Photography Dilemma

toshecky

[I posted this on the Photography board but it's a pretty slow board, so I thought it was worth posting here too as some of you nor cal married knotties might have some good opinions and insight!  TIA!]We have interview a few photographers, and really like 2 of them. However, they have tooooootally different strengths, and we are completely torn between the two:Photographer A has about 5 years of experience shooting weddings, with 1 year experience as the head photographer. He used to work in graphic design, so he has a very design-oriented eye, and looks to get creative and unique shots. Many of his shots are very artistic. Rather than using the flash on the camera, he uses off camera lighting (it looks like he brings a lighting guy with him?) to get more dramatic shots, although it seems like this might be a little obtrusive. He also is a more high-energy type of person, whereas my FI and I are a little more low key and laidback, so although we are comfortable enough with him, our personalities don't quite mesh and we aren't sure how in-your-face he'll be on the wedding day.Photographer B has a fair number of years of experience shooting weddings (oops, not sure exactly how long). Prior to photographing weddings, she was a journalist, using all types of media. Her focus is on the meaning of the day and of the marriage, and she likes her photographs to capture and tell the story. She is particularly good at catching great expressions on people's faces. However, while she can sometimes take artistic shots (especially evident in her engagement shoots), the majority of her wedding photography is not very artistic or even necessarily well-composed - aside from the catching moments part of it, it looks like I could have taken those pics. She has a super friendly and easy-going personality, though, to the point where we feel we could easily even be friends with her.Ideally, we would love to find the perfect balance of awesome pictures and awesome personality, but that isn't quite happening with these two, as they each have their strengths. Ultimately, I think we could be happy with either one, as neither of them are bad. But. It would be nice to be able to figure out which would be best.So. Who to choose? Photographer A with many artistic shots whose presence may be a little obtrusive, or Photographer B with an awesome personality and skill for catching moments, whose pictures are a little unimpressive?

Aimee8314

Is there a reason you can't keep looking and find someone who fits a little better?  We had a similar problem - one of the photogs we liked was more artistic than the other.  And they both had great laid back personalities that really fit with the feel that we wanted for our wedding, which was the most important thing we looked for with all our vendors.  We ended up choosing the less artistic artist because she was very willing to look at photos we loved and hated so that she could take photos we wanted; and she was willing to do more photoshopping to do interesting things with some of the photos.  AND she gave us more photos/albums for our money.  It sounds like you'd prefer Photog B but with a little more traditional photos....perhaps if you had a conversation with her she would be willing to see what type of photos you would also like to see - and she can maybe work on recreating them?  I think it would be awesome to have someone who can catch the moments because it seems like that's the harder part.  The personality thing was a huge deal breaker for us though, so I might be more inclined to select someone with a personality that fits more with the feel of the wedding. Or you can keep looking for a nice mix.  There are tons of photographers out there.  We just happened to get lucky - we met with three and hated one and loved the other two.

toshecky

Thanks Aimee!  Yeah, we will spend a little more time looking at other photographers to see if we can find someone who achieves that perfect balance of everything we want.  But I don't want to drag this out too long (there are still lots of other decisions to get to! hehe), and if that search isn't very fruitful, then the decision will still come down to these two.  Since we just interviewed them both this week, I would like to be able to better sort out my thoughts while they are both still fresh in my mind (I have a terrible memory!).  It was helpful to hear your experience in choosing your photographer, thanks!

anglyn

I don't really have any advice other than our photographer brought additional lighting with him and we didn't mind. Although the set up between the ceremony and portraits took a few minutes. I cannot stress enough that you have to like the people you will be spending all day with. Our photographer was basically standing right behind us ALL day. If you don't need someone you cant get a long with there. Maybe you can look around to find someone who is a mix of A and B?

Milliechel67

I say keep looking if possible.  A wedding is a hard event to shoot and some people are more comfortable with portrature which sounds like may be the case for "B."  I'd be concerned if you don't feel comfortable with "A's" personality too though.  It might be worth giving "A" a chance with e-pics though to see how he is in that environment.

aflores4

Also, I would suggest tring to think about what is most important to YOU. I wanted more memories of moments, but we didn't have a video made so that was more important to me. Our photographer did that perfectly. I felt the artistic shots could be anyone's wedding, but the moments were all mine. :-) Good luck!

toshecky

Thanks for the suggestions and input ladies!  We'll keep all that in mind as we make our decision.