anotherview Loc: California

Others later in your family will thank you for your project to document family history.

xt2 Loc: British Columbia, Canada

Thx for your thoughts...it's always good to hear what you think is important.

Cheers!

Bill McKenna

Rongnongno,
I couldn’t disagree with you more. (And I’m not a wedding photographer. I hate shooting weddings.)
My wife, Angie, and I, look at our wedding pictures all the time. We have many of them framed, use them on Facebook, and love looking back on the best day of our lives. It was a fairy tale to be sure. I don’t even remember what we paid our photographer, but it was worth every dime. Had we spent the money on some “necessity”, the “necessity” would probably be broke or in need of replacement by now.
Bill

Dannj

I would say having beautiful pictures to display and enjoy was a “necessity”...for you😊

Tracy B. Loc: Indiana

I'm curious Rongnongno, what do you photograph that you think IS worthwhile? I really love landscapes of my vacations. I love looking back at them and it takes me right back there. I don't care what happens to them after I'm gone. I enjoy remembering. What photographs do you love taking?

josquin1 Loc: Massachusetts

I can tell a story of a friend of mine who got married and it came to over $100,000. One year later she told me that her husband said that he couldn't stand her anymore and filed for divorce. Talk about a waste of money.

jlg1000 Loc: Uruguay / South America

Just one thought... A couple of ( ok, ok.. many) years ago, while cleaning my grandparents home, I found my grand-grand-grand parents wedding photos. You know, those that when looked sideways, the silver shines...

Everybody on that picture was long dead, but I thanked destiny to actually see the face some of my ancestors when they where young and happy.

Each time a photo is shot, history is frozen and preserved. I'm the family photographer and take all photos I can. Maybe in 2100 some of my grand-grand-grand children will watch them... and wonder who all that dead people were.

Boris77

Wedding album was worth it. I got it in the divorce. Enjoy looking thru it.
Oh, and I created it. Two friends shot pics and gave me/us the film for wedding presents.
How much does a wedding cost? down on the farm, at a country church.
Oh, the good ole days.
Boris

Rongnongno Loc: FL

miked46 Loc: Winter Springs, Florida

Not to get anyone mad, I'm an amateur but I've done 2 of my nieces weddings and created small books for them and people who wanted them. I used Vistaprint to produce the albums and gave people the link to order if they wished. I also made small videos of the ceremony, cake cutting, 1st dance. I charged them nothing, as these were my gift to both of them.

traderjohn Loc: New York City

[quote=Rongnongno]If you think about it, wedding photography is a rip-off from beginning to end.

Folks are spending a large amount of money to 'create' memories' but really, what is left after a few months?

Very little, possibly an image or two on walls that will never be looked at again, a couple of albums that will gather dust until lost during a move.

In a few years the images will be yellow, desuet on some piece of furniture among other equally old and part of a scenery some call home.

Years later the album may be reopened one day by a kid who was snooping around and sees images of a wedding they do not relate to. “Is it you mom? Dad?” Then the album is placed back into a dark corner and forgotten again.

Nostalgia lasts only as long as someone remembers.

When reopened next, it might be when someone cleans out an attic and finds a trace of an event, does not know who is in the pictures, guesses about it for a few moments. The album is placed on a pile, 'keep' if the person wants to look at it again but probably will forget that too. With a little less luck the album ends in an estate sale and those that did not make the cut, the greatest majority, in a literal bin disposed up in a field full of trash... Who wants a cracked, dried up book made of people no one knows?

So thousands of $$$ to fill the dumpster, historical or real...

Those here who speak of the 'ethics' in pricing should stop and think about their 'commodity' offerings and realize that they are ripping up folks who need their revenues toward something more useful than spit in the wind.

Now, yes there is a market so why not profit from folk's gullibility? You must have a photographer because the Jones had one.

"create' memories" You are wrong. Wedding photography is not about the creation of memories it is the recording of the memory, the event. Based on your sad evaluation you are not a happy camper.

GreenReaper

Three things I never shoot, weddings, funerals and Bar Mitzvah’s!

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

The only term I really took except to is "rip off". I even decided to look up the words:

rip-off
[ˈrip ˌôf]
NOUN
informal
a fraud or swindle, especially something that is grossly overpriced.
"designer label clothes are just expensive rip-offs"
synonyms:
fraud · swindle · fraudulent scheme · confidence trick · mare's nest · overcharging · con · con trick · scam · flimflam · gyp · kite · ramp · twist · swizz · daylight robbery · rip · shakedown · hustle · grift · bunco · boondoggle · rort · do · flanker · have
an inferior imitation of something.
"rip-offs of all the latest styles"

So, as a wedding photographer, if folks come to me for a service THEY want and value for whatever reason and contract me of their own volition- no pressure. Then, I do the work for a fair and reasonable price, work hard and deliver what I have promised and as expected, how am I riping them off?

Should I tell them or have a disclaimer in my contract to the effect that they spending their money frivolously on an item that will eventually become useless, especially WEHN they get divorced, and even if they live together happily ever after, the album will languish away in a closet or attic, deteriorate, or be laughed at by their disrespectful, ungrateful, snooping, children who will have no interest in the ancestors or hold family values, that is if it doesn't end up in the landfill? Or, should I just tell them to go away- I don't need their business because I have enough income from "ripping-off" my commercial customers. Or, I should have become a doctor, lawyer, plumber, or farmer and take up a more honest profession?

I have NEVER told a potential client that I MAKE memories. Some have told me that THEY want to memorialize the event, some just simply like PICTURES, a few want somethg fancy to show-off, many tell me that their entire family will be assembled and they want photographs of everyone. Some folks are sentimental and others are not. Some couples love to pose for pictures and others hate that but they do it for their parents because they love their parents and want to please them. I know it an overused and hackneyed cliche but "different strokes...". All I can do is sympathize with people's needs, do my best work for them, make their experience with me and my staff their wedding as pleasant and fun as possible and hopefully deliver a lifetime keepsake. Perhas a "lifetime keepsake" is a tall order- nowadays we live in a disposable world and some folks throw lots of good things away. No guarantees!

Really?

lowkick Loc: Connecticut

We don't look at our wedding album often, but it contains pictures that we feel are beyond valuable to us. Photos of our parents, our grandparents, all our aunts and uncles and my sister, all passed now. A wedding album stirs up memories of the wedding, but also memories of other events and the history of the family. It's an historical album where our children, even though now grown, can see photos of family history. The album holds the last pictures of my mother in relatively good health - she died 6 months after the wedding. It's fun to watch our grandchildren look at their parents' wedding albums, connect with relatives they have heard about but never knew and experience the celebration of the love from which they came. I have no remembrance of what the wedding photographer charged for our wedding, but it was worth it then, and it's worth it now. I do recall the shocking amount our children's wedding photographer was, but he was terrific and, as shocked as I was at the going rates then, I would gladly pay for it all over again.

Bubbee Loc: Aventura, Florida

E.L.,You are the personification of ethical, professional, and empathetic business practices, plus being one of the most knowledgeable members of this forum, kindly sharing that knowledge .
Yes, there are, sadly, members who don`t understand nor appreciate integrity, nor the appreciation that some of us have for beautiful Memories
I pity them.