Posts Comments

You are here: Home / Archives for Photo Niches / Wedding Photography

Why Great Wedding Vendors Should Be Your Best Friends

by 1 Comment

If you photograph weddings, chances are you can quickly think of other wedding vendors you love to work with … and a few you hope you never see again.

We worked at one wedding where the videographer completely monopolized the bride and groom. He would follow us around to use all of our ideas, or jump in and start videoing as we were photographing intimate portraits with the worlds largest and most obnoxious light source. After a couple hours of this at the wedding location, the bride and groom had had enough. So we found ways to “sneak” off at the reception to allow the bride and groom some time alone, while capturing images the way they are meant to be captured.

Likewise we have worked with many great vendors that we would gladly work with again and again. We referred each other because we knew what to expect from each other. The quality was always top notch. The service was always extraordinary. And we knew the bride and groom would be happy from beginning to end. They have been friends for many years and remain friends to this day.

If you are new to the wedding industry, building a relationship with your client may seem like the most important thing to do. And it is. Yet the relationships you build with vendors is what will build your business over time. You will only see a bride and groom once – at their wedding. Okay, maybe several times if you do other family members and friends. But if you become friends with other wedding vendors, you may work with each other a dozen times or more each year.

How do you build those relationships?

1. Start with your clients

What vendors will your current clients be using at their upcoming events? This is a great starting point for building relationships. A month or so before a client’s wedding, ask them for their list of top vendors: coordinators, videographers, caterers, florists, musicians, etc. Get points of contacts, and find out who you will be working with at the event itself. For instance, you may be working with a DJ service who employees 6 different DJs. Its great to know the owner of the company, just as its equally important to know who the DJ will be at your event. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Wedding Photography Tagged With: , , ,

What Makes A Wedding Photojournalist Different Than A Wedding Photographer?

by 3 Comments

What is the difference between wedding photojournalism and wedding photography? As we learned early on in our career, it’s a blurred line.

For many photographers, photojournalism simply means capturing the event as it happens. They pose the formals, and along the way throw in a few candids for good measure. Then they use those candids to promote themselves as a “photojournalist”.

But is that really photojournalism?

Not by my definition. I like how the Wedding Photojournalist Association says it:

What sets our members apart in the industry is their candid, documentary approach – a distinctly artistic vision toward wedding photography.

We offer a new perspective on wedding photography – quietly capturing the real moments as they happen for the bride and groom. It is our goal to use photography to tell the story of your wedding day, not dictate it for you.

Its How You Approach It

A candid is simply a photograph taken without the subject’s knowledge. And while a great deal of wedding images can be classified as candids, a selection of candids doesn’t mean you are a photojournalist. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Wedding Photography Tagged With: , , , ,

Wedding Photography 2012: Is A Photo Booth In Your Future?

by 1 Comment

Add a photo booth to your 2012 weddings – go into detail about what they do, what the cost, how to promote etc

What do brides of 2012 want?

If you are targeting wedding clients, it’s the first place to start when deciding how to market your photography to newly engaged couples.

In too many cases photographers are creating packages that have been around for decades, offering services that are more than familiar, and not giving a newly engaged couple any more options than couples had 10, 20 or even 30 years ago.

And because more photographers are out there than ever, it’s a tough road to head down.

Head back in time 20 years and people were spending lavishly on weddings. But now that’s just not the case.

I found a great article that describes the new generation of wedding professionals in detail.

  • People are getting married later in life, and in many cases have a variety of commitments, such as houses and children, already in place.
  • The middle class is being eroded, meaning they don’t have the resources they once had. Borrowing against equity on a house or using credit cards is no longer the norm.
  • More players are in the industry thanks to the huge amounts of job losses over the past few years. They don’t have the experience or the investment that the pros do – but they do leave the consumer puzzled and uneducated about what high quality really means.

You simply can’t ignore what is happening in the industry. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Wedding Photography Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Ethics And The Never Ending Pursuit Of Wedding Photography

by 12 Comments

Things always seem to work in trends. When one person has a question, comment or rant on a a particular subject or niche, I get the in multiples within that same niche.

That’s the way its worked lately with the niche of wedding photography, and in today’s post I thought I would share a couple of comments I’ve received in the past week on wedding photography that really opened my eyes.  Take a look:

“This past weekend we shot a wedding in Seattle, and had a girl there with a Rebel shooting. I didn’t mind, in fact, I got her involved instead of her stuffing herself in a corner and avoiding eye contact with me at all costs (because she knew what she was doing was incredibly disrespectful.) But that all changed when I jumped on to facebook to upload some sneak peeks for the bride and groom, only to find pictures already up…..and logo’d…..with the name of her photography business.

And the bride and groom signed a contract stating we would be the only photographers at the wedding.

