Tangent from E-Pics Post

PirateintheSky · August 2010

I've been finding that a lot of the photographers I like most are more trendy and have only been working for 10 years or less. The others that have a much larger portfolio and have been around 20+ have a much more traditional feel that isn't my style. We had a friend with a photography hobby take our e-pics, which we really liked, but we don't trust him to do a larger event. Plus, we'd rather him be there as a guest.

MissIntentional · August 2010

i just picked the photographer whose pictures had me wishing i was in every one of them.

rbtrumpet · August 2010

I put style over experience, but make sure to find someone with some experience too.

We did our e-shoot with someone who had shot 2 e-sessions before and never a wedding, even though I like his style, I realized it just wasn't going to work out. It would have been fine if we had like 5 hours for pictures, but we don't.

Originally we worked it out so that our wedding photographer (who has been doign this for over 20 years) would be the main photographer and our friend with no experience would be his "assistant" - which was a really good compromise, so maybe you can find something like that?

parker624 · August 2010

we chose experience over style and I think it was a mistake. We have no fun pics of us and our wedding party and I'm very upset about it..

NuggetBrain · August 2010

I was head over heels in love with one particular photographer, but he was way out of my budget. After our first choice within budget turned out to be a big dud, we heard about another person through my local and went with her. I really liked who we ended up with, and I think her pictures are fantastic especially for the price we paid for them, but I think my dream photographer would have produced more artistically edited photographs, if that makes any sense. I don't at all regret who we went with though.

xyrius · August 2010

sorry to hijack but,

parker, not related to this post, but where did your hubby find those pittsburgh cufflinks? my FI is a HUGE hockey fan and I'd love to get him a montreal set. were they expensive?

Belle2Be · August 2010

Style, but more than 0 experience

aimers1525 · August 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_tangent-e-pics-post?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:31518c5b-9911-40b4-98d0-53db3894c148Post:faba5049-1df0-4205-9073-7b7e91b33f2a">Tangent from E-Pics Post</a>:
[QUOTE]I've been finding that a lot of the photographers I like most are more trendy and have only been working for 10 years or less. The others that have a much larger portfolio and have been around 20+ have a much more traditional feel that isn't my style. We had a friend with a photography hobby take our e-pics, which we really liked, but we don't trust him to do a larger event. Plus, we'd rather him be there as a guest.
Posted by PirateintheSky[/QUOTE]
We were in a similar situation. We have a friend who is a photographer who just started shooting weddings. We asked him to photograph our wedding, basically to be polite, but expressed to him that we would much rather he be a guest and have a good time. In addition, while he is a fantastic commercial/real estate/sports photographer he doesn't have much of a wedding portfolio, so I feel much better going with photographer who does and going with a photographer whose stly we really like.

parker624 · August 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_tangent-e-pics-post?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:31518c5b-9911-40b4-98d0-53db3894c148Post:759a860f-6499-4546-ad89-f2c483c82749">Re: Tangent from E-Pics Post</a>:
[QUOTE]sorry to hijack but, parker, not related to this post, but where did your hubby find those pittsburgh cufflinks? my FI is a HUGE hockey fan and I'd love to get him a montreal set. were they expensive?
Posted by xyrius[/QUOTE]

I think it was cufflinks.com. We got our groomsmen their favorite sports teams as their gift. I think they were around $60?

squirrly · August 2010

Personally, I think 10 years is plenty of experience.

Under 3? I'd be concerned. 3 - 10? As long as you look at a LOT of photos, I think you're fine. Ask to see everything from the last 3 weddings they shot. Have they ever worked at your venue? Ask to see all the photos from that venue. Not just the ones in their portfolio.

Keep in mind, too - the best photos are going to be from the best planned weddings. So, it matters what the details are to take photos OF, not just how they captured them, ya know? So, if you're looking at weddings that have a really different planning style than what you're working on, your photos won't look the same.

thesuninherhead · August 2010

My photographer had done two weddings when we booked him. By the time our wedding rolled around, he'd been shooting weddings for 18 months (I guess he'd done about 15 or so)... meanwhile in the year following our wedding, his work has featured in countless magazines, he has 52 weddings booked this year alone and he's being flown around the world by couples to shoot their weddings and e-pics. I think the fact that he's got a fresh take on wedding photography and is passionate about it right now is what makes his work so amazing.

parker624 · August 2010

I agree with squirrly, but you also want to make sure that your photographer takes pictures of those things that matter to you, especially if they look gorgeous. We have barely any pics of our centerpieces and they were so stunning. Also barely any candids of my in laws, which I am embarrased about.

temerityjane · August 2010

I like the look of a lot of the trendy, newer photographers, and I really enjoy looking at those pictures, but I've realized over planning that my pictures won't look like that, no matter who I book with, because I'm not that type of person. I don't want to do jumping pics, or "let's both sit on this bench in an area that seems weird for wedding pictures and look in different directions" kind of thing. I like how they look when OTHER people do them, but that's just not me. At all.

