why would anyone want to be a wedding photographer in the age of Public media ?

[removed account4]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/texas-newlyweds-publicly-bashed-wedding-001932566.html

 

[Sirius Glass]

Even before the litigious environment of today, the stress of dealing with bridezillas who want the photographs before the wedding to send to their friends on internet and the competition from every GWC [Guy/Girl with camera] has turned a once wonderful career into a continuing and enduring pain in the @$$. I completely agree with you.

 

[Theo Sulphate]

I trot this out occasionally as the scariest reason never to be wedding photographer:

https://nytimes.com/2011/11/03/nyre...eks-re-creation-of-wedding-after-divorce.html

 

[Chan Tran]

I trot this out occasionally as the scariest reason never to be wedding photographer:

https://nytimes.com/2011/11/03/nyre...eks-re-creation-of-wedding-after-divorce.html

The groom wanted pictures of a wedding that never was so may be the studio if lost the lawsuit should hire some of those computer imaging firm to create his dreamed wedding out of thin air. But some how he is not alone. I see so many wedding photos that are purely set up and not convey anything really happened in the event. May wedding photographer should start to create wedding album with computers.

 

[pdeeh]

I can't imagine wanting to be a wedding photographer, ever

 

[pentaxuser]

When I clicked on the link I got a fine picture but the sound came in "jerky parcels" Anyone else experience this and if not any idea why I was affected?

pentaxuser

 

[pentaxuser]

It looks like it was my speakers so the problem was mine. No need for replies Thanks

pentaxuser

 

[removed account4]

I trot this out occasionally as the scariest reason never to be wedding photographer:

https://nytimes.com/2011/11/03/nyre...eks-re-creation-of-wedding-after-divorce.html

yeah i remember when that happened .. and i remember this one too
http://weddingindustrylaw.com/wedding-photographer-lawsuit/
from what i remember of the law suit, the tog, got the guy
gary fong ( the light modifier guy ) to vouch for him ..

life is stressful enough to deal with frantic wedding people is even more stress ...

 

[rrusso]

Don't know what it was like back in the day, but most of today's successful wedding shooters have comprehensive contracts which protect them from stuff like this.

I know, I know...a contract isn't an iron-clad failsafe, but it's usually enough to dissuade most people from trying something.

Stuff like, do you want a second shooter (increased cost)? No? Ok, well you either stagger the bride and groom's prep times so I have time to shoot them both, or you pick the one which is most important to you...etc.

Still, it just seems like an overall total pain in the butt, even if everything goes perfectly. There's a couple of weeks (possibly more) work for each wedding (culling, editing, proofing, putting the albums together, printing, etc.). You can always contract out some of the work third-party, but that cuts in to profit.

Plus, you deal with the typical bridezilla (and her parents), give up your weekend to be stressed out (because you have to perform - there aren't any do-overs), and then do it all over again the following weekend.

Some guys (and girls) thrive on this kind of thing, but not I...no thank you.

 

[aramo]

I have fun shooting wedding. It is challenging in many ways. I guess if you don't like dealing with people thats not a best choice ))

 

[Harry Stevens]

I should be a wedding photography because when the customer and everybody else sees my work then at least we would all agree that I deserved to be sued

.............Honestly the job sounds like a legal nightmare.

 

[Grif]

Only reason I can see to be a wedding photographer, (and I've done a few) is money. And,,, if you want a gig every bit as bad,,, junior horse shows. Parents (mostly mom's) of kids in the arena are mostly great,,, but the bottom 5% more than make up for it. And GWC's (love that, it's a keeper for me ;-) at the horse show are a total PITA. At least they don't have access to the judge area and show ring.

 

[Michael Firstlight]

You need a contract as air tight as the ones they use on TV reality shows nowadays. I shot weddings years ago both film and digital. It was technically more risky with just film, but never had a disaster with the right precautions. Today they are just machine gunners - try doing a wedding with just 200 frames of film! It was also much harder physically - try shooting a wedding with an RB67 system and a backup RB67 system for 8+ hours (talk about a workout!). I roll my eyes when someone complains about the weight of today's pro DSLRs - they must be featherweights.

Its sad that the risk of litigation is so high now; shooting wedding and big life events is a joyful thing and very satisfying to recreate in the bride's minds eye what she felt and how she remembers the wedding - that was the real challenge then, and aside from the legal risk, remains the same today.

 

[Chan Tran]

shooting wedding and big life events is a joyful thing and very satisfying to recreate in the bride's minds eye what she felt and how she remembers the wedding - that was the real challenge then, and aside from the legal risk, remains the same today.

