subject: Wedding Photography- Is Big Beautiful? [print this page] Wedding photographers are sometimes approached by guests who have a story to tell about how dreadful their wedding photographer was. These stories often follow a pattern: firstly the couple have booked with a big wedding photography organisation; and secondly they are disappointed with the service they receive. The disappointments are varied but this author has heard about a photographer who ran off with his lover after the wedding (taking the couple's wedding images with him!), another who simply failed to ever produce the album that had been part of the original package; and one who simply refused to photograph the bride at the "getting ready" stage.
The underlying problem is that these stories relates to clients who think they are playing it safe by signing up with a large organisation. But buying wedding photography services is not like buying a car. Most people would assume that with other types of big purchase (such as a car) you are better off buying from a big organisation - like a high street dealership - than from a small organisation (like an advert in the motoring press). The reason for this being that if anything goes wrong (such as the car breaking down within months of purchase), the dealership will offer a warranty; will want to protect its reputation; and will therefore have the resources and incentive to correct any problems.
Of course, problems with wedding photography cannot readily be rectified after the big day anyway. But there are other reasons why wedding photography is different. The big difference is that virtually all talented wedding photographers work for themselves. They do not work for big organisations, as these companies usually only pay a "day rate" to their photographers, which is not enough to earn a living (many photographers who do this work are unqualified, and have a Monday-Friday job that pays the bills). All the photographer is expected to do to earn the fee, is turn up on the day, take the photographs and then hand over the disk containing the images to the parent company. If the photographer doesn't hand over the disk, all they lose is their fee. They are not incentivised to "go the extra mile" for the couple (it won't help their branding or reputation for example. They won't personally gain from recommendations if they photography the wedding well). The images the couple have seen when being sold the service are often not those produced by the photographer they get on the day.
Of course, opting for a particular size of photography business is not the solution in itself. The key point is that clients should not take comfort from large companies in the way that the public might do in other areas of commercial activity. Instead wedding couples should look at a range of factors when choosing a wedding photographer.
by: Gen Wright
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