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Top Five Tips For Hiring A Wedding Photographer | Wedding Planning

As I was sitting back reflecting on the process of April and I booking our own wedding photographer, it occurred to me this would be a great time to give engaged couples some simple tips for finding the best photographer for them. You can find a ton of tips by doing a quick Google search, many times those tips are written by people who are not working wedding photographers. I’m here to provide some real tips from a working professional wedding photographer.

For April and I hiring the right wedding photographer was just as important to us as the venue we chose. Being in the process of planning our own wedding has opened my eyes to the somewhat daunting task my clients face in planning their own weddings and my outlook of the whole process had changed for the better, but that’s for another blog post..haha.

Top Five Tips For Hiring A Wedding Photographer 

What To Look For On A Photographers Website

So you’ve done a Google search for wedding photographers or maybe some one referred one to you. The next step is probably checking out their website. Here are three important elements of their site you should focus on before contacting them. 

Portfolio

This probably goes without saying, but you need to like the work you are seeing in front of you. Every photographer has their own style of shooting and how they edit their images. Some photographer like a photojournalist approach, some like to pose their clients. Some do very minimal editing to their images; some like the vintage look to their edited images, and some like clean vibrant colorful images. Take time to look at the images on a photographers website and make sure their style matches your vision of how you want your wedding images to look.

About Me Section

Take a few minutes and read the about me section a photographer has written. A lot of times we will share who we are. If you feel like your personality matches theirs, that’s a great thing.

Blog

Photographers blogs are great for seeing current work, but I feel they are more powerful for sharing who we are as photographers with the world. Take a few minutes to see some current work and hopefully read a post or two about that photographer’s personality. A good blog is a mix of both a photographers’ portfolio and about me.

Only Contact and Meet With The Photographers You Honestly Are Considering Hiring

Now that you have found a few photographers you like it’s time to set up meetings with them. My suggestion is to pick two or three photographers to meet with. Don’t waste your time meeting with a ton of them; you will only be more overwhelmed and possibly frustrated. Meet with the photographers who’s work you love, and hopefully if they tell you a little about themselves on their website your personalities seem like a good fit. A face to face meeting is best, but FaceTime or Skype works as well. Use the meeting to tell your photographer about yourselves, your wedding day, your vision, to see more of their work, and ultimately talk face to face about what they can offer you.

I suggest scheduling all your meetings within a week or two and only focus on booking a photographer in that time frame. By only focusing your time on meeting with photographers, you will make a better decision with a clear head and find the perfect person to capture your day.

You Need To Like Your Photographer

You have to like who your photographer is as a person. Besides your family, wedding party, and maybe your wedding planner, the only other person who will be by your side from start to finish is your photographer. On a wedding day, I spend an average of eight to twelve hours with a couple. Imagine spending all that time with someone whose personality doesn't mesh with yours; it could be a long day!

Photographers are just like you; they all have different personalities, beliefs, and traits, so getting to know your photographer well during your initial meeting and engagement session is crucial in my opinion. The more you like your photographer’s personality, the more comfortable you will be on your wedding day.

Let’s Talk About Pricing For Moment

Weddings are expensive events, there's no doubt about it, and by the time you start meeting with photographers, you’ve probably just been hit with some big numbers since you most likely just booked your venue and possibly a caterer. You still have a slew of other vendors to book, and oh yea a beautiful dress to buy. Considering investing thousands of dollars for wedding photography might seem crazy at the moment.

Working in the industry I know the rates photographers charge are all over the place, from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars. I’m not one to suggest how you spend your money, it’s your money and you have to be comfortable with the amount you spend on your wedding, but here are my thoughts on price.

I know you have a budget, April and I had one too. We said to each other if we loved a photographer’s personality, work, and the albums they offered, we would not be afraid to spend a little more to book the photographer we feel most comfortable with documenting our day. Spending a little more money than you planned on to book the photographer you love and whom you feel the most comfortable with is a smart investment.

At the end of the day, once the cake is cut, the music stops, and you’re wiping off your make up after a day of celebrating, all you have left to remember your wedding day is the photography and maybe a video if you hired a videographer. Sure, you will probably keep your dress, and maybe a family member will give you an awesome heirloom item that will remind you of your day. But, photographs and perhaps a video, are the only items you will have left 5,10,15,20 years from now to conjure up the great memories of your day.

