going to lose my mind over photography

SCD1126 · December 2012

This is my second wedding. I want to keep it low-key and simple (which is hard enough with my first time wedding fiance going crazy with his guest list - he has at least double the people I do LOL).

In a perfect world I'd have an engagement session, four hours of wedding day coverage, and the rights to our favorite images for less than $1000. I found a photographer who offers exactly this, but he doesn't offer that package for a Saturday wedding. ARGH.

All the packages I'm seeing with the photographers have extravagant packages and not only are they $$$$, they are just too, too much. It's just not what I want [insert temper tantrum here].

Am I crazy for not wanting to go crazy in this dept?!? I just feel like my focus this time is so different from my first wedding, and spending a lot of money on photography and having pictures of every little detail is just TOO much. I don't even want to deal with it (let alone pay for it).

thanks for "listening"

right1thistime · December 2012

I have been married for 6 years. My DH teaches photography, so securing the photographer was his job. Like you, he wanted a very specific package of work. To get it, it required speaking with a few photographers, and negotiating for what that was. And paying for it.

I cannot tell you the times we've dug into the proof set (we bought the rights), to get a great photo of someone for some reason. Good photos are valuable to have. ~Donna

handfast4me · December 2012

For my engagement pictures (we did them in full Scottish dress at a local historic landmark), we used a young lady who was trying to build her clientelle, and she was willing to work with us. Her proofs were great, her printing was not so great.

For our wedding, the officiant was also the photographer. Which is not the usual arrangement, but it was Key West, and everything is different there. She took pictures during the ceremony, that I don't even remember her taking. We got a CD (no proofs, no printing) for 250. I'm not sure though, that you'd be happy with what we did, as you seem to have a specific thing in mind. I think photography for a formal wedding is something you don't want to scimp on.

Lisa50 · December 2012

Scrimp on your dress, flowers, whatever, but not on photography. The moments captured are truly priceless. Pittsburgh is a market with more photographers than Saturday weddings. Keep looking.

Have you tried asking your venue manager for recommendations? What about the Pittsburgh Magazine? How about combing the websites of other wedding venues? They often have lists of other vendors they recommend. Ask your cake vendor. Ask everyone you know ... someone will lead you to the person who knows your wedding photographer. Good luck!

SCD1126 · December 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_second-weddings_going-to-lose-my-mind-over-photography?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:35Discussion:3cc1cf99-40dc-49eb-b0a4-f3024f0e235fPost:79266fe9-7c91-4851-9321-368e4cf42c04">Re: going to lose my mind over photography</a>:
[QUOTE]Scrimp on your dress, flowers, whatever, but not on photography. The moments captured are truly priceless. Pittsburgh is a market with more photographers than Saturday weddings. Keep looking. Have you tried asking your venue manager for recommendations? What about the Pittsburgh Magazine? How about combing the websites of other wedding venues? They often have lists of other vendors they recommend. Ask your cake vendor. Ask everyone you know ... someone will lead you to the person who knows your wedding photographer. Good luck!
Posted by Lisa50[/QUOTE]

<div>I'm actually getting married 2 hours north of PIttsburgh (in my hometown). There is one photographer in town and he's not good.</div><div>
</div><div>I know how much I didn't look at the photos from my first wedding so this is an area where I can cut back a little. I'm also not into displaying a lot of photos. A couple are nice to have, but I have no plans to cover a wall with wedding pictures.</div>

MikesAngie · December 2012

Your post about your first marriage pictures and how you believe you will view this marriage's pictures is interesting to me. That could have been me before this marriage.

We have our wedding and causal pictures displayed on a room screen/multi-photo frame, in black and white. We also used our causal session photographs at our wedding on a mantel display with pictures of our dads who both had passed; and now they sit on a media cabinet in our dining room. My husband uses our causal session and wedding pictures as a slide show on our t.v. when we are listening to music or a program is paused. He also mixes in more current pictures as well.

2dBride · December 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_second-weddings_going-to-lose-my-mind-over-photography?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:35Discussion:3cc1cf99-40dc-49eb-b0a4-f3024f0e235fPost:c058117a-0bfa-496c-9981-01a4401bd04d">Re: going to lose my mind over photography</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: going to lose my mind over photography : I'm actually getting married 2 hours north of PIttsburgh (in my hometown). There is one photographer in town and he's not good. I know how much I didn't look at the photos from my first wedding so this is an area where I can cut back a little. I'm also not into displaying a lot of photos. A couple are nice to have, but I have no plans to cover a wall with wedding pictures.
Posted by SCD1126[/QUOTE]
I'm with you. I think wedding photography these days is greatly overblown. While I might want photos of important days in my life, I'd never spend thousands for them, and I don't see why weddings are any different.

I actually ended up with no professional photos of my first wedding. And I was disappointed, but not devastated. We had enough amateur photos to remember the day. And the important thing for me was the marriage, and the celebration with our families and friends, not the photos.

For my second wedding, we found a photographer who had been with a big agency for a long time, but was just starting out on his own. We saw examples of his photos, plus an album of a complete wedding he had done, and liked them. We negotiated for just three hours of coverage (getting ready, ceremony, and some formals afterward), a disk of the edited images, and reproduction rights. And we were very pleased with what we got.

I just wish I could be more help to you, but I'm not really familiar with what's available in the Pittsburg area.

Lisa50 · December 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_second-weddings_going-to-lose-my-mind-over-photography?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:35Discussion:3cc1cf99-40dc-49eb-b0a4-f3024f0e235fPost:c058117a-0bfa-496c-9981-01a4401bd04d">Re: going to lose my mind over photography</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: going to lose my mind over photography : I'm actually getting married 2 hours north of PIttsburgh (in my hometown). There is one photographer in town and he's not good. I know how much I didn't look at the photos from my first wedding so this is an area where I can cut back a little. I'm also not into displaying a lot of photos. A couple are nice to have, but I have no plans to cover a wall with wedding pictures.
Posted by SCD1126[/QUOTE]

Then why the whole "lose my mind over photography" missive? Maybe you have a friend who can snap a photo or two and be done with it.

Sue-n-Kevin · December 2012

Your local Knot board may be very helpful with this.

I'm with many brides, I think the prices are outrageous, but you are paying for the expertise and "eye" of the photographer. I could do a ton of DIY projects, arrange my own flowers, but not take my own wedding pictures, and photography is one of my hobbies.

Here's how we found our photographer: I went to a local get together of other brides from our local Knot board. Nice ladies, fun to meet them. I mentioned looking for a photographer, and one of the other brides said her husband does this "on the side". He has another "real" job, LOL. She gave me his website and I looked at his pics. Had pretty good skills. I contacted him and we arranged for the engagement shoot as an audition. Took really good pictures, and we were thrilled. He lives about 90 minutes from our venue, and since this was simply a "hobby", he charged us $600 for the wedding day, he was there roughly 8 hrs, and at that price, he sold me the proofs so I could get my own pictures done.

I'd recommend asking on your local board for a more 'low key" photographer, maybe one starting out looking for business, but who also has a website with some indication of skill level. You have some great advice above for also finding someone outside the mainstream who may be building a portfolio of work. For the most part, anyone advertising is going to charge more than someone trying to build their portfolio.

I wasn't fussy about a lot of things, and having uber-artsy pictures wasn't that important to us. Finding someone within our price range, who would give up the rights (they have to do this in writing or photo stores won't give you your pics), was happenstance in our case, but you should be able to find someone.

Good luck.

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