I just came across this fantastic piece in Seattle Bride Magazine - it's a great read and really illustrates why it is so important to hire a good professional photographer photographer for your wedding. enjoy!
I
consider myself a pretty good amateur photographer. I've taken a couple
of classes, I have a nice Nikon D60 and, as a professional travel
writer, I've even had a few of my shots make magazine covers and pages.
If you didn't budget for a professional photographer at your wedding,
I'm the friend you might call to take pictures.
So when Seattle Bride sent me to the late-winter wedding of Vicky Wu and Chris Nicoll to shoot alongside Joey Hong of John & Joseph Photography,
a local award-winning team of two brothers who have been shooting
commercial, fashion and wedding photography for more than eight years,
I was curious to see how well I could keep up with a seasoned pro.
From
the moment we started shooting in the bride and groom's hotel room, I
was floored. "Vicky, look down at your shoulders...put a gentle smile on
your lips. Chris, look straight at my lens--no, smile. Relax your
forehead." Joey's attention to such minute detail went way beyond "Say
cheese" and brought out the couple's absolute best. He knew how to
manipulate the room's light and reflective surfaces in ways I never
would have dreamed of, transforming what I thought was an unremarkable
setting into a photo studio with endless possibilities.
Joey
commanded family portraits with a gentle control and confidence that
only comes from years of experience. He had the right flashes and
steadiness of hand for getting great dance photos, while I snapped shot
after blurry shot in a mild panic that my precious memory space was
quickly dwindling. I was giving it my best, and in a few instances it
showed: an inside shot of Vicky simply glowing in the window's natural
light; a close-up kiss in the sunlight where the couple wore the
sweetest smiles. But when those spontaneous moments that are here and
gone in the blink of an eye happened, Joey caught them with lightning
speed, while I lost many of them to improper focus or exposure.
I
now disagree more than ever with the digital-age adage that "now
everyone is a photographer." Tens of thousands of dollars in education,
equipment and experience separate me from the pros. Professional
photographers, like any other artists or business owners, need to spend
money to make money. When you hire them, you're helping them pay for
their investments.
"Photography is a very equipment-intensive business, and the equipment is expensive," says Scott Squire of NonFiction Weddings,
a Seattle-based photography team with 10 years of experience. To each
wedding, he and his partner bring six or seven top-drawer lenses, a
handful of strobes, three camera bodies, one backup and innumerable
accessories. (In contrast, if my equipment had failed, my backup would
have been my camera phone.)
Staying on top of new technology
in the digital age is its own challenge, one that takes a professional
commitment and expense. "The rate of change [in digital media] can be
stupefying," laughs longtime Seattle-based wedding photographer Sharlane Chase. She keeps up with the flow of information at annual weeklong workshops and seminars, and it shows in her final product.
Vicky and Chris
would have been pretty disappointed if I had been their only
photographer. If anyone ever does ask me to take pictures at their
wedding, I'll be happy to show up with my Nikon, and I may even take
the best disposable-camera shots of the whole night. I just hope
someone like Joey is there, too.
"This
was such a cute moment, totally unscripted," Ellerd remembers. "They
bumped fists and it was clear it was a little habit of theirs, one that
conveyed their friendship. Joey was right there to catch it while I was
fumbling with my focus ring."
"This
image is so painfully inferior," says our rogue photographer Cody
Ellerd about her image. "My angle is bland while Joey's is creative.
His is crisp and perfectly exposed, while mine is washed out and
grainy. Joey knew exactly how to take advantage of the sense of motion
created by this cool backdrop."
"The
couple was getting a little photo fatigued," Ellerd says, "but Joey
turned it into a beautiful and intimate shot. I thought there was
enough light, but without using a flash and spoiling the cool light
bouncing off the building behind them, I couldn't get my hand quite
steady enough."
For
this "exit shot," the clarity and color of Joey's shot versus Ellerd's
is evident. "Notice the white car in front of Chris and Vicky," Ellerd
says. "Joey magically made it disappear--I'm not even gonna try."
Saw that article last week and smiled. I also like that it points out it is in fact both the photographer and their camera that are the advantage, not just one.
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