Half of me wants to send a legalistic letter saying take em down right now, or die a legal death. The other half wants to take this poor, misguided stay-at-home part-time photographer with a kit lens to the side and explain having a Rebel doesn’t make you a business. Snapping someone’s wedding doesn’t make you a photographer. And if you’re willing to put a shot that you snuck of the first look up on facebook that you took through a window with glare and reflections….then….well….I feel bad for you.
*rant ended*” ~Stephanie

Stephanie has every reason to rant. This completely gets into a legal issue of what’s right and wrong, and how far some people are willing to go. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Wedding Photography Tagged With: , , , , ,

Toot Your Own Horn: 7 Steps to Maximize Visibility After You’ve Been Published

by Leave a Comment

Guest Post by Lara White

When you see your work published, it feels incredible. It’s an amazing validation of the work you do and the impact you are having in your field. But what does it really do for your business? Do you start to fill all those empty Saturdays because you have a featured wedding in the latest wedding magazine? Sadly, no. While it is great to get published, if you want to see results, you need to take action. It’s not enough to simply have your name in tiny, tiny print next to a photo in a magazine. Most brides will not even see that. Brides are glancing through magazines for ideas mostly.

Once you’ve been published, that is only the beginning. You now have a tool that you can use to promote yourself and your business. No one else is going to do it for you.

Create a PDF

We purchased a scanner several years ago so we could scan magazine features and covers to make pdfs to share with brides and the vendor team responsible. You never know, the bride may email the pdf to all her friends and family that attended the wedding, or better yet, her unmarried friends. Hopefully vendors will do the same, or put the feature on their own websites and blogs.

Besides helping facilitate further spread of your news via the bride and the vendors, you also signal to the vendor team that not only do you get press coverage when you photograph and event, you also help them build up their press coverage by providing them with the tools they need to self-promote as well. I’ve seen other vendors proudly frame and display these editorial features like awards in their shops. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Wedding Photography Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

3 Reasons Most Wedding Photographers Fail

by Leave a Comment

We’re one of the few photography companies that actually created a lucrative business out of catering to the wedding industry. In less than two years, we went from a general photography company to one that specialized in wedding photography, making well into the Six Figure level. Then we doubled our business. And again.

But it wasn’t always like that.

In the beginning, we did what every other wedding photographer does.

We decided to offer wedding related services. We created our first wedding brochure. And we charged and shot pretty much like every other wedding photographer out there.

Dig Deeper: Doubt To Confidence: What Was Your Magical Moment?

But very quickly something started to change.

We studied what the top names in the industry were doing. We learned from the best. And we quickly changed and grew. And we discovered 3 things that most wedding photographers did that were actually holding them back. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Wedding Photography Tagged With: , , , ,

3 Mistakes Photographers Make When Selling Wedding Albums

by 8 Comments

If you photograph weddings, you probably have a package or two in which you offer an album. And in many cases, your package probably looks something like this:

  • Up to 5 hours of photography
  • Over 200 images on copyright-free CD
  • 20 page bridal album
  • 11×14 Portrait Print
  • Online gallery of your wedding photos to share with friends and family worldwide

The bride knows she will receive a CD full of images, and be able to view the images online, and share them with her family and friends from around the world.

She also knows she can take weeks or even months to select a few of her favorites, and have them put into a bridal album.

But it doesn’t matter what photos she selects, how they fit together, or how the will look side by side. She simply selects her favorites, and you as the photographer will force them into some type of order, and create an album from the final selection.

I’ve seen books like this.

An image of the bride walking down the aisle is set next to a formal of the bride outside at the reception. The first dance is placed along side of the couple kissing by the limo.

In other words, there is no rhyme or reason to the way the album is put together; it’s simply a hodgepodge of images thrown together to form a book of pictures.

Wedding albums aren’t meant to be a book of pictures. They are meant to be the story of the wedding day.

First Mistake: The Photographer Lets The Bride Make The Selection

If you allow a bride to choose her favorite images, she thinks from an individual level, not from a cumulative factor. She can’t see an album because it hasn’t happened yet. She doesn’t imagine how they will look together side by side; she simply chooses based on her best expressions, and her favorite moments.

When she receives the album, it will simply go on the shelf because it’s a book of pictures. It has no meaning – its just 20+ large images from her event.

As a photographer, you should be photographing a wedding to tell the story of the day. With wedding photography, photos work together in order to bring you back to the memories of the event itself. A formal out in the gardens is great, but it’s “just” a photo of the bride and groom. But when you have a series of images of the bride and groom walking through the gardens, talking with their flower girl, sneaking kisses along the way, it becomes a story – and a memory.

As a photographer, you need to think in story format. You need to take one photograph, and then another, and another – all to work together and provide an intimate look into the event itself. Its up to you to tell the story, and present the images in such a way that the bride and groom relive the wedding again and again. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Wedding Photography Tagged With: , , , , , ,

10 Tips For Creating A Trash The Dress Package

by 2 Comments

The funny thing about buying a wedding dress is you wear it once, and it hangs in the closet forever more. I know – that’s where mine is at the moment.

Mine got a bit more use than most, as I pulled it out on more than one occasion when we were first getting started to practice and build up our portfolio doing the crazy things we dreamt up. But for most brides, it goes into the closet, and rarely is seen again.

