You get what you pay for

[KeyAndFill]

A nephew of mine tied the knot yesterday, their’s was an outdoor wedding in very bright, not-at-all-cloudy, sunshine. They did have a tent setup, but that was for food, dancing, and other post ceremony activities.  My sister (his mother) has stopped asking me to photograph things for her or her family because I want to be paid for it, and my rates are higher than $25 for a CD.  My brother, who understands my prices, has paid me without asking for a “family rate,” and has understood the difference between faux and pro, asked me if I had been asked about photographing the wedding.  I had not.  So we waited to see what showed up.

The fauxtog shows up with a Canon Rebel T3, kit lens, and a cheap telephoto lens that I’m surprised worked.  I’m surprised that the elements were not banged up and out of place considering how she treated it, no regard for equipment.  She also shot everything with a pop-up flash, no matter how far away she was.

Here comes the bride!  The bride is being walked down the aisle and the faux decides to change lenses.  She gets the wide lens off and cannot get her other lens on.  My fiance, sister-in-law, and I watched her struggle to get the lens on.  She could not figure out to line the dots up and twist.  After the bride got down the aisle and every opportunity for a shot was missed I felt bad, not for the fauxtog, but for my nephew, he was going to miss out on wedding photos, albeit really bad ones, but still they would be the only ones because I (on purpose) did not bring my camera.  I offered to help put the lens on.  I put the lens on with ease, she looked at me and said “It never goes on that easy for me.”  I told her that my help that time was free.

I watched her during the ceremony, she stood at the back of the 8 rows of chairs to photograph the entire wedding, and at one point fumbled with the changing of lenses again, she did not seek my help this time.  She would eventually find a bystander that could get the two connected.    She did not take photos of the cake cutting.   During the first dance she sat in a chair in the corner of the tent with her wide angle lens and shot everything.  She again decided to change lenses and once again could not get them connected.

She posted the photos on Facebook last night for all to see.  My sister shared the photos so I got to see them in all their glory.  They are over processed, spot colored, and reek of pre-made actions.  The bride’s photos are taken at a church…..(record scratch)…wait a minute, they didn’t get married in a church.  Oh well, money well spent.  I noticed on the fauxtog’s page it states that she does not do any printing.

 

Oh well, you get what you pay for.

[ebi]

you should share the link!

[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.

[KeyAndFill]

cameraclicker, I could have done that, but I didn’t.  I have photographed two weddings since I began charging.  I know my decision to charge or not is mine alone, however, I would have felt as though I cheated past customers had I done that for free.  I maintain a day job, I like what I do and it pays the bills.  All photography work that I do is after hours or weekends, and if I have to take a day off for photographs I will, I recently took time from my day job to do work for a local coffee shop.   There was a time when I did not charge for the simple fact, I wasn’t to the level that I thought I should be to accept money, but I also wasn’t billing myself a s a pro.  I furthered my education, I continue to learn every day (as everyone should,) and have shot professionally for the last couple of years.  Still a long way to go, but unlike the Bandit, I’m not on a strict schedule.     Enough of my ramblings….here is the wedding photographer:

https://www.facebook.com/rpbphotography

 

[Worst Case Scenario]

Shame you didn’t look at their Facebook before the wedding!

[KeyAndFill]

Shame you didn’t look at their Facebook before the wedding!

 

I could have but didn’t know who they selected.  Would they have listened to me anyway?  Probably not.

[cameraclicker]

I would have felt as though I cheated past customers had I done that for free.

Why?  You are free to give a gift to anyone you wish, in any amount you can afford.  That you give a gift of photography to a relative does not cheat a customer.  Your relative simply receives a valuable gift and the value is perhaps more tangible because you charge customers.

[nairbynairb]

Oh god… I really hope they didn’t spend much (if anything) on those photos.

I hope, for your nephew’s sake, that a lot of people got photos on their phones/P&S cameras so they can have decent photos of one of the most important days of their lives…

[cass335]

I shot my sisters wedding for free, and in october I am doing my other sisters wedding for free. But, both of them are broke and so I volunteered. Plus, I don’t think I could sit there and watch a Faux mess up their wedding day. Though I did tell them they both owe me tons of free baby-sitting as payment for my services. Lol.

As for this faux….seriously my 8 year old knows how to change the lenses on my camera…its NOT that hard! Wow….

