Michigan-Detroit

Photographer questions

Just wondering what is a average/good price for a photographer for about 8 hours and if anyone has recommendations for a photographer. I am seeing anything from $1,400-$15,000 (ridiculous). 

What things should we look for in a package? How long did your photographers stay after the ceremony? Should they stay for most of the reception?

Thanks!
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Re: Photographer questions

  • edited January 2012
    I would estimate most people in Detroit spend between $1,200 and 3,000 on their photographer.

    Some of the most raved about on here are The Camera Chick, Pure Amour and Amy Boeve. 

    I booked Adam Czap and he was $5,500 for the package we chose.  The package included engagement session with a few prints, 8 hours of wedding coverage with 2 photographers, album, and full printing rights...possibly something else I may be forgetting.  We booked him because his work was fantastic and his personality clicked really well with us.  Unfortunately he had a forseeable family emergency the week of our wedding and couldn't make it, clearly causing a lot of unneccessary stress for us.  For his business practices he gets like a D- from us. 
    In the end Marek Dsomethingverypolish (www.Marekd.com) ended up photographing our wedding and from the sneak peek he did a very good job, I believe his prices are similar to Adam's. 

    Photography was something very important to us and we also did not know where to begin...so we started at bridal shows.  This was the main vendor that made it worth going to the shows in my opinion.  We were able to see bits of many personalities in one day, and also were able to review their work.  Definitely take notes because it gets overwhelming. 

    Look for full printing rights, although I think every photographer has that now.  Our photographer showed up about 45 minutes before we had to leave for the church to get some shots of us getting ready, they stayed until about an hour into the dancing portion of the reception.  The reasoning behind that is once they have taken some dancing pictures, they will begin to look the same.  The only downside is, our band surprised us with a cool special moment at the very end of the reception....the only pictures of that were taken with cheap point and shoot cameras, in a dimly lit room. Moral of the story, a photographer who stays for the whole reception would be a huge selling point for me if I did it over.


    Sorry for the novel, but hope that helps a bit.
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  • Ditto PP that Amy Boeve (my photographer), The Camera Chick, Pure Amour, Amanda Williams, and a few others are highly recommended.

    I think she's about right in what the average photographer in Detroit costs.  Obviously you can find cheaper than $1000 and more than $3000 but it really just depends on your budget.

    Personally, I hate bridal shows and I felt all the vendors I met were all pretty smarmy and used car salesman-ish.  But that's just me :)

    I started researching photographers based on the recommendations on this board.  I figured if real brides have used them and raved about them that is more indicative of how good of a vendor they are than how they impress me at a bridal show.  So I started checking out websites and as soon as I saw Amy Boeve's photos, I fell in love.  I knew I had to have her because I loved every.single.photo I saw.  My opinion is that if you don't love their pictures that they put on their websites then don't bother.  Their website should be the best of the best of their work and if you are still "eh" about them, you won't like your own wedding photos.

    But the things that came with my package were travel fee (no additional fee), printing rights, all day coverage, and an engagement session.  Since I had all day coverage, Amy got there about 11am when we were getting ready and then left at about 10pm from the reception.
  • We are spening around $1000, and that included an engagement session. Ours is on the cheaper side, but we do not get any prints...but thats why we chose him. He puts them all on a high res cd and you have them printed. Saved us ALOT of money. We will have all the rights to all the pics.
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  • My photographer, who has become my friend, is charging me $1000. He will probably bring another photographer along for the pre ceremony, I have fill printing rights, a hard bound photo album, and I have him for 8-10 hours. Jason Laurain Photography. He has only done like about 4 weddings, I am his 5th I think... And he had more booked for 2012. His website has our engagement pics, and he's on Facebook too. I love his work and I am excited to work with him.
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  • I am someone who has done wedding photography in the past and can STILL say that I feel most photographers are overcharging. My day job is as a graphic designer and I've been to art school while most of these wedding photographers seem to have just "picked it up" or started it as a "hobby" and I can totally tell.

    So needless to say I absolutely REFUSED to consider a photographer who charged over $1500 because I am perfectly capable of editing and printing photos myself.

    I found Amy Pruder through Bombshell Bridal Boutique and she is very very reasonable (amypruder.com) - I think she may be slightly less experienced, but I'm okay with that, her portfolio still shows she is quite competant.

    There is always a way to get a lower price. If you fall in love with a photographer and you can't afford their price tag, try to negotiate. You don't HAVE to order prints or an album through a photographer, those items drive up the cost significantly. Also you can negotiate for less time and I'm sure the price tag will drop (do you really need photos of putting makeup on and doing your hair? Do you really need the photos at the very end of the night of people tired and wasted?)

    If you feel confident in editing photos yourself through a self-print web site, you could also try to negotiate whether a photographer will do just an hourly rate and give you the raw unedited photos (editing is what drives up the cost in my books because it is WAY more time consuming than actually shooting the photos).
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  • I paid just under $2000 for Adam Sparkes and loved the work he did. His package included an engagement session, second photographer for both the engagement and day of, all day coverage for the day of and digital rights. I wasn't concerned with getting prints because there are so many outlets on the internet have them printed, same with an album.

  • Wow thank you all. I will look into those people. We had a reference for JS photography???
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  • marekdmarekd member
    First Comment
    edited July 2012
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.weddings.com/Sites/Weddings/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_michigan-detroit_photographer-questions?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:88Discussion:df959b41-f25e-40b6-9ad8-e1471a761e13Post:0beb7e51-20b7-4afe-bd49-c74cea3b2333">Re: Photographer questions</a>:
    [QUOTE]I booked Adam Czap and he was $5,500 for the package we chose.  The package included engagement session with a few prints, 8 hours of wedding coverage with 2 photographers, album, and full printing rights...possibly something else I may be forgetting.  We booked him because his work was fantastic and his personality clicked really well with us.  Unfortunately he had a forseeable family emergency the week of our wedding and couldn't make it, clearly causing a lot of unneccessary stress for us.  For his business practices he gets like a D- from us.[/QUOTE]

    <div><span style="color:#333333;font-family:'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;font-size:11px;font-style:normal;background-color:#ffffff;">Allie, this is Marek from Dziekonski Photography. I filled in for Adam and Heather Czap as your wedding photographer.</span>

    <span style="color:#333333;font-family:'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;font-size:11px;font-style:normal;background-color:#ffffff;">I stumbled upon your post by an accident (link to my website) and I was really surprised to see you refer to Adam's circumstances as "foreseeable family emergency". Although I was sure that I told you, I can only assume that you did not know or forgot that their son died a few days before his due date and that Heather had to deliver a still baby a few days before your wedding.</span>

    <span style="color:#333333;font-family:'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;font-size:11px;font-style:normal;background-color:#ffffff;">I could not even fathom how Adam could have possibly photographed your wedding given these devastating circumstances. </span>

    <span style="color:#333333;font-family:'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;font-size:11px;font-style:normal;background-color:#ffffff;">Giving him a D- for his business practicies is definitely unjust, especially given the fact that he was prepared for the worst of circumstances and was able to find a photographer with similar style and experience in his place.</span>

    <span style="color:#333333;font-family:'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;font-size:11px;font-style:normal;background-color:#ffffff;">I think it would only be fair that in your public posts you refer to his situation truthfully as a family tragedy, and not as "foreseeable family emergency".</span>

    <span style="color:#333333;font-family:'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;font-size:11px;font-style:normal;background-color:#ffffff;">Kind Regards,</span>
    <span style="color:#333333;font-family:'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;font-size:11px;font-style:normal;background-color:#ffffff;">Marek Dziekonski</span></div>
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