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It's a racing certainty that as a known keen photographer, someone sooner or later is going to invite you to take their wedding photos. Should you do it or not?
For what it's worth these are my thoughts on the subject and it might be of value to explain how I got into it. I became interested in photography quite early on and by the time I was 17 I'd done about 3 or 4 weddings - of friends mostly. One Friday night I got a call late on and was invited to do a wedding the following morning at St Giles Church in Cannock Staffs. The photographer booked for the job had been taken ill, and it also transpired that they'd tried virtually every pro in the area to try and get a replacement but they were all booked. It was a huge society wedding, the bride being the daughter of a local industrialist. The fee being offered was quite enormous by any standards. I'm not ashamed to admit my bottle went completely and I turned it down, only to allow myself to be talked into doing it by the desperate best man.
I got there about an hour early on the morning, and as the hundreds of guests began to arrive and the local press began to turn up in force, it slowly began to dawn on me what I'd rather ambitiously taken on. To say I was nervous would be the understatement of all time! The bride duly arrived and I got the pics at the car and in the church door with her father. During the service I managed some available light shots (the vicar had insisted no flash shots) After the signing the register shots in the vestry everyone tumbled outside and that's where it went a bit pear shaped, everyone split off into groups and were standing around talking. Every time I tried to grab the bride and groom they shot off talking to someone else. I was standing there looking like the proverbial spare part, when a grey haired pro with a Hasselblad, who had photographed the preceeding wedding and was on his way out- stopped and spoke to me.
The conversation went...
Pro "Are you the official photographer ?"
Me "Yes"
Pro "Are you OK with this?"
Me (Lying)" Yes, but I can't get hold of the bride, she keeps wandering off"
Pro (Laughing) "You've got to grab hold of this lot or they'll p*** you about all day"
Pro (In a loud authoratative voice) "Bride and groom over here please"
The bride duly came scuttling over, and the pro watched me pose her. As I walked back to my tripod and was about to take the shot he said
"Go and adjust the bride's train"
I said "It's fine.
Pro "I know, but do it anyway, it looks professional"
He watched me take a few more shots then said he had another job to go to..His parting shot was..
"You'll be fine" then he half turned and said "Either that or you'll never ever do another!" (Laughing like a drain)
What an absolute gent he was! So that was really my baptism of fire. I got through the later shots at the reception etc and at the end of a long day it all worked out OK and I got to buy some photographic gear I'd only previously dreamed about.
So should you do it? Many hundreds of weddings later I'd have to say "It depends"
You don't have to be any great and gifted photographer to undertake wedding photography. It goes without saying that you'll be competent to even consider it, If you have any doubts on that score, you'd be crazy to do it. Even if it's a friend's wedding, it's likely to be an ex- friend if you make a hash of it. Wedding photography is about managing often large groups of people none of whom have any great interest in getting the photos out of the way.If you're the retiring type or not happy chivvying people about but keeping a good sense of humour throughout, you'd probably do well to give the whole thing a wide berth. You need all your sense of humour when you set up the shots and are surrounded by guests clicking away and jumping in front of you,while Uncle Albert is showing you his 1940s camera and insisting it's far better than any modern crap you get nowadays.LOL. You're there to do a job as well as you can, but don't forget it's their day not yours, I've seen pros snarling and snapping at everyone and generally making themselves hated, changing filters and keeping everyone hanging around far longer than is reasonable. They certainly can't be enjoying it and you have to wonder why they do it?
The weather can turn the whole thing into a nightmare if it rains. People are pretty understanding of your predicament in those circumstances, but they still expect acceptable wedding shots. Often you're reduced to taking the shots in church (if there's no following wedding) or indoors at the reception venue and often they're less than ideal with poor available light. Keep modern electronic kit dry at all costs - my wife used to come with me on wet days and carried a huge golfing umbrella.
Don't fly by the seat of your pants with one set of kit - you need two of everything. Sod's Law says if you risk it something will go wrong. Two camera bodies and two complete flashguns is an absolutely essential minimum. If you're shooting film take a couple of spare rolls over and above what you anticipate needing.
Do it by all means if you feel you can make a decent job of it and try to enjoy it. If nothing else you'll finance some photographic kit you otherwise might wait a long time for.
