Getting what you pay for.

I read an interesting article recently that more or less matched my own thoughts on the costs associated with wedding photography. It made me wonder why us poor wedding photographers even bother to get up in the morning, especially with so many half-wits spending weekends earning untaxed beer money with their own uninsured, unqualified, poor version of wedding photography.

Most folk are likely to have heard about the brides and grooms who have not received their wedding albums, or the job that the so called professional did was so bad, they cried for weeks afterwards. In other words, the photographer wrecked the wedding, and their memories were ruined. But is it a case of you really do get what you paid for?

Some out of work people are quick to see where they can make a fast, undeclared buck on top of their dole money, available from a few weekends work of quick snapping, before hobbling off to Asda for the one-hour wedding prints to be made. These characters, the hardy weekend warriors, might probably even account for more than half of the wedding images taken throughout the week..? Pay cheap – suffer the consequences..?

And yet the real photographers, those who can do the job expected of them, who are tax registered, properly insured, and expect the couple to be like-wise insured, are slowly reducing in numbers as the weekend warriors do their bit to ruin hopes and wishes.

It was with some amusement when a potential customer said they could get a similar level of service from A N Other, including a ‘proper’ digital album, for supposedly half my cost. I suggested she do it, and hopefully she kept smiling afterwards, because I knew it was not possible. But out of curiosity I researched the lady photographer in question. True enough, I found her price, but then there was the small print. This was for a maximum of three hours work (and not just on-site, but from where she lived and return), so on-site left maybe two hours? Additional time was then charged at £100 for each 30 minutes extra, so before you knew it that cheap product had suddenly becoming rather expensive...

If it is going to be done properly a true pro will not rush through with a scatter-gun approach, firing away at will, hoping enough images will be acceptable to make a poor quality album that would cost the picture-taker (I really cannot use the word photographer), less than £50 to make.

Money is not everything, but I believe you really do get what you pay for, which from a real pro photographer, is going to be quality, commitment, a love for the job, and standard of service.

Make sure proper research is done and be wary of dealing on cost alone – it could be a painful experience.