Cheap and Unreliable Wedding Photographers South Wales
Ok , so you are getting married – congratulations !!! You have chosen the most beautiful designer wedding dress, exqusite venue, luxurious limousine and the most organised toastmaster that your hard earned cash can buy. But wait, what about the photographer ? … “ooh, uncle Bob’s doing the photographs .. he has a really good camera” I hear this quite often in discussions on online forums, bridal blogs etc. The reality is that uncle Bob may have a ‘really good camera’ but does he know how to use it ? … I used to own a vintage fender stratocaster guitar but no matter how hard I tried I could never get it to sound like Eric Clapton !!
I covered a local wedding yesterday and on my return home checked my mobile phone … six missed calls !! , then checked the office phone .. eight missed calls !!. seven of the calls were from the same telephone number, so before unloading my equipment from the car I returned the call. The calls were from a distraught young lady who had been informed by her photographer that he/she was unable to cover her wedding due to a planned medical operation that had been brought forward. This story seems familiar I thought, and before she even told me the photographer’s name I had a pretty good idea who it was. You see, I have had around six similar phone calls from upset ‘brides to be’ during the past 18 months, all with a similar story to tell. If the photographer in question has had as many ‘medical operations’ as stated within such a short period of time then the photographer surely isn’t fit enough to work anyway !! The truth is (and I know this for a fact) is that the photographer in question ‘cherry picks’ bookings … meaning that he/she will purposely take multiple bookings for the same date only to choose the most lucrative nearer the date of the wedding ….. leaving the unlucky bride with a returned deposit but ‘photographerless’ for the most important day of her life … in this case the last Saturday in July, which is probably the busiest day for weddings throughout the year. Unfortunately for the young bride in question this date was filled in my calender many moons ago … in fact if a photographer is still available to cover a wedding on the last Saturday in July at such short notice (in this case two and a half months before) then I would be seriously concerned … you could always get uncle Bob !! … or a cheap photographer from the internet ! … which brings me on to the next paragraph.
I met with a couple last week who mentioned that they had previously met with another photographer who had offered them a wedding photography package for £895.00. At first I thought, fine ! .. but it wasn’t until they informed me of what was included in the package that alarmed me … it went something like this …. 2 photographers (yes two) wedding album and prints, dvd slideshow (probably set to a copyrighted music backng track) DVD of all images taken during the day, coverage from bridal preps to first dance, free canvas print, free coverage of your honeymoon etc, etc (joking about the honeymoon !). I must admit I was curious so checked out the website of the photographer in question … dreadful !!! (this is of course only my professional opinion) The images on the website were badly color balanced, photos taken with flash were obviously taken in auto exposure mode and resulted in the ‘rabbit in the headlights’ look, and the staged shots were totally unprofessional. These outfits come on go on a yearly basis, in fact a photographer who offered a similar package to this went AWOL last summer leaving many couples ‘photographerless’ in the South East region of Wales. The maths simply do not add up .. unless they cover two weddings a week for a year and use inferior printing methods and albums then there is absolutely no way that they can make a living …. maybe they could be a dreaded ‘husband and wife team’ .. where the wife supplies the feminine touch (usually resulting in the brides train taking the form of a balloon) and the guy take the photos …. or even worse, … they could both take photos, resulting in a paparazzi free for all !!! …. so very 1970’s !!
I have devised a checklist of questions to help you in choosing the photographer that is right for you here
Remember that long after the cake has been eaten and the dress packed away (or sold on eBay) the photographs will be the only items remaining to show your grandchildren … just make sure you make the right choice in choosing your photographer .. unless of course you really want an unprofessional pair of so called photographers who just purchased a camera from Amazon but are yet to learn how to use it, or the dreaded Starsky and Hutch era ‘Husband and Wife Team’ … then again , there is always uncle Bob !!
Good Luck
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Wedding Photographer South Wales
Andrew Beveridge of Silver Birch Photography is an award winning, qualified wedding photojournalist, who specialises in natural reportage style wedding photography. Silver Birch Photography offers wedding photographic services for the whole of South and Mid Wales including the Cardiff, Newport, Swansea, Brecon and Monmouthshire regions. A limited amount of destination wedding commissions are also available during the year.
