses and avoid distracting detail in the backgrounds?

Ask the photographer these questions:

Will you be the photographer covering our wedding? If not, we would like to see the work of the actual photographer and meet before the day.

How many years as a wedding photographer?

Are you a member of a professional association?

Are you professionally qualified and if so in which type of photography was that achieved?

You will find prices vary considerably and generally speaking you get what you pay for. The price will also vary depending upon the total time he/she expects to spend at your wedding, the approximate number of photographs taken, the number included in any package (not necessarily the same), and the type and quality of the album.

Remember if you book myself, your photographs can go on-line so that your families and friends can see and order then, freeing you both to just enjoy the photo's.