For what it's worth these are my thoughts on the subject and it might be of value to explain how I got into it. I became interested in photography quite early on and by the time I was 17 I'd done about 3 or 4 weddings - of friends mostly. One Friday night I got a call late on and was invited to do a wedding the following morning at St Giles Church in Cannock Staffs. The photographer booked for the job had been taken ill, and it also transpired that they'd tried virtually every pro in the area to try and get a replacement but they were all booked. It was a huge society wedding, the bride being the daughter of a local industrialist. The fee being offered was quite enormous by any standards. I'm not ashamed to admit my bottle went completely and I turned it down, only to allow myself to be talked into doing it by the desperate best man.
I got there about an hour early on the morning, and as the hundreds of guests began to arrive and the local press began to turn up in force, it slowly began to dawn on me what I'd rather ambitiously taken on. To say I was nervous would be the understatement of all time! The bride duly arrived and I got the pics at the car and in the church door with her father. During the service I managed some available light shots (the vicar had insisted no flash shots) After the signing the register shots in the vestry everyone tumbled outside and that's where it went a bit pear shaped, everyone split off into groups and were standing around talking. Every time I tried to grab the bride and groom they shot off talking to someone else. I was standing there looking like the proverbial spare part, when a grey haired pro with a Hasselblad, who had photographed the preceeding wedding and was on his way out- stopped and spoke to me.
The conversation went...
Pro "Are you the official photographer ?"
Me "Yes"
Pro "Are you OK with this?"
Me (Lying)" Yes, but I can't get hold of the bride, she keeps wandering off"
Pro (Laughing) "You've got to grab hold of this lot or they'll p*** you about all day"
Pro (In a loud authoratative voice) "Bride and groom over here please"
The bride duly came scuttling over, and the pro watched me pose her. As I walked back to my tripod and was about to take the shot he said
"Go and adjust the bride's train"
I said "It's fine.
Pro "I know, but do it anyway, it looks professional"
He watched me take a few more shots then said he had another job to go to..His parting shot was..
"You'll be fine" then he half turned and said "Either that or you'll never ever do another!" (Laughing like a drain)
What an absolute gent he was! So that was really my baptism of fire. I got through the later shots at the reception etc and at the end of a long day it all worked out OK and I got to buy some photographic gear I'd only previously dreamed about.
So should you do it? Many hundreds of weddings later I'd have to say "It depends"
You don't have to be any great and gifted photographer to undertake wedding photography. It goes without saying that you'll be competent to even consider it, If you have any doubts on that score, you'd be crazy to do it. Even if it's a friend's wedding, it's likely to be an ex- friend if you make a hash of it. Wedding photography is about managing often large groups of people none of whom have any great interest in getting the photos out of the way.If you're the retiring type or not happy chivvying people about but keeping a good sense of humour throughout, you'd probably do well to give the whole thing a wide berth. You need all your sense of humour when you set up the shots and are surrounded by guests clicking away and jumping in front of you,while Uncle Albert is showing you his 1940s camera and insisting it's far better than any modern crap you get nowadays.LOL. You're there to do a job as well as you can, but don't forget it's their day not yours, I've seen pros snarling and snapping at everyone and generally making themselves hated, changing filters and keeping everyone hanging around far longer than is reasonable. They certainly can't be enjoying it and you have to wonder why they do it?
The weather can turn the whole thing into a nightmare if it rains. People are pretty understanding of your predicament in those circumstances, but they still expect acceptable wedding shots. Often you're reduced to taking the shots in church (if there's no following wedding) or indoors at the reception venue and often they're less than ideal with poor available light. Keep modern electronic kit dry at all costs - my wife used to come with me on wet days and carried a huge golfing umbrella.
Don't fly by the seat of your pants with one set of kit - you need two of everything. Sod's Law says if you risk it something will go wrong. Two camera bodies and two complete flashguns is an absolutely essential minimum. If you're shooting film take a couple of spare rolls over and above what you anticipate needing.
Do it by all means if you feel you can make a decent job of it and try to enjoy it. If nothing else you'll finance some photographic kit you otherwise might wait a long time for.
) and the second photographer had not yet arrived. She offered me a second Fuji S2 digital SLR as something to play with and said that I could just shoot anything, aim for candids to supplement the official shots, but not to worry, just watch and learn. After a very quick run through the basic functions on the Fuji we where ready to go, I would have to pick the rest up as we shoot but that wasnt a problem as nobody was dependant on any of my shots. The time came to leave and the second photographer has still not arrived, she frantically attempted to contact him without any success, we couldnt wait any longer, we simply had to leave and hope he would catch up with us.
