Brides... Beware!

BRIDES ... BEWARE! - THERE ARE A LOT OF BAD PHOTOGRAPHERS OUT THERE!

Do you want beautiful professionally done wedding portraits to have and to hold for years to come?

1. Choose your photographer carefully! Interview as many as it takes for you to find the right one, a person you feel comfortable with and who has the training and experience to do the job right. And don't ask a friend, unless they are a professional wedding photographer.

2. Ask a lot of questions. Ask for references, ask about their training, experience, equipment, background, policies. Look at samples of their work. Ask to see an entire wedding.

3. Don't choose a photographer by price. Producing beautiful wedding photos is an expensive and grueling task, requiring many hours of work before, during and after your wedding day, not to mention years of training and expensive equipment to buy and maintain. This is not the place to pinch pennies, nor is the most expensive photographer always the best.

4. Start looking for your professional photographer early in the planning of your wedding so that you will get the one that you want.

THINGS TO REMEMBER WHEN CHOOSING A WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER

You will be working with your photographer a great deal, make sure you like them and they have a personality that makes you feel comfortable. A grumpy photographer who tells you how they want to shoot your wedding photos, who does not listen to your ideas and is not asking what you want should NOT be your choice. Your photographer should provide you with a shooting script and go over it with you prior to the wedding so that they will be sure to get the photos that you want. If they don't do this, go somewhere else.
Art school students and weekend hobbyists are NOT wedding photographers. They are amateurs and will provide you with snapshots, NOT wedding portraits. You would do better buying disposable cameras and having your guest shoot your wedding photos. These weekenders don't have the training and experience to know the flow of a wedding and how to get the shots you want without tying up all your time.
These hobbyists shoot with 35mm cameras, amateur lighting and film, use places like the discount store to process your precious memories and, typically, give you the negatives so you have to deal with them. All of which means that, for all the money you saved, you will have to deal with bad and missed shots, poor lighting, poor posing, over all poor quality images, the job of sorting negatives and getting enlargements made (and 35mm film can only be enlarged to 8x10 before they become grainy), not to mention missing half of your reception due to poor planning and too much time spent shooting photos after the ceremony.

MORE TO REMEMBER………

All legitimate wedding photographers have several plans or packages to suit different budgets. Your money would be better spent getting a small package from a good, reliable professional wedding photographer than using a nonprofessional and risk getting nothing worthwhile from your wedding day. There are reasons that the weekend hobbyists and students are so inexpensive. They don't have business licenses, pay sales tax, have a business phone or other business expenses that legitimate studios have. They use inferior film and processing, amateur camera equipment, no back-up equipment. They have no training and this is not their main business. Taking wedding photos is a sideline that makes them extra money, it is not their career. If they have done a poor job and you're unhappy, they don't care, they have nothing to lose.
If you're on a tight budget, cut corners on some things that aren't as important as the memories that well done photos provide. Have a friend be your DJ, anyone can play CD’s, not everyone can take beautiful irreplaceable shots of your wedding day. Buy a cake from a grocery store bakery, it will be eaten and gone the day after your wedding. With careful planning, you can have the kind of wedding you've always wanted and be able to afford a professional photographer to record your day.
Your wedding day is a once in a life time occasion that can't be repeated. Remember, after the ceremony and reception are over, the bouquet and the bird seed are thrown, the cake is eaten and the tuxedos returned, all you will have left are your memories and your photographs. Make sure that you choose a professional wedding photographer to catch those wonderful moments and emotions and preserve them forever.

Author: Creative Photography by Studio321
Web Site: http:// mojophoto.bravepages.com

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