Any wedding/event photographers here?

To cut to the chase, I'm thinking of going semi-pro with my photography hobby.

In addition to my "pay the bills" Comp Sci major, I was also an art major and photo was my main media. I love photographing people - I get immense satisfaction out of a good candid and over the years I've gotten pretty good at catching them.

Last spring an old friend asked me if I'd bring my camera and take a couple pictures at her wedding reception, as the happy couple was only hiring the pro for the actual ceremony. Instead, I rented some equipment and shot the reception as if it were my job. The bride was thrilled with the results, I was proud of the work, and it wasn't all that taxing. I did a little cropping and adjusting after the wedding and then handed the bride and the parents SD cards with the RAW files and my touched-up "favorites" and called it done.

Am I far off in thinking I could make a decent side-business out of photographing a handful of small weddings per year, picking and choosing the couples I work with and the weekends I devote to this, and leveraging the fact that there are folks out there who'd prefer the digital files to buying prints/albums from me?

Anyone do this themselves, either full-time or part-time? What are the major pitfalls I should look out for? What nasty reality have I not seen?

Fun to shoot for friends. Awful to shoot for strangers who will treat you like garbage.

Turning photography into a money maker can do one of two things:

1: Kick your passion into high gear.

2: Grind it into the ground and make you want to give it up.

After I got out of the business of paying bills with a camera, I took a 2 year hiatus. Now I shoot for fun again and love it.

My wife is a professional event and wedding photographer with a substantial client base and enough work to be out somewhere every day. To land gigs with big enough margins to cover equipment and printing costs requires salesmanship and a good reputation. It is a given you have to be able to use a camera... but it also means understanding what fickle brides want and dealing with them with a smile on your face even when you want to stab them in the eyes. All it takes is for you to not have the forethought to have captured grandma's obit photo while she was all dressed up for the wedding or not know the priest will throw you out of the church for standing in the isles during the vows to get you a reputation as an unemployable jackhole. You also should be able to get rid of her mom's bruised legs or hide her nipple in the big "special moment" pics when she was too E36 M3faced to look presentable. So... know your photoshop really well.

You probably need to be someone elses henchman for a while. Not berkeleying up a huge Sikh wedding or a Bar Mitzvah requires you know what is going on.

In another life i was one...you either love or hate it. You cqn't be afraid to charge what it's worth or you'll be out of business. Never under estimate post production work either. It's a tough way to make a living...but if you love it and are a good business person you can do ok.

My uncle used to do this, easy money according to him. Make sure you talk to the bride/groom ahead of time an make lists of all the different photo groups. Like all the groomsman, in one and all the women in the brides family or whatever they can think of. After that its just a matter of bringing a tripod, setting you lights (if you use them) and finding a good background.

Most couples just want a few nice pictures to put on facebook or hang on a wall, occasionally you may have a client who wants an album, they are little bit more difficult.

In today's day and age I think taking pictures is the easy part, it's presenting the final product that is becoming a lost art.

GPS nailed it again! When I retired from teaching I considered do this as a part time job. After assisting a couple pros on 4 weddings I went and got a job as a computer programmer/analyst. Fewer headaches!

I know a few people that do this, so I have a few tips. Always get your payment in advance or get enough of a deposit to cover your costs, with payment due before they get their pictures. Don't give your opinions on anything for the wedding that doesn't pertain to your work. Get everything in writing. Take time off to do your own photography, or you will burn out.

I know a few people that model, too. It's an interesting world for those not in it.

My wife used to do it. When she advertised in the free local paper, she made a berk-ton of money that summer. She also put up with a LOT of shiny happy people. She couldn't go away for the weekend, because she had to waste a Saturday taking pictures of people that were drunk, ill-tempered, etc.

She doesn't do it anymore. She doesn't do much shooting for fun, either.

Derrick Freese is on the mark as to payment in advance, get everything signed and in writing.

I've done it a few times, and none were very fun. Everybody's got an opinion, and usually you end up working to please the bride's crazy family instead of the bride. Everybody wants to renegotiate terms after the wedding has started. The last wedding I did, half payment was advance and half was post-processing. I slaved away at post, and damned if they didn't get divorced, stop taking my calls, and make me take them to court.

I counted up my hours at the last job and made very little to no profit. Wasn't worth it to me.

Modern equipment and attitudes permit a different approach...

My son was married in Aug. He is a professional videographer, and his wife is a professional photographer. I wouldn't want to work for them.

But the photographers they hired were great. They focused ENTIRELY on their art- taking pictures. Husband and wife team brought 2 cameras each. Every possible shot was taken from at least 2 angles.

After the wedding, they eliminated the post production headaches by simply giving the ENTIRE set of digital files to everyone. They didn't print anything, didn't make books, edit, etc.

They also did not make an issue of the "ownership" of the pictures, or intellectual property rights. They were paid (quite well) to take pictures, and they took ownership of nothing afterwards. They gave over 3500 digital files to us (they kept the right to use a few to advertise their services).

In this digital age, most people can do basic editing. All people can print whatever they want. It is not necessary to be the print shop, or album publisher. It is also not necessary to try to boost the margins by holding the images hostage. The truth is, those images aren't worth anything to a photographer after the event, and the old fashioned sales technique looks like a sleazy used car salesman trying to add $100 for floor mats.

