Choosing a Photographer

Your wedding should be the most memorable event in your lives. No other occasion demands so much expenditure of both time and effort as the organization of your wedding. The bride's dress is chosen only after viewing and rejecting numerous creations, the reception venue is booked after visiting many hotels, the vehicles are selected after viewing many cars from vintage to modern. You will both look a picture and your families will be so proud of you! It is important that you have a really good photographic record because when the cake has been eaten, the wine has been drunk, and the flowers have gone, only the photographs will remain to remind you of your wonderful day.

Some wedding photographers work from shops, others from their homes. Some undertake all types of photography, others specialize in weddings and portraits. Some businesses photograph hundreds of weddings a year, others perhaps only twenty or thirty. Some do a lot of advertising, others very little. Some are members of professional associations, others are not. How can you be sure that you are engaging a photographer who will do justice to all that preparation, who will capture forever those precious moments, and who will keep alive for all time the delighted faces of your families and friends? One who will make not only a record of the occasion, but who will keep alive the emotions you felt at the time?

Wedding photography is one of the most demanding areas of professional photography. The wedding photographer has to turn non-professional models into stars, using whatever locations are presented to him in any prevailing weather conditions and do all this in minimum time. At the same time he/she should be the sort of person you would choose to invite to this, your most joyous day. Take your time, research diligently and you will be well rewarded.

Here are some ways to distinguish between a good and a not-so-good photographer.

Look out for the logo of The Guild of Wedding Photographers UK.

Examine the photographer's work carefully. Here are some things to look for:

• Are the specimen albums all of a single wedding and not just a selection of "best pictures"?

• Has he a recent actual wedding to show you?

• Does the album tell the story of the wedding day fully and not just contain a series of similar pictures?

• Is there a good mix of portraits, groups and story-telling pictures?

• Are the groups tidy with everybody looking happily at the camera?

• Examine the facial expressions the photographer has captured.

• Do the prints show detail in the faces and dresses and avoid distracting detail in the backgrounds?

Ask the photographer these questions:

• Will you be the photographer covering our wedding? If not, we would like to see the work of the actual photographer and meet him before the day.

• Are you a member of a professional association?

• Are you professionally qualified and if so in which type of photography was that achieved?

You will find prices vary considerably and generally speaking you get what you pay for. The more experienced the photographer the more he will charge.  The price will also vary depending upon the total time he expects to spend at your wedding, the approximate number of photographs taken, the number included in any package (not necessarily the same), and the type and quality of the album.