The truth about photographers is that no one is the same as the other. There are a variety of differences once you get past the fact that all of us have cameras, lenses, flashes and Photoshop. Sometimes those subtleties make a difference to people, and sometimes they don’t. It is estimated that 10% of the population will marry in any given year. Depending upon where you live, that’s a LOT of weddings.
So of those people getting married, only about half (yes, only half) will have someone whose exclusive responsibility is to photograph the wedding. Of those who have a photographer at all, only about 60% of those people will hire a professional. Surprising?
If you decide to have a photographer at your wedding, you may hear from many photographers to make sure this thing or that thing happens, and some of it relates to creativity and style. But one person cannot dictate how another person should select by style, nor can they mandate the style for an industry.
But there are some questions you should ask to be sure that your photographer is prepared for whatever happens:
- Do they have liability insurance? This insurance protects you and your guests should the photographer somehow injure someone or damage property. The reason we carry liability insurance is because you never know what’s going to happen; and a professional should be ready for such contingencies.
- Do they have backup equipment? Cameras and lenses, flashes and batteries are all just electro-mechanical devices that will ultimately fail. Wear and tear, bumps and bruises, and whatever else will contribute to the failure of a piece of equipment that your photographer relies upon. There are no “second chances” during a wedding, a family event, or that special moment. If your photographer doesn’t have backup equipment, and something fails, precious memories WILL be lost.
- Will your images be backed up? Will they be safe? It is true that digital images are easier to secure than film was, but there are still a multitude of things that can go wrong, including memory card failure, file transfer errors, hard drive crash, and on and on. We adopted an on-location backup method long ago, and it has made a difference in how safe we feel our images are. Once we return to the studio, those image files are backed up onto our server, and then backed up to an offsite location. If your photographer is that conscientious about backing up your images, then they really care about what they are doing.
Anything over and above what I’ve listed here may be considered subjective. Just remember there are some pretty shady people out there, and there are some really great photographers, too. Just do a little extra homework and make sure that the photographer you are hiring is one who is committed to making your event a stress-free one.
