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Wedding Photography e-Book - Amateur or Professional?

Peruse the ranks of the local professionals offering wedding photography services and one will find most photographers straddling a particular price range. As with most situations, a bell curve has most photographers clumped together to form a middle group with smaller groups on the lip of the bell for the lower-cost photographers and the high-end pros that most of the middle group aspire to. However, scratch beneath the surface of the wedding photography market and instead of a bell shaped curve, you might actually find a double-humped camel curve with the lower-cost range being the unknown factor for how big the second hump is.

The wedding industry is a huge business with billions of dollars available in a massive pie that everyone wants a piece of. Now not everyone is going to have champagne wishes and caviar dreams, but put all of those regular sized and more humble weddings together and it still ends up being a huge market nationally, regionally and locally.

To cater to this huge and continuous market for services, there are photographers of all stripes using new, old and borrowed equipment and not everyone will be a bona fide professional photographer accredited as such by some national association.

This raises the question of what is a professional photographer? Some define professionalism as being the demeanor and comportment of a person doing the job and others define it as based upon how much income the person derives from the activity. Yet another more technical definition is being accredited to work within a particularly demanding occupation such as the medical, legal, accounting, engineering, or architectural fields.

While photographers can certainly be “accredited” by a national association of wedding photographers (or any other group or type of photography) and those with the credentials can also apply to be recognized as a professional by their choice of equipment brand (Nikon and Canon Professional Services), most people, including me, would define a professional photographer as one that derives the bulk of his or her income through photographic pursuits.

How a photographer handles him or herself and the kind of image they impart on others is certainly important and “might,” allow one to say, “I act with the utmost professionalism”; however, the weekend warrior still does not qualify. If a person can honestly answer the question of “what do you do for a living?” with “I’m a photographer”, as opposed to “I’m an office desk jockey Monday to Friday, but a photographer on the weekend” then you’re not a professional in the basic sense of the word.

Just because a weekend warrior has a dubious claim to being called a professional photographer does not mean that their ability to produce excellent photographs is any less than the “real” professional. How do you think a lot of those full time pros got their start in the business? Whether it be wildlife, as in the case of Moose Peterson, or landscapes in the case of Galen Rowell, many photographers got their start being weekend warriors plying their photography when time allowed and building up their skills, image library, contacts, and ultimately, their business. Where there is a will, there is a way, but do you have the dedication to build such a business for yourself?

Professionalism can also be defined or described as a devotion to one’s craft. Nothing happens overnight and nothing happens without some toiling to build one’s skills and knowledge base. It is an overworked cliché, but if you want to be good you must practice and for photographers that means getting out and photographing. This is where owning a digital SLR can help mitigate the large cost of film and processing that such devotion requires, but more on digital later on.

Since this module is being written from the perspective of a weekend warrior for other weekend warriors, let’s look at how we might want to conduct ourselves in plying our trade.

You may inadvertently be called a “pro”, but fact is you’re not a real pro in the sense of the word described earlier; however, that should not stop you from dressing and acting with “professionalism.” Even as a non-professional service provider, you are likely still charging a significant amount of money for the photographs you can offer a couple. You need to ensure that you act in a manner that warrants the potentially high fee, along with providing excellent photographs of course.

As a part time photographer you’re already behind the eight ball because the real pros hate you and will denigrate you to ensure that the client hires them and not you. Okay, that was a bit broad to say pros hate you, because I made it seem like all the pros hate you when it might only be a small group that sees you as competition to put bread on the table and butter on that bread.

Certain photographers really seem to resent the notion that they should have to be in competition with non-professionals. Any instance of another photographer taking photos at the same time as they are, means a risk to their profit because the more photos taken by others means the less chance that the couple will purchase the pro’s shots. However, it depends on how exactly the packages are structured by the pro. In my time doing a few weddings here and there in Vancouver, I’ve only come across the very traditional style of wedding packages a few times compared to most photographers offering a basic package of a proof album with enlargements and custom albums on top of the basic package.

The traditional style of photography as I know it is hiring and paying a set fee for the photographer to show up and take photos. Afterwards, no additional money is paid out until the proofs have been reviewed to create the custom album and enlargements have been ordered. Proofs or proof albums are additional cost and not included. In this particular example one can see that the more photos are taken by others, the greater the risk to the photographer that he or she won’t sell as many photos as hoped for, since it is from the album and enlargements the photographer makes the money on, as the day fee is usually minimal.

However, I do find that such attitudes from the real pros are generally unwarranted. Indeed it can be annoying when after spending time coordinating and setting up a shot, you go back to the camera position only to see a two or three guests snapping away at your setup. By the time you get to take the shot the subjects have already had their photo taken a dozen times in that one static pose and you the official photographer, must take at least three more photos to ensure that no one has their eyes closed or has looked away from the lens. BUT, if you conduct yourself with professionalism, utilizing fine photographic equipment and film (or digital) and since you normally have the prime shooting position, your images should be superior to anything produced by the guests with their point and shoots and therefore their photos should be of no concern to you and your livelihood.

Certainly there will be times when guests have taken so many photos that all the couple desires are your proofs and nothing more, but if you know what you’re doing and if your photographic and artistic eye has been finely tuned, your photos should stand out and speak for themselves. In other words, your photos should sell themselves.

I’ve seen this happen a few times with clients of a friend of mine, who took their time to come and see their proof album because they had already received and reviewed all the photos taken by their friends. They did not think that there could be anything more or fresh for them to see in our photos; however, when they finally did review our output they were blown away and understood why they had spent the money that they did for two photographers able to provide them with the quality they desired (even if they didn’t fully appreciate that in the beginning).

Lastly, look at the sample photo above and look at the quality of the cameras used; point and shoots, a disposable, and a modest SLR. To suggest that this level of equipment and snapshot quality can compete against a dedicated wedding photographer utilizing the best equipment he or she can afford is...well, enough said!

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