Charlotte Justine Photography

My apologies for the lack of a FAQ post last week. Things have been hectic! But busy is a good thing. But I may end up making my Friday FAQs more spread out than necessarily weekly.

This FAQ post is not as much focused on a specific question as it is an extension of the last FAQ blog post. As you may recall, the last post was about some of the little details and techniques that differentiate a good picture from a not-so-good picture.

These FAQ posts are two-fold for me. #1: I want to encourage other photographers to keep pushing themselves. I am certainly not the greatest authority on information when it comes to certain areas of photography, but I am always willing to share what I know, and I want to help others in the industry grow. But #2, what may be arguably more important, is that I want to educate the general public about what to look for in a photographer. This market is tremendously oversaturated. With the mass availability of affordable equipment and computer software, new “pros” are appearing left and right like lovebugs on a windshield (those of you from the South know EXACTLY what I’m talking about!).

This overabundance of new photographers has left a lot of seasoned professionals, people who I consider more than worth what they charge for their talent and expertise, lagging behind. There are new people offering to do jobs cheaper, and in a bad economy, that can seem like a good value.

But look at the wording there: it can SEEM like a value. The unfortunate truth is, especially in the wedding industry, these perceived values more often than not quickly turn into nightmares. I’ve said it before, and I will say it again: your wedding is one of THE MOST important days in your lives. You will never get it back. You can’t get a do-over.

Now, trust me: I’ve been broke before. Boy oh boy, have I been broke. And I know the necessity of needing to save money when and where I can. I coupon, I will ride around in my car on fumes, and I only have about 20 channels on my cable subscription. I like to save. But I don’t consider wedding photography one of the places where people should be looking for the best bargain possible. You will never get this day back.

Pros charge a lot. GREAT pros charge more than a lot. And believe me. I’ve experienced the sticker shock of seeing just how expensive it can be! But then I see their work. I see the emotion, the wonderful technique, the ability to handle a crisis, the seamless way they can pull off a hectic day, the flawless portraits… I get to read the loving words of a satisfied bride who is grateful she invested with them because she now has pictures of the most special moment of her life to date that she knows she will ALWAYS love. And there’s another side to it, as well. I know their ability to handle a crisis. A camera stops working? They have a backup. Lens breaks? They have more. Flashes fail? There’s another one. They have insurance. They have liability. They have legal support. They have solid contracts. They have literally poured themselves into their businesses. These are who I consider to be the REAL pros in this business.

You cannot get it back. For those of you who are engaged, thinking about getting engaged, or just browsing who are reading this, I would sincerely encourage you to talk to photographers. Get to know them, their style, and what they have to offer that nobody else has. See if they know the techniques mentioned in the previous FAQ post, and if their work is comparable or better than others in the industry. Most photographers are sympathetic to brides and grooms on a budget. If they’re a business owner, they’ve been there! Trust me! Sit down with the photographer you love. See what options they have available. See if you can make payments. This is your day, one that you can’t do over.

I want to leave you with two stories, one from a bride, and one from a photographer. The bride, looking for a way to save, turned to a friend-of-a-friend who offered to shoot her wedding for a very low price, and the photographer, looking to get her foot in the door, shooting a wedding for a very low price with little to no experience. Names have been changed, of course, but I hope their stories mean as much to you as they do to me.

Emma, the bride:

“First off, as a disclaimer, I never knew Charlotte when I was getting married. And I’m not telling my story to promote her. I just want other couples out there who are getting married to know what a serious decision this is.

When I got married, I spent fourteen months planning – I definitely became a bridezilla by the end of it all! There were some things I was absolutely sure about: I wanted a catered dinner, I wanted a DJ and dancing, the best flowers, a gorgeous cake, and I definitely wanted the dress of my dreams. Their pricetags quickly added up, though!

One of my bridesmaids had a friend that was getting into photography, and was looking to shoot some weddings while her business was just getting going. I’d looked at some photographers in the area, and I even met with one that was going to charge me $1800. This friend, though, offered to shoot my entire wedding day and give me a CD of the pictures for $500. It seemed like a no-brainer at the time.

After the wedding, about six weeks passed by and I still hadn’t heard from the photographer. We didn’t sign a contract with her, so we didn’t really have any way of knowing when we should expect them. I finally called her, and she said that she would try to have them ready in a couple more weeks.

When we finally got the pictures, I was absolutely devastated. Most of the pictures were very dark, and bland, for lack of a better word. Important shots were missed. LOTS of blurry pictures. She also only had the pop-up flash that comes on the camera instead of professional lighting, so most of the reception pictures had people with red eyes! I cried for a week after receiving the pictures. Even to this day, I don’t look at them, and I’m embarassed to show them to people who ask to see them. Instead, I show them pictures that other friends at the wedding took with their own cameras.

Thinking about it now still depresses me. That catered meal I had to have? It’s gone. The flowers are dead. No DJ, no dancing anymore. I don’t have any of those things. What I DO have are pictures. And the pictures that I have are BAD pictures.

If I had it all to do again, I would have saved some of those other areas in the wedding budget that are now long-gone and put that towards the one thing that I actually WOULD have for the rest of my life. There ARE affordable photographers, but just know that, as with most things in life, if it seems to good to be true, it probably is.”

Ashley, the photographer (edited for identifying content):

“A close, close friend of mine … was getting married for the 2nd time and the wedding was small and totally thought I had this in the bag, because I took Photography One … I knew everything there is to know about photography! Plus I Googled some stuff and went to other photographers’ web sites to get ‘ideas’. I had a photographer ‘friend’ and totally racked his brain - but he was like ‘Uhhhhh, don’t think you are ready for this - you don’t even have a flash,’ but I did the wedding … I WAS WRONG WRONG WRONG. The pictures came out ‘alright’ but not anything great - it was in a church - with horrible lighting (and I had no flash).

In the rush of everything, because I said could have the pictures all edited in 2 weeks…I [only] saved … 10 FAMILY PICTURES! FAMILY PICTURES!!!! 10 very precious important family pictures…I was devastated, but not as much as the bride. To this day she will not talk to me - I refunded her and offered to do ANYTHING for her…but still that does not even come close to making up for the damage I did.

I am taking a year off - reading - asking questions - 2nd shooting - reading - reading - practice - practice - practice! I ask more questions than I should and drive people crazy - but I don’t really care.

I am not saying all of this to get a bunch of negative feedback in how horrible I am but to … maybe wake someone up who is following in the same steps I did! STOP AND TURN AROUND!

You need more then just passion, a good eye and a digital camera to call your self a professional photographer - and Photoshop and Lightroom can not be your dependant in making all your photos great! Learn you stuff and your camera and use editing tools like salt - you only need a little. (preaching to myself!)”