AboutJohn Wilson Expertise Over 27 years specializing exclusively in professional wedding photography. I can answer most questions relating directly to wedding photography concerning the business, film, digital, traditional & digital labs, marketing, effects, pricing & packaging, shooting outdoors and in-studio with multiple flash, color management and creating magazine style wedding albums. I can't answer questions regarding other fields of photography.
Experience Over 27 years experience photographing weddings professionally. Past 4 years shooting digital exclusively.
Organizations Better Business Bureau.
Education/Credentials Going to photography seminars and reading all the wedding photography books I can find then applying the techniques and new styles I've learned with each wedding. You always need to grow and learn to keep up in this field. With each new wedding you photograph, you must challenge yourself to do better work than your previous wedding. You must always have the goal of making the wedding photographs for a bride & groom be the best photographs they have seen of any wedding.
Question I photographed weddings for my family, and the word has spread. I now have people calling me to photograph their weddings too. Can you give me tips on etiquette as a wedding photographer? What shouldn't you do? (Take pictures from isle, step in front of guests etc)
I do photography on my own time, usually in a home studio. Senior portraits, Children & family portraits etc. But in the studio your not interrupting anything if asking the group to move around lol.
I am not used to photographing events professionally if you want to call it that since I've only done 2, and they were both for family. And now I have 3 more lined up, but these people are looking at me as a professional (a paid one at that), not as their little sister "the photographer" doing them a favor.
I know they are expecting the photojournalist approach as well as the traditional staged photos. I plan on meeting with them first to discuss when they want to do this. To make sure everything goes smoothly what things should I cover with them?
I know I'll get more confident with experience, but I just like to be prepared. It is after all someones wedding.
Thank you for any tips or advice you could give me. :)
The first advise I should perhaps give is, "Don't rush yourself". Don't jump in without first finding out how deep the water is. Based on your limited experience and your confessed need to be better prepared, you might want to first prepare more before actually booking more weddings. The last thing you want to have happen when first starting out is a very unhappy bride suing you for 10 times the price of the wedding photography contract.
Once you are licensed and collecting fees because you claim to be a professional wedding photographer but on the day of a wedding you discover lighting and other situations on location which you don't have the photographic knowledge or equipment to handle, you could be sued for providing inferior images if any images at all.
So to protect yourself and the brides who book you, I recommend that you do NOT make any pretense to experience and skills you know you have not yet developed. Be painfully honest with prospective customers. Make sure they know your limited experience and price your work accordingly.
As far as etiquette, just use common etiquette but do NOT allow guests to keep you from doing your job. Go to the wedding to have a great time. Treat the bride and groom like rock stars. Be kind and patient with everyone. Just follow the Golden Rule. But do the job you were paid to do.
You may go to the home page of my website http://www.weddingphotographics.net and click on the Customer Login and Username: John Password: Wilson
to access some useful information about working a wedding day. You will find tips and ideas especially in the wedding photography checklist and in the PDF entitled, "Pitfalls For Brides To Avoid".
A few wedding photography books I would like to recommend you read are: "Professional Techniques for Digital Wedding Photography" by Jeff & Kathleen Hawkins, "The Art of Digital Wedding Photography" by Bambi Cantreel and Skip Cohen, "Master's Guide to Wedding Photography" by Marcus Bell, "The Best of Wedding Photography" by Bill Hurter, "Professional Techniques for the Wedding Photographer" by Georgia Schaub with photos by Ken Sklute, "The Art of Wedding Photography" by Bambi Cantrell and Skip Cohen, "Digital Wedding Photography" by Paul F. Gero.
Without reading and studying books in which seasoned pros relate many of their experiences, you will have to learn the hard way on your own. Learning the hard way is NOT the best way to learn when it comes to wedding photography! So it really is best to learn and be professionally prepared before booking weddings. Now, if you were working under an experienced photographer and you are there as the "2nd shooter" that is different. The only requirement I have for my 2nd shooters is they must be completely familiar with the operation, functions and modes of their digital cameras. They must also know how to help set-up creative multiple flash arrangements for both formal group shots and for broad illumination of various reception venues.
Well, your questions were broad in scope. I hope there are specific situations described and answered on my website and in the books I recommend which you will find useful.
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