A Very Important Piece of Advice for Those Who are Shopping for a Wedding Photographer

Wow! I can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve updated this blog. Well, just to fill everyone in, I have had a really rough summer due to the traumatic losses of two of my beloved canine daughters, Lexie and Jocie. (Here is Lexie’s Story.) However, as usual, life continues to go on, and I’m trying to stay positive by focusing on my 11 year-old hound dog, Sam, and my new Doberman puppy, Margot.  I am also very much looking forward to the year ahead in terms of my photography business, as I’ve already started booking weddings for 2013, and which brings me to the main purpose of this blog entry today.

It is very common for engaged couples to meet with several wedding photographers before making their final decision, which is very smart! After all, choosing your wedding photographer is a BIG decision, and the only way to be certain that you’ve chosen the right one for you is to compare the work of several different photographers.  So, for those of you who are currently shopping around for a wedding photographer, I would like to offer a very wise piece of advice: When interviewing a photographer and looking through his/her work, ALWAYS ASK IF YOU CAN SEE A FULL WEDDING THAT THEY HAVE SHOT RECENTLY!

The reason why I say this is because all wedding photographers, including myself, have an album full of our “greatest hits,” which showcases some of our favorite wedding photographs from various weddings we’ve shot over the years. While this album is very helpful for showing potential clients what we are capable of as photographers, you cannot really gain a full understanding of a photographer’s “vision” unless you see a full wedding that they have shot from beginning to end. For example, while looking through a photographer’s sample album, you may see a beautiful close-up shot of a bride and groom during their wedding ceremony and think, “Wow! This photographer is really good!” However, because you were only able to see that one photo, you may be completely unaware that all of the photos from that particular ceremony were actually shot from the same spot and with the same close-up lens, with very little to no variety.

In addition to making sure that 100% of your wedding photographer’s photos are just as impressive as the ones they choose to display in their sample album, another reason for asking to see a full wedding is because I feel that it is very important for clients and wedding photographers to be on the same page from the very beginning, in terms of what types of photos are expected of that photographer. This is why I always volunteer to show my potential clients a complete wedding that I’ve shot recently, and why I’ve also decided to share one such wedding with you right here on this blog (with my clients’ permission, of course!).

To view the complete wedding of Gregory and Teah House, please click here, and then enter the password “teahgreg.” I hope you enjoy looking through all of the photos from this gorgeous wedding day as much as I enjoyed taking them! And thank you, Teah and Greg, for allowing me to share your online photo gallery with others. :)