You got it summed up in a sentence. The wedding photographs are a recreation (rather a creation) of the bride's minds eye and not a recording of what happened in the event. I saw way too many wedding photographs that don't convey anything like the real events were. Many of the pre wedding shots are posed, arranged in a way that the couple never actually naturally do. Many of the shots at the events were set up, arranged by the photographer to look a certain way.

 

[removed account4]

my mom has the wedding album of her grandparents, or at least the jewel print version of it ..
not sure where it was taken, cessaria, or alexandria .. around 190x it is pretty amazing. its the bare essentials
like wedding albums used to be.
if they were still the bare essentials, instead of people trying to out-do eachother like the cold war/space race
i'd be doing weddings every weekend, even with social media-hades. unfortunately these days the wedding album is
more of a hollywoodland production instead of a wedding album.

 

[jim10219]

Nothing sucks the passion and joy out of doing something quicker than trying to do it for a living. THAT'S why'd I'd never be a wedding photographer. Dealing with A-holes and their spouses, parents, and lawyers... well that comes with most jobs. I can handle that.

 

[foc]

I was a professional wedding photographer for 30 years (up until 2 year ago when I semi retired from wedding photography due to health reasons). I never had a signed contract, ever. I never had any litigation or threat of it. I would estimate the number of bridezilla I have encountered less than 1%.

Ok I live in Ireland and we are not that litigious. It helped to be flexible but professional when dealing with clients and yet have an easygoing personality. At the pre wedding meeting I would go through the fine details and time scale of the day, what shots with who etc so we all had the same expectations of the day.

IMO that is one of the biggest factors in being successful as a wedding photographer. Some of my colleagues were brilliant artistic photographers but had no business sense or had a very abrasive personality. They thought the wedding was their show not the brides. They photographed for themselves first, the client second.

I agree it's not for everyone but I loved it. A friend of mine, a press photographer, wouldn't even contemplate doing a wedding even for a friend. Yet when I did press work I hated it. Different strokes etc.

The market has changed a lot in the last few years and I am glad to be semi retired from it. I mean what bride wants a photographer older than their dad. They want someone young with new ideas. Having said that , a good photo is a good photo, new idea or not, so while the approach may change , the means of capture can be different, the client still wants a photo that captures the emotion of the day and you have to deliver what the client wants and paid for.

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

I gave it up 20 years ago. I was running into more and more Bridezillas. Since you're working with folks that don't regularly buy photography like art buyers and designers, they have no idea how much things cost. There's constant nickel and diming to get freebies even though a contract was signed. Also, there is also a constantly new photographers that undercut the market just to get their foot in the wedding photography market. Take a look at this http://weddingindustrylaw.com/wedding-photographer-lawsuit/

 

[Theo Sulphate]

When did weddings become such grandiose productions?

The last wedding I went to was my cousin's, in 2004 I think, and he had one photographer: an old guy with a Hasselblad 500C or C/M and the standard round winding mechanism (it was cool to see him twist the knob forward while rocking the body backwards and upward to wind the film). He was hired just for the wedding ceremony itself, not the reception. I don't think he took more than 24 shots and over the years I don't think I've seen more than two prints afterwards.

My parents', grandparents', aunt's, and other wedding photos: just a couple. That's it.

Maybe it's a certain eastern Europe old-country cheapness in my family, but it's good enough, eh?

 

[summicron1]

I had fantasies of making money doing them until I tried -- constant stress, constant worry, constant fighting to do the set-ups, and so on. The only times I ever did them was as a gift to the family member getting hitched -- and since it was a gift, they didn't get to complain. I handed them the film, gave them the name of a good lab and I was done.

Now I don't do any, not that anyone asks, but if someone should the answer would be that my equipment does not do what wedding fotogs now do -- all the digital stuff, all the fancy gimicky set-ups, all the post-shoot editing and on and on and on.

"Sorry, my Leica m3 won't do that stuff. Let me recommend a friend who does all that."

 

[Arklatexian]

Even before the litigious environment of today, the stress of dealing with bridezillas who want the photographs before the wedding to send to their friends on internet and the competition from every GWC [Guy/Girl with camera] has turned a once wonderful career into a continuing and enduring pain in the @$$. I completely agree with you.

Even before the litigious environment of today, the stress of dealing with bridezillas who want the photographs before the wedding to send to their friends on internet and the competition from every GWC [Guy/Girl with camera] has turned a once wonderful career into a continuing and enduring pain in the @$$. I completely agree with you.

