Hiring Photographers – Amateurs Can Work was the title of the section on photographers in a newly released wedding planning book I found on the shelves of my local library. I picked up the book, well, just out of curiosity. Being in the wedding industry for as long as I have, I still pick up a ton of wedding resources, just to see what people are talking about and to find new and interesting resources.

Anyway, I read the section on photographers. And the more I read, the angrier I became.

Hiring Photographers – Amateurs Can Work
If you have friends or relatives who are good with a camera, you can save a lot of money by hiring them to document your wedding. If you have a friend or multiple friends take pictures, you can upload all of them onto a site like Kodak Gallery and let everyone buy the prints they want for just pennies apiece. If you do hire a photographer, give him or her a list of the pictures you would like taken, and be sure to include the rights to the images in the contract. Most photographers charge outrageous prices for printing and do not let you keep the negatives or digital files. You should also consider hiring a professional photographer who does weddings on the side. If the photographer has another source of income, he or she may be more willing to negotiate the contract price and image rights.

I won’t mention what book this came from, because it could be from a variety of sources. I’ve read things like this more than once.

As a wedding photographer that easily commanded five figure prices, I can tell you wedding photography is one of the most difficult forms of photography.

• You’re dealing with dozens of personalities, all on a frenzied day.
• You’re dealing with a ton of vendors all with a different purpose in mind.
• You’re dealing with a ton of family that all have their own idea of a perfect photograph.
• You have to create a perfect photograph in a hundred different locations. (From the back of a hairdressing studio, to a small dressing room with 25 females trying to get ready, to the great outdoors under blaring sunlight, to a dark dance floor with one spotlight.)

Yet again, thanks to books like this, brides head out into the ranks of their family and friends, trying to cut corners and hire a person with a camera who’s taken a few photographs.

Let’s actually analyze what this “bridal expert” said.

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