Selecting a Photographer Part II - 3 Peoples Experiences

I have had a lot more time to listen to people lately....

Here is what I have heard... about photography and life from 3 people I met this week....

Person number 1: restaurant/reception hall owner... has seen photos from 5 recent weddings all photographed by non professional photographers and according to her they did a great job... better than many pro photographers whose work she has seen... these photographers liked doing the job and did not want to ever become full time pros but still produce good quality work.... She thinks that the newer cameras are so easily operated most anyone can "do it". To her there are two curves that cross and diverge...one is quality and reliability... the other is price...

For example:
Auto makers for years and years saw pickup truck sales climb steadily... It defied all logic... They were noisy and the fit and finish was poor... but they were less expensive than cars were. The ford ranger and the ford F-150 together with the Chevy S-10 are the best selling bunch of vehicles anyone has ever produced... and the most recalled due to defects... lower price = lower expectations = higher perception of satisfaction... Doesn't that bug ya? Do you want to fly on the least expensive airplane?

Person number 2: a clerk in the album department of a Seattle professional photo supply store is advising everyone she talks to to pay for a real photographer and not go with part time wannabe or amateur workers... the images she sees are incredibly bad. Digital files are corrupt and unsalvageable and since the photographer cashed his check (or actually insisted on being paid in cash) and dumped the files... the couple has either nothing or very few photos. Not much a nice album can do for these people....

After the fact (and the indigestion from the cake and Swedish meatballs are gone) when you are looking at your dark, out of focus, crumby, or non existent wedding pictures reality sets in and it isn't pretty... but it's too late....

Person number 3: one of my new customers.... I just signed her up today... a sweet older lady (60ish) from the smoky mountains... getting married to her childhood sweetheart after all these intervening years. I just had to do this wedding no matter how much or little she could pay me.
She told me a couple things:
1) She met a bunch of photographers whose work was good and whose work was poor she thought... but they were all too expensive...
2) Then she met a guy and his wife who came to her house but would never give her their address. So she did not know where they lived. She rejected him even though he was pretty low priced since she was thinking he was a little too shady.

Too cheap and even the unsophisticated can see through you. What people want is "value" not "cheap".

So what's the moral of these stories? Perception is reality to most people, I guess. The trick is to make the perception match the reality... not so easily done!

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