A friendly photographer with good photos

Deciding on our photographer this week seemed like a hard task, but after weeks of searching, it became really easy once we had met our final 3.

He Says

Kate absolutely loves photos! I open my photo gallery on my computer, which includes most of Kate’s photos from when she was growing up (bar one incident with a hard drive being wiped, too bad she didn’t know me then!), and inside the gallery is 119,607 photos, not including the ones on my other computer which is a few thousand more. So getting a good photographer is essential.

To find a photographer, we once again used the Easy Weddings website which listed quite a few and we scanned through their online albums and pricings. We managed to narrow it down to three photographers and we arranged to meet them one by one. The first one we met was a nice lady, similarly priced to the other two photographers we were looking at, but she didn’t want to spend more than 6 hours or so taking photos.

If we think about it, we are looking at having our wedding about lunch time, so let’s say 12pm. We then have the reception booked from 6pm onwards. That gives us 6 hours of photos, yes, but it won’t include a couple of hours beforehand to take photos of the bride getting ready and of the groomsmen, and also won’t allow for a couple of photos at the start of the reception.

The second photographer we looked at, he wasn’t the most sociable bloke, and I got the impression he did wedding photography on the side and that it wasn’t a priority. Kate immediately told me after we left, that she wouldn’t feel comfortable around him, as he didn’t have that type of personality.

The third and final photographer we looked at, was instantly different to the other two, he came to us instead of us going to see him, and he came prepared with lots to show. He was also very approachable and friendly, as well as being more than happy to spend as many hours as we wanted on the day, taking photos. We were sold instantly!

I learnt a lot about weddings by meeting the photographers, as I’d never been to a big formal wedding before in my life (this will be my first!). I had no idea about the photographer taking photos of the bride and groom getting ready in the morning that you went around to places in the fancy cars getting photos or that mock photos of the wedding dance and cake cutting were done at the start of the reception and that the photographer doesn’t stay for the reception. It was all news to me.

She Says

Looking for the photographer, Donald and I did this as a team. We started off by looking at lots of different photographer’s websites and online albums so we could get a sense of how good we found their photos. We emailed a few people for quotes and pricing information and then we went back through all of the photographers that were within our budget, which for me was less than $2000.

After we rang around a bit more, we narrowed it down to three people. The first person was really friendly and invited us to her place for a chat. Her work was average, but the price and her attitude were great.

The second person we spoke to was a bit rude at first, he simply asked us if we got his email, as if to say that everything should have been covered in it. However he invited us over for a further chat, which lasted about five minutes and ended with pretty much an “Ok, bye” on his part. He wasn’t a really friendly person and we crossed him off the list as soon as we left.

The last person I rang was in his car between destinations, but had pulled over to take my call.  He was more than happy to answer all of my questions at the time and we really friendly and helpful. He then sent us more information and after having another helpful chat on the phone, he came around to our place. He gave the impression of being really easy to work with, very knowledgeable and his photos were amazing, so we picked him there and then to be our photographer.

Looking for a photographer was a really fun thing to do because I love taking and being in photos, so picking a photographer was also really important. I can’t wait to be able to look back on all of the memories.