Not Sure About An Album Yet? Make Sure To Get Great Coverage

I’m a photographer, I love albums, I love to see work printed, and a big part of April and I’s wedding photographer search included purchasing an album from the start. For many couples, a wedding album can appear expensive during the initial meeting with a photographer, and by not purchasing one in the beginning or asking to have it removed from a photographers collection you can stay within your budget. If you choose to wait on purchasing an album, do yourself a favor and make sure you get great coverage.

What I mean by great coverage is booking your photographer for enough time to document your wedding to the fullest, and I also suggest adding a second photographer to capture even more intimate and candid moments. I’ve had couples want to book me for six hours of coverage, and after speaking with me, realize they really need eight or more hours of coverage to document the day how they would like it documented. By getting great coverage your day will be documented to the fullest and you can always order an album later. The worst situation in the world is realizing that you didn’t book your photographer for enough time and they come up to you and say they are leaving in a half hour and the cake has not even been cut yet! That extra hour or two can really help. Trust me on this one. 

Final Thoughts

For April and I hiring the right wedding photographer was super important for one simple reason. You put a ton of work into every detail of your wedding, and once the day is over, all you really have to remember how amazing the day was six months to 20 years from now are the photographs, and possibly a video. That might sound a little crazy at the moment, but it’s the truth. I see it every weekend during wedding season. A couple puts in months to years of planning and the day goes by super fast. It will be awesome, but many times when I say goodbye at the end of the night my clients say to me “I can’t believe our wedding is over, that went by quick!”. I’m sure April and I will be saying the same at the end our wedding. So while you might want to book the first photographer you find, so you can move onto booking the next vendor, or the cheapest one you find, I highly suggest taking your time and hiring the right photographer. You will be happy you did in the long run. 

CT Wedding Photography | Top Ten Images From 2014

2014 was a great year for me, I moved onto running my business on a full-time basis, April and I moved back to the shoreline, and we got engaged, talk about major life changes! As my life was changing in front of my eyes, so were the lives of my clients. With the start of 2015 it means it's time for me to take a look back at 2014 and the images that stick out in my mind as some of my favorites. 

Trying to select ten images from 2014 to label as my top ten was no easy task. With every wedding I shoot about 1,200 images and easily double that number if I'm working with a second photographer. I than curate that number down to about 400-600 deliverable images for my clients. For engagement sessions I shoot about 200-400 images and curate that number down to about 50-100 deliverable images. Needless to say choosing just 10 images to feature was no easy task, but I've done my best to select images that stick out to me. I present to you the top ten images from 2014 with the story and what I was thinking when I made the image.

10: That Cake

At the final wedding of the year I was about to take a quick break to grab a bit to eat, when all of a sudden I noticed the venue director standing with this little girl next to the cake. Having just put down my gear at the vendor table, I yelled over to April who was assisting me, to throw me one of my cameras. April actually tossed me my camera about five feet. I crouched down and captured this image in a split second. To capture this little girls expression when looking at the cake was priceless and well worth the risk of dropping my camera. 

9: Find The Ring

I always say to be prepared for anything when photographing a wedding. This is about the best case I can make for being prepared for anything. As the cute as a button ring bearer was walking toward the aisle, we quickly realized that he had lost the brides wedding band! Without skipping a beat about half the guest jumped out of their seats and started searching for the ring. Being one to document everything that happens on a wedding day, I took just one image of everyone looking for the ring, before I myself helped in the search. Just as everyone started to get nervous that the ring would not be found, who else but me see's it shining in the August midday sun! Some of the guest said I saved the day, but in my heart I was just doing my job. Best quote was a guest said "whatever you paid the photographer, it was not enough, he actually saved the day!" I just laughed and went back to shooting the ceremony. 

8: A Family Moment

Weddings are about the bride and groom, but there are tons of special moments between the guest as well. I was second shooting for my buddy Robb Cyr Photography during this wedding and was actually shooting of film vs. digital. As the night was winding down I saw this couple dancing in the corner of my eye with their son on his Dad's shoulders. When shooting 35mm film sometimes you get an extra frame or two from your roll. I was just about to change out my roll when I took a chance on capturing this image and luckily I got that one extra frame I needed to capture this special moment between this family. Frame 25 on a roll of film that had 24 exposures gave me this. So worth taking the chance and waiting that extra second to change out my roll of film. 

