Brides... What's More Important To You?

The bridge image was shot with a panorama album page in mind.

The inset photo supports how we got to the bridge.

Recently, I was contacted by a bride inquiring about my photography services. After discussing my approach to photography and my qualifications, we talked about price. We found out that the cost of hiring me to photograph the wedding and also designing her wedding album was beyond her budget.

Bummer! She really liked what I had to offer too!

So I asked her, "How about hiring me to shoot your wedding, but let's forget about doing a wedding album for now?"

I told her that the quality of the photography has to be something that you like. No matter how much you pay, if the quality isn't what you like, it doesn't matter that you get an album to fit it. Besides, brides often find that they end up with a lot of cash after the wedding because of wedding gifts and perhaps some of that could help pay for the album after the wedding!

This strategy for finding the right wedding photographer works for some brides but not for all. There are those who recognize that while they may not be ordering an album immediately, they can always come back after the wedding to get it. The key here is getting the right photos taken and that may mean having to hire a more experienced photographer and foregoing the album. But other brides need to get both the photography AND the album ordered at the same time. They just feel more comfortable with that. That's fine. But if the budget is tight, this could mean finding a less experienced photographer to shoot the wedding just so that an album can fit in the budget as well.

What's more important to you?

It's my position that hiring a qualified, experienced photographer is the key to good wedding photos. I'd rather have great looking pictures without an album, than an album with mediocre pictures in it.

What do you think?

Over the years, I've had a lot of clients opt to just hire me to get their photos and skip their wedding albums initially. Some have come back to get albums, others have not. But at least they got great coverage of the wedding day.

So while a photographer with experience may cost you a little more than a new photographer, consider that you might be able to book that experienced photographer for a lot less than you might think. You might have to forego an album initially, but you'll still get the same quality photography as anyone else hiring him with an album. Then later, you could always get an album in the future.

The key though is to let your photographer know if you do plan to get an album later. Shooting styles may have to change so that photos will fit in your future album. For instance, I'll shoot some images with the subject way on one side of the frame so that extra space is left on the other side so that other photos can be placed on top of that photo in an album and not "cover" over important areas. (See the bridge image above.) Shooting for an album is slightly different than just taking other photos. But communicate with your photographer so that he can shoot it the way you ultimately need it.

You CAN get what you want if you are creative. Just hire the right guy for the job.