Several brides said they didn’t like the photographs taken at a friend’s wedding; they want better photographs than their friend has got.
Several of the brides I’ve photographed over the years have looked at a friend’s wedding photographs, haven’t liked them and when looking through the portfolio of my work they have said why. I’m always interested to hear about peoples likes and dislikes when it comes to wedding photography and photographers. Sadly many people comment about the attitude of the wedding photographer photographing a wedding they’ve been a guest at; comments like couldn’t be bothered, took too long taking the photographs, too bossy, took ages for the photographs to be ready after the wedding, didn’t provide much variety, boring groups to mention a few.
It’s amazing how a wedding photographer can adversely affect a wedding with their attitude alone let alone the photographs they produce for their customers. I treat people in a way I’d like to be treated myself and I always like people to go away with happy memories of meeting me whether they’re a prospective customer or not and when I’m photographing weddings my life experience is invaluable.
Photographers can simply look at wedding photography as a job and have the attitude of here we go same old….. How sad, I know how I feel, the excitement and enjoyment of the challenge to capture my customers wedding day and far exceed their expectations with their collection of imagery is something I thrive on. People regularly comment “you obviously enjoy what you do” people pick up on this and therefore give me more back when it comes to me taking their picture. This results in better expressions and therefore people often comment that the photographs are much better than their friends wedding photographs. You’ll see comments on the site which will give you a good idea of what my customers think about how I work.
If having photographs taken is a boring experience for the couple and their guests it’s going to show in the pictures. Ok, I know that many of the photographs being taken are without people knowing but because of the variety of images I capture during the course of a wedding the image collection is interesting and creative. Putting a couple in front of a great backdrop or lining people up for a group and pressing the shutter isn’t enough. If the photographer is having a tough time with life whilst photographing a wedding, couples and their guests don’t need to know about it. I always get lost in the moments and although I have photographed in excess of 1200 weddings I feel very emotional during many wedding ceremonies; I hope that the couples future life together will be a healthy and happy one as they make their vows to each other and that they will be best friends to each other as time goes by.
To me a wedding is a celebration of the couple’s love for each other and they want their family and friends to celebrate their love by being at their wedding. My responsibility is to capture the nerves, fun, excitement and love; all the emotions that will be felt during the day to produce the best wedding pictures people have ever seen and for each couple to have photographs that are much better than those of their friends’ weddings.