And I think that as more and more of those super trendy kinds of pictures have become popular, more and more people are trying to pull of unique, super arty, trendy pictures and they're just not suited for them and look awkward. I'm afraid of that happening to me.

So, that said, I did go with some younger photographers and they ARE pretty super trendy, but they're also flexible and do their best to work with each individual couple.

So it's not experience that I'm interested in, or trendy picture styles that I'm interested in, but someone who has a loose and unique enough approach to photography that they're going to do what works for US - whether that be super traditional pics or more trendy stuff.

thesuninherhead · August 2010

Unrelated to my post, but how much experience does one require to be considered 'experienced'? I would consider my photog highly experienced now given he's shot so many weddings this year, but this is only his second year in. Your categories (ten years vs twenty) both seem to be ridiculously long periods of time for one person to maintain the same job. I would think that a photog with enough skill to be selected to shoot a wedding now probably wouldn't be shooting weddings 10-20 years in the future; said skill would ensure they'd move onwards and upwards. And on another note, who in their right mind would want to do the same job for that period of time?

squirrly · August 2010

Oh - and to go with Sun's post - I don't think it's so much about how many weddings, but how much WORK has he done, period. Whether it's for magazines or photography books or whatever, I'd want to see work that proved he could compose photos and balance light and all that jazz.

Subject matter is mostly irrelevant.

thesuninherhead · August 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_tangent-e-pics-post?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:31518c5b-9911-40b4-98d0-53db3894c148Post:4b876f22-abae-4ec0-bce3-0573f6e5abc7">Re: Tangent from E-Pics Post</a>:
[QUOTE]I like the look of a lot of the trendy, newer photographers, and I really enjoy looking at those pictures, but I've realized over planning that my pictures won't look like that, no matter who I book with, because I'm not that type of person. I don't want to do jumping pics, or "let's both sit on this bench in an area that seems weird for wedding pictures and look in different directions" kind of thing. I like how they look when OTHER people do them, but that's just not me. At all. And I think that as more and more of those super trendy kinds of pictures have become popular, more and more people are trying to pull of unique, super arty, trendy pictures and they're just not suited for them and look awkward. I'm afraid of that happening to me. So, that said, I did go with some younger photographers and they ARE pretty super trendy, but they're also flexible and do their best to work with each individual couple. So it's not experience that I'm interested in, or trendy picture styles that I'm interested in, but someone who has a loose and unique enough approach to photography that they're going to do what works for US - whether that be super traditional pics or more trendy stuff.
Posted by temerityjane[/QUOTE] I felt the same way, TJ. Thus hiring a photog who really didn't do a lot of direction! We essentially just wandered around and did our own thing on the street where our ceremony was held, and he followed. There was no, 'look here, head that way' sort of stuff.

Belle2Be · August 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_tangent-e-pics-post?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:31518c5b-9911-40b4-98d0-53db3894c148Post:3da2e714-67bd-47b8-b7e0-b62e56a0e359">Re: Tangent from E-Pics Post</a>:
[QUOTE]Unrelated to my post, but how much experience does one require to be considered 'experienced'? I would consider my photog highly experienced now given he's shot so many weddings this year, but this is only his second year in. Your categories (ten years vs twenty) both seem to be ridiculously long periods of time for one person to maintain the same job. I would think that a photog with enough skill to be selected to shoot a wedding now probably wouldn't be shooting weddings 10-20 years in the future; said skill would ensure they'd move onwards and upwards. And on another note, who in their right mind would want to do the same job for that period of time?
Posted by thesuninherhead[/QUOTE]
If I could do photography the rest of my life I would die happy :D<img src="http://cdn.cl9.vanillaforums.com/downloaded/ver1.0/content/scripts/tinymce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-smile.gif" border="0" alt="Smile" title="Smile" />

saschaduran · August 2010

Talent outweighs experience by far. Think of young fashion designers, interior designers, artists, etc. Often a young talent has a fresher take and is not stuck in a rut doing the same thing over and over.

One look at Sun's photos is a perfect example of that.

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