I just hired a new girl under contract to be a second shooter, and was discussing our philosophy on wedding photography. I felt that it may be something to share with other aspiring wedding photographers on the Hog. If you aren't interested, just don't read it. I'm not really interested in all the comments about how you would NEVER want to shoot weddings. After over 30 years, I still get as excited as I did during my first few jobs. I'm trying to be helpful to those that are considering joining this rewarding part of photography.

I'm one that doesn't get offended by others wanting to jump into the wedding "biz." We generally have a few people that we are training to eventually become our competition, or maybe just to continue working with us.

We now have to compete with Craigslist Wedding Photographers that offer to shoot weddings for $200 and they give you the disk. Beyond the fact that in today's Wal-Mart mentality, makes it very difficult to convince people that you "get what you pay for," the fact is that the newer generation of photographers never had to watch costs.

We do offer the disk of "candid" photos from the reception, because those are mostly taken by our lowest tier of "employee" (contracted "3rd" shooters).... read: free interns that are shooting for us just to get the experience.

We also do include small digital files of any of the photos they purchase prints from us, as we found out that they would just scan the print and post it on facebook anyway, this way we can put a small "Olan Mills" type watermark in the corner to at least get some credit.

Here's the big issue that I think hurts all of us, and it is actually ruining wedding photographers everwhere, because people just don't end up actually displaying their wedding photos like they used to. That's probably a reason why people don't find wedding photos as "important" as they used to be.

I see wedding photographers that routinely snap 5000 images of a wedding. They even put the high numbers in their advertisements, like it is a great thing. We are old school film photographers that moved to digital, so we still choose our shots. Our average wedding starts with 500 shots or less, and that includes the reception "snap shots", and we cull out from there.

Do some of the machine gun photographers get outstanding images? I'm sure they do, I would just be overwhelmed if someone gave me a disk of 5000 images and asked me to find a "few to print" Ouch! I think that type of stuff is what is ruining the wedding business. I'm guessing after searching the disks that the photographer just burns and hands to the couple, it is burried in a drawer and not looked at again, or at least not very often.

Gone are the days of having a nice album set out on a table, and a few photos on the wall, and giving a few to their family. Now, they are just so overwhelmed, they just don't get around to choosing photos.

So, if you are planning on getting into the business, think of the end result before you ever push the shutter on the first image. We should all try to get back to working on quality, not just quantity and hoping a few are "wall hangers" Shoot for the album, shoot for the wall.

OK, I'm off my soapbox.

You hit the nail on the head - but a photographer is not selling a product - they are selling a service. You want your prospects to use you because you, unlike anyone else, will provide them with exactly what they "need" and draw that all important distinction between "need" and "want" - which basically puts you in the category of managing expectations. As a photographer you need to stress the value you add, and the type of experience the prospect will have with you working for them. Your other job is to educate - at the end of the day, the client will end up with a wonderful record of the event, memorialized in glorious print, etc etc etc. The number of images taken has nothing to do with value - you can give a camera to a chimp and they can end up with as many, or more images. But your images will tell a wonderful story of the day's events from start to finish, capturing the precious moments and those candid ones.

What I lament is the loss of professionalism and salesmanship. Today's wedding photographers forget that it's not about them or their gear, it's all about the bride (or bridezilla), and they are paid to manage that experience.

On another forum that I am active on a photographer was looking for sympathy because the client did not provide them a meal - excuse me - you are paid to work, not eat. It is no different than working for any other client - you cannot expect meals - you make necessary arrangements - bring a sandwich, a piece of fruit and a beverage in a lunch bag. Again, its that lack of professionalism that is missing today that concerns me.