Weddings

Wedding Photography: No Longer Offered

Many people ask Trish if she's available for wedding photography. For over 15 years, Trish spent the better part of her weekends photographing weddings. While she enjoyed meeting new people and capturing that special day, her passion is photographing children, families and seniors.

Even though Trish is not taking any new wedding clients, she's happy to offer some tips when selecting a photographer to capture precious moments on your wedding day:

View their portfolio.
Check out your photographer's work before committing to them. Make sure your photographer can show you a few complete weddings he/she has done. Anyone can show you the few great shots. You need to know that the photographer can shoot great work from the beginning to the end.
Meet with your potential photographer face-to-face before you hire him or her.
You need to make sure that your photographer's personality clicks with yours. You don't want to spend one of the most important days of your life with a photographer who annoys you.
Don't go bargain basement shopping.
If your photographer shopping based on price, you may be disappointed after the wedding day with second-rate photos. After spending countless hours planning for your big day, the photographs are all that will remain of all that careful work. Don't go bargain basement shopping for the creator of those priceless memories. Remember, you get what you pay for.
Beware of untrained photographers.
Unfortunately, Trish has seen and heard too many horror stories about the friend or relative who "has a really nice camera" and the bride and groom found out the hard way that being a guinea pig for someone who is not professionally trained to take photos makes for very poor work. You may be tempted to use people like this because of cost. Trish strongly encourages you to reconsider this idea. You can never go back and do it over.

Choose quality over quantity.
Trish has heard phrases like "I chose Company XYZ to shoot my wedding because we got 1000s of images all on a CD." Why do you need 1000s of images? It's much better to have a few hundred well-exposed and composed images than a bunch of random second-rate imagery. What are you really going to do with a disc of images? It eventually ends up misplaced in a drawer somewhere. Without a beautifully crafted album, who is going to enjoy those images 50 years from now? Brides are selling themselves short by just getting a disc. Where is the service? It's like a chef at a restaurant handing you all the ingredients to her incredible meal and then walking away. Don't you want to enjoy the incredible meal without having to cook it? Trish strongly encourages you to invest in a package from your professional photographer that includes an album of some kind. If they don't offer one, that may be an indication that he or she is not a professional photographer.
Sign a contract.
A wedding is a big event and investment. A contract and clear expectations can protect you and the photographer (you wouldn't want to have a photographer bailing on you at the last minute). If the photographer doesn't have a contact, that may be an indication that he or she is not a professional photographer.
Ask lots of questions.
Ask questions like: How long have you been photographing weddings? Do you have backup equipment? Do you have insurance? Have you ever done a wedding at your location before? Do you use on camera flash or do you have studio lights? Do you use professional equipment? Do you have references?