7. The Dress

Part of my routine on a wedding day is to create detail images of the dress, shoes, rings, etc. Creating detail images are always fun, but sometimes there is more power to a detail image when one of your subjects is in the frame. I was taking a step back to look at this scene to see if I wanted to create an image of the dress in this light, when all of a sudden the bride walked over from hair and make up and started looking at her dress just hanging there. I don't know what thoughts were going through her mind at that moment, but this was a beautiful moment that needed to be captured forever. 

6. Intimate Moment

Many times as I'm setting up an image of the couple, special intimate moments happen, thats why as I'm talking them through how I would like them to pose I have my camera to my eye. This was one of those moments that my couple gave me. This image is from a intimate elopement and right after their ceremony I was setting up a shot shooting through a bush, when the groom started to fix his brides hair. Relaxed, intimate, and candid, this image made April say "what a beautiful moment you captured babe", as we were reviewing the images when we got home.

5. Engagement Rings For Sale

I have Allison and Chad to thank for allowing me to photograph my first wedding ever in my favorite city NYC! Originally we had not planned on doing an engagement session, but when I was looking at my schedule I noticed I had an open Saturday the month before their wedding, so I decided to go down to the city and walk through all the locations we would be shooting at on their wedding day. I brought along one camera, two lenses and asked them if they would like to have a mini engagement session for the heck of it and they said yes! The trick to making images in any location is to always look at your surroundings, as we were walking from one location to the next I noticed this jewelry store with a subway stop right in front of it. I told Chad and Allison to stop and come stand over here and give each other a kiss. As we were walking I had noticed the engagement ring sign, the subway, and the guy standing there in the walkway not giving a damn about what was going on around him and knew I had to create an image in this scene. Not even thinking about it, I ran into the middle of a busy NYC street and created this image. In classic NYC fashion a cab almost hit me, and people yelled at me from their cars. I didn't care, all that was worth it to create this moment. 

4. A Mothers Tears

As I was kneeling down at the end of the aisle during the processional I was right next to the grooms mom. I had one eye on her and one on who was walking down the aisle. I did this because I got the sense she might give me an emotional candid moment. My guess was correct, I glanced over and saw her crying and wiping the tears on her cheek away. Moments like this are why I love my job. 

3. Negative Space

One of the things I'm known for is framing my couples in the corner or bottom of the frame and using negative space to highlight just them. This technique came in handy while in Central Park with Allison and Chad on their wedding day. It was a busy Saturday in August and the park was packed, you would never know that just out of the frame there are about 100 people milling about in the park. If I didn't tell you that, you would probably guess we were in the middle of some beautiful forest, not Central Park..haha.

2. Under the willow tree

Kristina called me on a busy weekday in July (the middle of wedding season) wondering if I was available to shoot an engagement session later that week. I was, and out of curiosity I asked if there was a reason she wanted to shoot it that week. She told me her fiancé was going to be deployed soon and they wanted to capture their love before he left for six months. What I didn't know was, he would be deployed, if I remember correctly, two days after I made this image. Making things a little more stressful was that the day we scheduled the session there were on and off again rain showers and the threat of thunderstorms, without being able to reschedule we took our chances and went ahead with the session. Knowing Avery Point in Groton really well, I knew if the thunderstorms passed we would have a killer mid-summer sunset to work with. As we were winding down the session I asked them if they would be game to try something different for me. This image is a composite of two images. One image was to light Kristina and Joe with a flash April is holding and the second image is for the exposure of the sky and to remove April from the frame later in Photoshop. I have to say, this is probably my favorite image all year from a technical stand point, but what's more important is that I was able to captured their love before Joe had to go back to sea. 

1. A Flower Girls Moment

My favorite image from 2014 is again a candid moment that happened in the blink of an eye. As Amanda was getting into her dress I noticed one of her flower girls watching her, that in it's self would be a great moment to capture, but it's this moment that grabbed my attention. Without even thinking about it, the flower girl helped to fluff out Amanda's train and gave me this moment. She knew I was watching her and to capture her expression with Amanda laughing in the foreground about sums up why I love my job. Wedding days are full of spontaneous moments filled with laughter, love, and joy, this image captures all of that, making it my favorite image from 2014.

In all honesty these are just 10 images from a year full of awesome moments and beautiful photos, but each one of these images has a story and that's why they are on this list. As the 2015 wedding season approaches I can't wait to capture all the moments that my couples allow me to witness. It's an honor to be apart of such an important day in a couples life, so here's to 2015, and all the laughter, love, and joy it will bring! 

-Nach