Having shot them and helping shoot them long before electronic cameras with all their problems, I can tell you that shooting weddings has always been APIA. But in the old days, there was good money to be made doing them. Not so any more. The last wedding I saw photographed, the photographer charged for his time and delivered a "chip" to the customer who had their own prints made. At least he was paid for his time and shot every thing the couple wanted. It is and has always been a business friends, not an artistic endeavor. As is most professional photography. Following is, as every thing I write, personal opinion. This is a wonderful hobby but a hell of a way to make a living unless you really, truly love doing it and experience can dull that........Regards!

 

[Patrick Robert James]

I used to shoot weddings up until a decade or so ago, because, you know, money, and adventure. I shot some weddings too, let me tell you. Congresspeople, Hollyweird producers, foreign lands... Got a lot of stories that aren't fit for the kiddies. I never did contracts either. People think that is stupid these days, but I never had a single problem. I over delivered. I always though that if someone wanted to pay me a bunch of bucks to deliver their special day, I was going to do it. I always included the images in the price. No bullsheet after charges which I thought were ridiculous. My model was you pay me handsomely for the day, I stay and shoot it, then you get the images. Do whatever you want with them. Obviously, the people having problems didn't prescribe to my hassle free model, and probably didn't have as near as much fun as I did....

 

[railwayman3]

When did weddings become such grandiose productions?

The last wedding I went to was my cousin's, in 2004 I think, and he had one photographer: an old guy with a Hasselblad 500C or C/M and the standard round winding mechanism (it was cool to see him twist the knob forward while rocking the body backwards and upward to wind the film). He was hired just for the wedding ceremony itself, not the reception. I don't think he took more than 24 shots and over the years I don't think I've seen more than two prints afterwards.

My parents', grandparents', aunt's, and other wedding photos: just a couple. That's it.

Maybe it's a certain eastern Europe old-country cheapness in my family, but it's good enough, eh?

My grandparents were married in the middle of WW2 and the photos taken by the local photographer (who had a shop in town and photographed everything that happened, weddings babies, portraits, events). I remember my grandad telling me (he was an amateur photographer himself) that rationing was such that the photographer was allowed one roll of film....presumably 120 in a Rollei or similar.

Like you, we have about four photos of the event, but they are all perfect, and the prints are fresh and unfaded even after 70+ years.

 

[foc]

I used to shoot weddings up until a decade or so ago, because, you know, money, and adventure. I shot some weddings too, let me tell you. Congresspeople, Hollyweird producers, foreign lands... Got a lot of stories that aren't fit for the kiddies. I never did contracts either. People think that is stupid these days, but I never had a single problem. I over delivered. I always though that if someone wanted to pay me a bunch of bucks to deliver their special day, I was going to do it. I always included the images in the price. No bullsheet after charges which I thought were ridiculous. My model was you pay me handsomely for the day, I stay and shoot it, then you get the images. Do whatever you want with them. Obviously, the people having problems didn't prescribe to my hassle free model, and probably didn't have as near as much fun as I did....

I think you hit the nail on the head "over deliver , include the images & no extra charges"

Nothing drives clients/customers crazy than the add on charge. In their mind they think they have paid enough (of course provided you charge enough) and will fight all the way because they think you are trying to squeeze extra from them.

In the link that the OP shared above, the dispute appears to be over the extra $125 to be paid for the album cover.

I am sure the wedding photography cost a lot more, so (IMO) why have this extra $125. To me it's a red flag to a bull. Since I don't know the full story it's hard to comment but if it was me I don't think I would have let it go that far. There is always a resolutiion available besides legal action. The only winners in that are the legal team.

I know she lost her business and that terrible but will she get her $1 million. Getting a judgement is one thing, getting the money is another. It could be a long, long wait.

 

[Sirius Glass]

When I was in college one of the guys in the dorm was getting married and he asked me to photograph the wedding. We agreed on the number of prints, three albums [bride & groom, both sets of parents], cost for additional prints. He was of the heavy persuasion as was his intended and most of the family members.

I made sure that there were no round or square objects in the background for the wedding and the reception. When I went to make the prints, I experimented on various tilt angles for the easel. I settled on one standard tilt.

When I delivered the album and the prints, everyone loved them. They said that no one even professional photographers had ever captured the "real" them before. They happily paid and then I got a continuing stream of print orders. I made enough money to pay for one year's tuition, room and board, books, lab fees [chemistry, ...] school supplies and photographic film and paper.