Horror stories about wedding photographers, everybody has one!

One thing that comes up again and again in meetings with new clients is the rather worrying fact that everybody’s got a story about attending a wedding where the photographer was a nightmare. No joke, they all mention it.

The reason it’s worrying is because they assume all of us who shoot weddings are the same – that we all take 90 mins to shoot groups, that we all insist on eating with the guests, that we all take a year to deliver a book, and that we don’t even edit our selections! It becomes this barrier you have to break through before you can talk about the important subject of being a professional, discreet part of somebody’s day.

I shoot between 20 and 30 weddings a year planned around commercial commissions. The clients thankfully come through recommendation or via links to published work in the industry’s monthly magazines. Advertising in the traditional sense isn’t helpful for me because I have no control over who else is on the page peddling their goods. A couple explained to me recently that because they recognized a particular photographer’s name, and then recalled the scornful anecdotes from weddings he/she had covered, they assumed everybody on the page was similar. Trust me, I’ve asked other people, that’s how they think.

Of course, there are clients who don’t worry about researching their suppliers thoroughly and I guess that’s the saving grace of Mr or Mrs Disruptive Photographer as they are hired purely based on price. It’s only later (probably after an Usher has thrown a punch at them) that their true colours appear. It’s vital to work as quietly and unobtrusively as possible during what is basically a very sensative day for all involved. At every wedding there are a handful of guests who are engaged, will soon get engaged or have friends who are planning an event of their own and as photographers are highly visible and ever-present you should be polite, punctual and ready to chat briefly with whoever crosses your path. Don’t get me started on the story I heard about the chap who blew a whistle every time he wanted to change family combinations while shooting group pictures…

The sad thing is that I can’t see it changing. In these day’s of amazing digital technology it’s quite straightforward for somebody to buy a couple of cameras, a few lenses, then call themselves photographers. They then plough on trying to make a little extra cash on a Saturday by offering a service which they plainly won’t be able to back up with a body of quality work. I hate sounding negative, it’s not my nature, but all they succeed in doing is tarnishing an industry for all those people out there who work hard, produce good shots and deserve more of a chance ahead of the weekend warriors. It would be like sending traffic wardens to war – sure they have a uniform, but it doesn’t make them soldiers…