[iliketag]

I am going to side with KeyandFill here, CC. You raise a fantastic point of giving the photos as a gift, but the caveat is when someone asks the happy couple who did the photos/how much they paid/etc. there will be a pre-existing notion that they can get a “deal”. This is not necessarily something conscious but it does happen more often than not.

For example, just yesterday I was speaking with a friend who asked if I would photograph their wedding. We became friends due to the wedding of a mutual friend I photographed earlier this year. For that wedding I was asked to shoot instead of be a bridesmaid – not because they knew I would deliver what a 4k pro would, but because I would provide them with a quality product (though my limitations, realistically, are not nearly on par with a luxury wedding photog) and I knew how to capture their personalities better than most. Some of the photos came out fantastic, others I look back on and wish I could tweak/practice more… especially regarding OCF… but I digress…

She asked me to shoot her wedding next year and the first question out of her mouth after payment was mentioned was “What did you charge *friend’s name*?” … Before answering I explained that I should have charged more based on what was expected of me and how I now have better equipment and more experience – thus I am worth more.
That did not go over smoothly. Finally we agreed on a discounted (but higher than the previous wedding) price and went from there…

 

Had they known how bad the photographer was, maybe KeyandFill could have taken a couple to give as a gift but not been expected to shoot much – you know, just the biggies: Walking down the aisle, ring exchange, kiss, first dance, cake cutting and toasts. You take ten or 15 photos and get maybe 5 printed for them on the cheap(er – if you have a relationship with your printer), it could go a long way… but I know when I’m a wedding guest, I don’t like immediately being asked or expected to bring my gear.

[iliketag]

To comment on the pho…fauxtographer that shot the wedding – I think there is hope for them, in the future… but they should absolutely NOT be charging or taking on weddings without the know-how, understanding or even entry level gear. Get that bad boy a 50mm 1.8 and a canon ex 430 ii and they can learn how to bounce flash and work with a shallower dof.

It’s a disappointment because the bride in the most recent set is a very pretty girl and looks like she invested a lot of time into looking as good as she did that day (what bride doesn’t? or.. well… in most cases).
Here’s hoping she spends a LOT of time improving and learning. 🙁 So sad for your nephew though.

Oh… and seriously, is the groom wearing eyeliner? Because it just looks like it to me.

 

EDIT: Oh Lord. Going deeper into the album, I change my mind. BAD BAD BAD! Stop charging immediately! Yikes…

[cameraclicker]

I am going to side with KeyandFill here, CC. You raise a fantastic point of giving the photos as a gift, but the caveat is when someone asks the happy couple who did the photos/how much they paid/etc. there will be a pre-existing notion that they can get a “deal”. This is not necessarily something conscious but it does happen more often than not.

I’ll just say, it’s usually safe to treat family different than friends but in either case if you give them a gift, the correct answer to the “how much did it cost?” question is “It was a gift, I don’t know how much it normally costs.”  And, if I like family enough to attend a wedding, I would take gear and shoot it even if I just kept the photos to myself and put a set of prints into my wife’s personal albums.

[iliketag]

When people have come to me after seeing such and such’s photos on their facebook it’s always like “I heard you shot *name*’s wedding for ___. My wedding is in July and that sounds like a really good price.” … It’s a serious facepalm moment because I haven’t really learned a way to explain delicately enough that it’s not able to be conveyed as rude, but stern and professional enough to be straightforward and concise. I definitely need to learn that soon.

I suppose for me, I just get tired of the expectation and the flabbergasted “What do you mean you don’t have your camera with you?”… A former friend who stopped speaking with me after being so rude I burst into tears on my birthday asked my roommate to get their wedding pictures I took as a guest for them! Their argument was “They’re in the photos! Technically they are theirs!” – and that was both them AND my roommate. It got old pretty fast after that =/

[KeyAndFill]

Oh… and seriously, is the groom wearing eyeliner? Because it just looks like it to me.

I don’t think he was wearing eyeliner, I just assumed a product of Pre-made action processing.  There is a photo of the couple sitting on a bench facing the water.  Selective color is used, oh hell, this picture… https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/1377035_518627278215054_1094170781_n.jpg

It hurts my eyes to look at it.  It’s not even truly black and white, it, it’s just not good.

 

[emf]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=344228868988230&set=pb.156622084415577.-2207520000.1381252458.&type=3&theater

 

What exactly is trying to be conveyed in this image? I feel sorry for your nephew and his new wife but why does photography seem to be the only profession where people expect good quality for rock bottom prices. People need to do their research more.

[Author]

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