Shooting a Wedding
As someone who enjoys fields, babbling brooks and a nice comfy seat I would be hard pressed to recommend wedding photography to anyone. Now I would also like to stress I would have never classed myself as a “wedding photographer” I have done less than 10 in my entire time shooting.
I believe the term is high risk high reward and the feeling I got from shooting weddings was very similar to working in a kitchen over Christmas. It is full on all systems go and the pressure really can get the best of you. These are the main reasons why I very much say no to all weddings.
I feel wedding photographers take this somewhat big ego stance and some feel they kind of own the industry. In reality wedding photographers are probably some of the least creative people who’s work I have ever had the misfortune of seeing. However I don’t feel like this is a fault of their’s rather a fault of the industry they align themselves with. Think about it, weddings tend to all follow the same running order. Most tend to have a pretty similar colour palette and even further most weddings are for people who aren’t that creative or original. So what does that leave for the photographer? Well I guess its the same 4 styles of shot only now the 35mm film trend has come back in so you get that nice budget point and shoot look of people you’ll never see again drinking cheap wine on a linoleum dance floor.
I have some respect for wedding photographers who only take on weddings they can shoot in their style however. I do actually enjoy some of their work where the shots are almost street/doc work rather than corporate event. On the whole however I find wedding photographers too be very much dull and especially those who only talk about weddings and never branch out.
I would also advise those who love photography and don’t get turned on by the idea of creating packages to sell or doing their book keeping and organising their calendar for 4 years in the future to avoid weddings at all cost no matter how much money they try to throw at you. Honestly it is not worth it and the shame will soon take over when you get asked for the first time if you have shot a wedding.
Anyway heres some of my wedding shots and trust me I hated every minute of the shoots and I am now blessed to have only one more to do in my life ( sadly I am bound by a contract to do it and my partner is in the bridal party).