Grandparents, etc. all enjoyed greatly going through many, many pics and printing those that they wanted themselves (or posting them to FB, or whatever). Everyone ended up with a few framed. I don't think anyone made albums (because no one cares about albums anymore).

The photographers were hired for their eye, and ability to take great pictures. Probably the way it always should have been.

It's a good model, which worked very well. Do your work, get paid, get out, don't make it harder on yourself than it needs to be, and make everyone feel good.

Sorry, I thought this thread was looking for a welding event photographer so I clicked to see if anyone knew about documenting welding event.

I knew this place would come through!

The reason I have this bug in my brain is I was chatting with a friend-of-a-friend who does pretty much exactly what SVreX described and charges a good deal for it. I think he does a little bit of crop/color-balance/exposure in Lightroom, but pretty much just sends on the digital files. He told me he rarely even throws out a "bad" shot! Seems like a no-brainer to me.

I like the idea of assisting a pro first, maybe I'll look into that.

As far as "in writing", I have a lawyer friend who would skin me alive if I didn't have her write up the right documents. Got that covered.

But the big theme I hear from you all is the bridezilla/mother-of-the-bride-zilla/shinyhappypeople angle. I was hoping to avoid that by picking and choosing who I work for as this would be a side business, rather than a living.

For those that have done it: how often did seemingly nice folks turn jerk? Did you see it coming and take the job anyhow, or were the transformations really that Jekyll and Hyde?

Semi-pro here. I thought about going full-time but like the idea of a steady paycheck and health plan if I ever need it. And to be honest, I LIKE photography and I'm a little concerned if I turned full-time it would become a job, a task.

But part-time gives me the option to take what I want, when I want. Low-end weddings (2nd marriage, backyard ceremony) with WAY less stress than full-blown weddings, senior photos, engagement shoots, portraits, events, whatever I want to. Not need to. I still have a fairly steady amount of people asking me for prices for various things because they know I am a photographer so it works out. I have a camera ear ring that gets attention pretty quick, which surprised me. (But came in handy for breaking the ice when meeting the ladies when I was single. Still gets attention today!)

Arresting Photography

(I was replying the same time you were Peter)

Any jerks I've had to deal with I saw it from day one. Either let them walk, or charge enough to make it worthwhile.

peter wrote: But the big theme I hear from you all is the bridezilla/mother-of-the-bride-zilla/shinyhappypeople angle. I was hoping to avoid that by picking and choosing who I work for as this would be a side business, rather than a living. For those that have done it: how often did seemingly nice folks turn jerk? Did you see it coming and take the job anyhow, or were the transformations really that Jekyll and Hyde?

hahahaahahaha!!!!

Nice try!

Can't be avoided. The nicest people on the planet turn into Dr. Jekyll when it comes time to tie the knot.

That's why photographers are paid well.

SVreX wrote: hahahaahahaha!!!! Nice try! Can't be avoided. The nicest people on the planet turn into Dr. Jekyll when it comes time to tie the knot. That's why photographers are paid well.

Jerry wrote: Any jerks I've had to deal with I saw it from day one. Either let them walk, or charge enough to make it worthwhile.

OK you clowns, which is it?

It's both. You will learn to spot them, but you will always miss a few.

Charge enough and it won't matter.

Yup. Here's the link I screwed up earlier: Arresting Photography

Everyone turns into Mr Hyde, eventually.

At the first wedding I helped my wife do, the bride was stomping around the church, screaming, "where's my berkeleying husband?!" And the priest was giving my wife grief: "I don't know why people want pictures of their wedding. They're gong to get divorced, anyhow."

Another time, the groom was arrested for disorderly conduct, after busting a few tables at the reception, in a drunken rage.

Family members were taking bets on how long the marriage would last, at another.

I could go on, about bitchy mothers-of-the-groom, ex-boy/girlfriends that crashed the reception, etc.

It seems that weddings bring out the worst in people.

My wife's cousin and her husband do photography. They recently decided to stop doing weddings as people are always in a rush and then unhappy they didn't get certain shots

RealMiniDriver wrote: ex-boy/girlfriends that crashed the reception, etc.

On one of the weddings I helped with I knew there were going to be problems when I saw a couple guys from a security company I used to work part-time for at the door. Complete with firearms under their suit coats!

Sure enough the ex-husband showed up and had to be escorted off the property.

This probably doesn't help, but all these years later my high school photo teacher's parting words still ring through my head: Don't shoot weddings.

Would I be better off as a funeral photographer?

IMHO - don't photo weddings unless; 1. It's a close personal friend. 2. You get paid almost all the money up front. 3. All they want are the digital files with minimal processing. 4. You get paid A LOT of money.

I photo s one wedding for a friend of SWMBO. A few bad moments. For example, when the bride & groom went to cut the first piece of wedding cake, that cute little 6 yo girl demanded to be in every photo. Stuck herself between me and the subjects repeatedly. When I finally had enough and pushed her aside, and she yelped, guess who the bad guy was? I think I took about 10-12 photos after that and started drinking.