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Wedding Photographer

  • Posted on June 29, 2009 at 9:08 am

How to Become a Successful Wedding Photographer

By Juan Carlos Torres, executive summarized by Andromeda


wedding-photographer

wedding-photographer

Once in while I receive e-mails or phone calls from aspiring or beginner wedding photographers asking me for advise on how to become successful in the wedding field. My first question is always what their motivation is to become a wedding photographer. Some will reply that they heard from somebody that it is easy money, or that they got a cool camera that takes great photos or that they would like to make some money on the side etc.
While it is true that wedding photography can be a very profitable business achieving success in the wedding industry is not just a matter of getting a camera and start shooting. Wedding photography involves artistic talent, human sense, complete mastery of photographic techniques, business knowledge, and a strong desire to learn and deliver the best to the wedding couple.

Here I have summarized some points that I believe will guide beginner wedding photographers:

1.      Learn photography before anything else. A wedding photographer is expected to be a master of the craft. You will be in charge of capturing people’s most precious life moments. The wedding day is not the place to learn photography.

wedding-photographer

wedding-photographer

2.      Just because you got a brand new camera it does not automatically make you an effective and reliable photographer. Photography goes beyond cool toys and gadgets. Learn composition and develop a unique artistic vision. Some of the great photographs of all time were taken with manual cameras.

3.      Master the digital workflow, including color management, digital image processing, file management and image correction and enhancement.

4.      Learn to love photography more than anything else. Don’t come to the wedding photography field with just dreams of making money. It is true that there are many successful wedding photographers that make a lot of money. However according to the Professional Photographers of America the average photographer in America makes about $24,000 a year.

5.      Focus on delivering quality more than quantity. Seek with all your heart to capture unique photographs.

6.      Develop a style that is recognizable and unique. Don’t try to be like somebody else. Clients look for unique photographers, with a unique vision.

7.      Give wedding photography all your heart and effort. Long when you are gone your photographs will last forever. It is a great way to be remembered.

8.      Open your heart and your mind and great photos will happen. Concentrate on the human aspect of weddings, the details, and emotions and be ready to capture them. Let the camera become an extension of you.

beach-wedding-photographer

beach-wedding-photographer

9.      Share your technical knowledge and make connections with other wedding photographers.

10.  Participate in wedding photography image competitions. It will give you the opportunity to have your work evaluated by peers and the motivation to improve your work quality.

11.  Learn something new everyday. Take advantage of professional photography organizations such as Professional Photographers of America (PPA), WPPI, etc. Attend their seminars, workshops. Participate in Internet wedding photography forums and learn and share tips, tools and techniques.

Don’t neglect the business aspect of wedding photography. Learn to manage your business effectively. Take business courses and seminars.

Checkout my other guide on Wedding Bands.


Wedding Planner

  • Posted on June 26, 2009 at 11:38 am

How to Plan for a Perfect Wedding

By Amy Nutt, executive summarized Andromeda.


Wedding planner

Wedding planner

It is true that planning a wedding can be very stressful. Especially for the unforgettable event, the wedding reception. However, with careful planning you can have a perfect wedding, no matter how big or how small. The magic word is ‘planning’.  There are number of factors to consider when planning for the perfect wedding.

1.      Setting the Date

Planning starts from the very beginning.  There is no wedding without a wedding date.    There are many factors consider when selecting a date.  Of course the date you choose needs to be convenient for you and your fiancé.  Unless you are planning to elope, the date also needs to be convenient for your friends and family as well.  It is recommended to select a date that is at least three months away, in order to allow your relatives and friends to make them selves available for the special event.

Additionally, make sure that the date selected does not clash with any holidays or important working days that might affect attendance at the ceremony.  As soon as you have a date, you can determine the time table for announcing your engagement and sending out invitations so that guests have sufficient advance notice to prepare.

2.      Choosing a Type of Ceremony

The type of ceremony you select plays an important role in how enjoyable your wedding will be to you.  Will you have a large and formal wedding, or will it be a small informal ceremony and only family and close friends wedding?  Maybe you want a large wedding, but you would prefer a semi-formal event.

You need to know what type of ceremony you want as soon as you start planning.  All of your plans are going to center around the type of ceremony, since the arrangements are going to differ greatly for each style.

3.      Budget

Weddings can be very costly.  Make sure that you know how much money you can afford to spend on your wedding and stick to your budget.  Each expense must be considered systematically.  There are many expenses associated with planning a wedding.  Just a few of the expenses to consider include:  wedding attire, food, decorations, wedding favors, honeymoon expenses, music, accommodations, location, and many more things.

4.      Shopping Around

There are a number of vendors who specialize in providing wedding-related products and services.  When you plan ahead of time, do some windows shopping before you start singing contract. It is in your best interest to do some research regarding what is available and to compare prices.

5.      Booking Facilities

Advance book any facilities you will need to have your perfect wedding.  It is a bad idea to wait until the last minute to make facility reservations.  If you put off this task, you will likely find that   banquet hall, park, chapel that you want to reserve is unavailable when you need it.  The same is true for photographers, florists, DJs, caterers, wedding cake artist, seamstress, and anyone else you may need to make your wedding perfect.

In addition, you might actually save some money for booking early.  Many wedding industry vendors offer discounts to brides and grooms who make their reservations far ahead of time.

6.      Delegating Chores and Errands

As soon as you start telling your friends and family members that you are getting married, they will likely ask what they can do to help.  Take them up on their offers!  Planning a wedding is a huge project.  Don’t do it all by yourself if you have peoples who want to help you.  By delegating some of the wedding planning tasks, you can reduce some of the pre-planning stress.

As you can see, with the right planning you can have the perfect wedding you always dreamed about.  Your wedding day is special day that you will cherish for life.  Careful planning helps make sure that the day you end up remembering is just the way you always dreamed it would be.

Check out my other guide on Wedding Cake.


Wedding Planner

  • Posted on June 23, 2009 at 1:55 am

Do You Need a Wedding Planner For Your Wedding

By John Border, executive summarized by Andromeda.


wedding plan

wedding plan

Wedding is the most important milestone of your life and you should feel excited and upbeat about it. But, when it comes to planning and the effort needed to reach that specific date there is enormous amount of work that needs to be done for the same.

That said, there are ways out of this if you are running short of time and manpower. The solution lies on the fact that you can hire agencies to do the work for you. In effect you can hire agencies or people to do each type of work for you for the event. Like hire house decorators for the wedding, then hire wedding photographers, then hire caterers for the event and also hire event planners for the event.

If you do hire each on of these then you will need to make sure that you plan and coordinate effectively between each on of those. That can be definitely a challenge. The next best bet is to hire a wedding planner who in turn will do all this and much more.

Wedding planners effectively charge either a flat fee or a percentage of the budget and then they have clauses for each extra effort they put in for you. Wedding planners work well for those who are not constrained by the budget by the time.

Wedding planners are good in but in a lot of cases it is better to do it yourself. One is that satisfaction that you have done things yourself in your marriage. That means that you can then reflect back in the past after several years of marriage and proudly say that you did plan an elaborate event yourself.

The reason is that such outsourced help can always be at best help and cannot replace what you have in mind of the marriage. That means that you need to put your vision of a wedding and your wedding ideas into a practical reality. For that you need of control of all the parts in your hands as opposed to that wedding planner. Wedding planners at bets can create a run of the mill kind of arrangement for you but it is you who can think more creatively and in line with the theme with which you want the wedding to happen.

So think hard before you hire a wedding planner as this wedding is a very important and joyous moment in your life and with it comes all the attendant labor that you put in for the wedding day.

Checkout my other guide on Wedding Cakes.