Wedding Albums

I receive a lot of enquiries from brides asking for an Image only package, whist I don’t have a problem with this it got me thinking as to the reasons why? Getting married is a major event in anyone’s lives and every bride to be wants to remember the day for the rest of her life as a happy and joyous occasion. Every detail is thought of and carefully planned from the invitations to the honeymoon; of course this all comes at a price with the average wedding in the UK costing around £18,000!!

So it is inevitable in today’s economical climate that the wedding couples try to save money where they can.

The wedding photographer has for decades been an integral part of the big day, there to capture the special moments for the newlyweds to cherish for many years to come, traditionally in a wedding album to look at on special occasions with family and friends, but in today’s technological age with computers being a permanent fixture in most households the traditional album is being replaced with digital images. Now don’t get me wrong here, although I am a strong traditionalist and I am most definitely not a Luddite (my other half will bear witness to this with the amount of gadgets in our house) but I feel that there is something lost in just looking at photographs on a screen, its just not tactile enough and you cant pass it round at gatherings.

Your wedding photographer has access to many companies offering a myriad of wedding albums from the traditional album, leather bound matted (mounted photos) up to contemporary press printed on metallic paper with aluminium or acrylic covers, the prices for these albums vary according to size and style but really only cost a fraction of the total cost of the whole wedding, but unfortunately it is seen as a way to keep costs down by just getting the images on a disc? In my mind wedding photography is an investment, something that can be cherished (and will last) for generations, a wedding album is a chronicle of that special day and I strongly believe that not having one is diluting a great wedding tradition. Yes, cost is a factor, but most wedding couples have a gift list, why not include the album on there? And most wedding photographers offer gift vouchers that could be used towards getting an album. So please think about an album when you book your wedding photographer I’m sure he/she will be more than happy to go through some options with you and make sure you have something you will be proud to show around.

Want to be a Wedding Photographer?

Please think long and hard before answering this. I have asked myself the same question on many occasions ; on the face of it being a Wedding photographer seems to be pretty glamorous whilst earning some money for a few hours snapping the happy couple on a Saturday afternoon. If only it were that easy. Many moons ago when I first decided to take on Wedding photography I thought the same thing. I had it all sussed, I pride myself as being highly organised, I don’t get phased too easily and I can quickly resolve problems, but then I’d never photographed a Wedding before had I (more fool me).
Getting my first gig was the first problem, it’s a bit of a catch 22 situation; no one wants to book you because you’ve no experience but to get experience you need a booking! But I got one eventually. So, after numerous meetings with the clients and visits to the venues the big day approaches the doubts and worries creep in, have I thought of everything? Is my gear going to work ok? Am I going to get all the shots the client has requested? Then the panic sets in! I cannot start to explain the experience of waking up at 3am with that feeling that you’ve missed something and realizing that you are responsible for recording the most important day in someone’s life.
Anyway, the big day arrives and off I go, a thousand thought are whizzing around in my head and several hundred shots and many hours later I’m finished, or so you may think, I now have to download all those images, cull and post process them before presenting them to the client; now for some quick maths, lets say I spend about 3 minutes on average per image on post production work, if I have 400 images to process that’s a solid 20 hours sat in front of my computer, now I don’t know about you but I do occasionally like to eat, drink and talk to my wife (just to keep the peace) so this task is normally spread out over a few days but not too long as I may have another wedding to shoot the following weekend when the whole process starts again.
Please believe me when I say that being a wedding photographer is damned hard work, the downsides are trying to get bookings, having little or no control over lighting, location weather etc. long, and I mean long hours, having to sacrifice your weekends and of course the stress and pressure of having to get it right first time, there are no second chances in this game. It does have its upsides though, seeing the beautiful brides in all their finery, the experience of witnessing a joyous occasion, the look of joy when the newlyweds see the photos of their wedding day and of course getting paid for something I am passionate about. Would I choose to be a wedding photographer if I was starting out again? Most probably yes, but if you are thinking about taking up this career path just take a bit of time to have a long hard think about it before you make any rash decisions.
Anyway, many, many weddings later, I'm still at it, having a great time, meeting lots of interesting people and I can't think of a better way of spending a day than photographing a Wedding.