Which is why Trash The Dress sessions have become so popular, and can enhance the images a bride and groom have from their special day. The day of the event, the bride would never risk getting her gown dirty or wet. But the day after – all bets are off. For many, Trash The Dress is part of the fun of the entire wedding process.

Not only is it fun for the bride and groom, its also a great way to enhance your portfolio, and let all of your crazy ideas come to light. What have you always wanted to do? What photograph would you love to have in your portfolio? Dream away, and pitch it to your next bride to be.

If you’ve always wanted to add a Trash The Dress package to your services, now is the time. Use these 10 tips to help build your own package, and start selling it today.

1. Don’t Include Trash The Dress Sessions in Your Packages

Wedding packages should be just that, photography the day of the wedding. You shouldn’t include engagement images in your wedding packages. And you shouldn’t include Trash The Dress sessions in your packages. Trash The Dress sessions are extra – above and beyond the norm. Not everyone wants it, and if you include it in your packages, you’ll start the bargaining process with certain clientele.

Dig Deeper: 8 Keys To A Great Engagement Portrait

2. Start With A Small Plan And Grow From There

If you are new to the Trash The Dress concept, don’t start out by having your bride do something completely over the top. Start small and build your portfolio from there. Your creativity will grow as you see the potential. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Wedding Photography Tagged With: , , , ,

8 Lessons I Learned By Working A Wedding Fair

by 1 Comment

If you are a wedding photographer, there are two logical places to start out marketing your business: the local wedding guides, and the local wedding fairs.

So when we made the transition to full time wedding photographers, we went “logical” and tried out both.

We quickly learned that wedding fairs have a lot of benefits … and just as many things that can make them a total waste of your time. Here are my strategies for getting all you can out of your next wedding show.

Lesson #1: Get Into The Right Fair

There are two types of wedding fairs: the razzle-dazzle show, and the intimate affair. The razzle-dazzle show is the wedding showcase that is put out to attract Cinderella’s of all types. Their goal is to get thousands through the door, a huge fashion show on stage, and give out fantastic prizes to get the brides coming back year after year.

The intimate affair is a small showcase of local vendors, and is usually limited to a select amount in each field. It’s usually put together at a local venue that is trying to increase its own bookings, and showcases many of the vendors it works with on a regular basis.

Don’t discount either event. The intimate event may or may not help you book a bride, but the exposure to the other vendors may be priceless. Likewise, the razzle-dazzle event may be completely overwhelming to most brides in attendance, but a great lead can bring you in your top client for the season.

Lesson #2: Get your booth into the right location

Once you decide on displaying your photography at a bridal expo, make sure you book early. Take a close look at the floor plan, and choose a booth that will give you optimum exposure. You never want to be stuck in the far back corner. Instead, look for doorways, natural flows of traffic, and places where people may gather. Also look at what vendors will be around you. A high traffic vendor can be extra traffic for you too. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Wedding Photography Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Wedding Photography – There Are No Second Chances

by 1 Comment

The wedding season is just gearing up here in the states, so I’ve been seeing a lot of commentary about wedding photographers. One being this video put out by PPA.

In the video was this quote:

“An amateur photographer may get the shot right sometimes. A professional photographer is paid to get it right every time.” Mark Campbell, Professional Photographer

How true. As a wedding photographer myself, I’ve written about the importance of using a professional wedding photographer again and again.

You get one shot at getting it right. The guests will only be together one day. The formalities and details will only be available one time. Get it wrong and its disaster.

If you are a wedding photographer, two things should be at the top of the list of priorities.

1. Being the best wedding photographer you can be.

2. Marketing your wedding services to your prospects, and educating them on what is truly important.

Being The Best

The first task is the easiest. You have to educate yourself not just on photography, but also on every aspect of wedding photography. There is a big difference. Learning how to shoot is straightforward. If you’re standing in front of a waterfall, you can keep adjusting until you get it right – the waterfall isn’t going anywhere.

But that changes with a wedding. You have dozens of subjects moving and changing every second. You have a variety of shooting experiences – bright sunlight for formal images, and dark reception halls with mere candlelight as your light source.

Study with other photographers. Be an assistant to some of the top names in your community. Take their classes and week long training courses. By their books and posing guides. Do everything you can to become a little better every day.

Marketing and Educating

The second task is a lifelong challenge. Once you’ve achieved a professional status with your wedding photography, you have to prove it to the world.

This video is a great help. Why not incorporate videos like this into your own marketing – YouTube embed feature means you can easily put it onto your blog. And if you’ve joined organizations like PPA, you can also use that as a motivator that you are taking the next step to prove your experience and commitment to the photographic industry.

Not everyone will “get it”. Some people only care about price. And if that’s the case, let them go to another photographer, and take the chance of not getting the best results.

But in many cases it only takes a little education. Don’t stop with one liners and showcasing your gallery of images.

Tell people what they need to look for, and watch out for. Most people have never thought about the dangers of hiring a friend until its too late. Fear works in marketing – if you hear a horror story, you’re more likely going to try and avoid the same situation.

Filed Under: Wedding Photography Tagged With: , , , ,
« Older Posts