Reply To: You get what you pay for

[cameraclicker]

It’s just my opinion.  I think you missed a two-fer.  I shoot family weddings for free and give the happy couple the photos as a wedding gift.  It is an opportunity to give them a one-of-a-kind wedding gift they simply cannot get anywhere else, from anyone, since even if they have their own paid photographer, I get different angles, different expressions, sometimes different people or different events and try to deliver quality that is at least as good and hopefully better than the other photographers shooting the wedding.   For your nephew’s wedding it doesn’t sound like it would have been much of a challenge.  Fortunately the photographers that have been hired for my family’s weddings have brought pro-grade gear and have known how to use it.   I would be extremely annoyed if someone was supposed to photograph my relatives and I discovered they did not have more than the basics.

The second part is that if you shoot the same event and your photos are much better than the other photographer’s, that will speak volumes.