Yet another thread of dreadful "Bridezilla " stories. My grammar check tells me that the word "Bridezilla" is an inappropriate colloquialism- I agree! It is one of my least favorite words because it is misogynistic, misogamistic and disrespectful. This word is in abundance on this and many other threads. This remind me of when was 6 years old and cussed in front of Grandma. She scolded me and threatened to wash my mouth out with soap of I persisted. So...being a mouthy little monster, I would repeat the "bad" word over and over again just to test Grandma's reaction.Well, I soon became a aficionado of various soap flavors, textures and aromas of SOAP. Palmolive was my favorite but Oktagon, a brown octagonal bar of laundry detergent for use with a washboard, finally clean up my vocabulary
As I mentioned in a previous post, every time complains about some aspect of wedding photography arises all of these horror stories of nasty clients, failed businesses, underpaid photographers, drunken fumbling and incompetent shooters, photographers becoming involved in fights and brawls at weddings and more nightmarish scenarios.
I guess I am a lucky guy in that in over a half-century in professional wedding photography, I have rarely experienced any of this. I would like to take this opportunity to address some of these complaints, perhaps and misunderstandings about the profession. I'll categorize each common complaint and provide a remark and a remedy.
"Theses is no money in wedding photography- I can make more money in whatever another kind of photography..."
Well, there is good money to be earned as a wedding photographer provided your work is competent, creative, artistic and comprehensive and is accompanied by sound business management, through marketing research and marketing strategies and profitable pricing.
You are the arbiter of what your work is worth and you set the prices accordingly. You can't be underpaid unless you somehow underpay yourself. If the market you are serving can't afford your fees, you need to explore other markets.
"The client screwed me": Didn't pay, canceled at the last minute, never placed an order, copied my work without authorization, reneged on our agreement etc.- and a litany of misadventures. This usually results from poor business management, working without proper legally binding contracts, not collecting sufficient deposits and retainers, taking on big time-consuming jobs on speculation without profitable minimum orders and not spelling out your copyright and exclusivity rights and privileges.
"They didn't cooperate at the wedding": This usually results from poor planning, not creating a mutually compatible wedding day schedule, nor informing the couple exactly how much time you will require and to what extent their participatin is needed for you to deliver the quality of work you are promising. This is more likely to occur if you have not conducted an in-person planning session and have simply taken the booking online or over the phone. It also occurs if you have significantly underpriced yourself as compared to the other vendors. If they are well invested in their photography, the will usually tend to cooperate.
"The bride and or the groom did not like the pictures": This is a hard one and some of Y'all might not like my answer. Unfortunately, they may be right! Hopefully not! Some folks, however, are out there taking on wedding work with little or no experience, no training in corrective and aesthetically pleasing portraiture. The may miss important must-have shots, omit important groups and family members and/or fumble their way through the wedding in an intrusive and unprofessional manner. You gotta make sure you know what you are doing.
Even if your work is wonderful, it may not be in the style, mode, era, fashion or motif that the client expected- all the more reason to conduct through sales and planning meeting to make certain that everyone is on the same page as to your style, treatment, the extent of corrective measures or retouching. Folks may assume things that you don't do and then they become disappointed.
"I wouldn't do a wedding for all the tea in China etc...: I like to do landscapes and birds" Please! Don't do dat! There is no logical reason to do something you simply do not enjoy let alone dislike, hate, detest, cannot envision yourself doing or have been unsuccessful or disgruntled with, in the past. Not every photographer, regardless of their talent, technical prowess or business savvy is cut out for this kind of work. It requires a lot of patience, the ability to perform with technical precision in very limited time frames and a great deal of hard physical work and oftentimes long hours. Undoubtedly, a good photographer can profit from an advanced level of landscape, nature, ornithological and fine art photography but these specialties can also be an enjoyable hobby, however, WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY is NOT a hobby by any stretch of the imagination- it's demanding and serious work that requires
many technical, artistic and people skills sets and it ain't for the lazy photographer or the faint of heart.
Stories of "fights" and commotions at weddings: Obviously and logically speaking, the photographer is not there to participate in or be victimized by any kind of altercations or violence. Sometimes emotions at weddings run high, folks drink too much etc. and the wise and observant photographer can sense potential troublesome situations and avoid them at all costs. My staff is instructed to immediately vacate the assignment if there is any such danger or confrontation. If they are threatened or witness any kind of assault, to immediately call in security personnel or the police. This policy is stated in our contract forms and required by our insurance carriers. Thank goodness, in all my years in this job, things never got that bad.
On difficult clients. Here's my philosophy:
No matter how excellent your products and services are and regardless of how hard to try to satisfy each and every one of your clients and no matter how much planning and preparation you do for every assignment, you are eventually and inevitably going to encounter the occasional problematic client. It's part of every business and profession. It happens! Whether you do photography, sell hot dogs and burgers or build houses, it's one of the many risks of being in business. Every smart salesperson or business person qualifies their clients and works hard prevent problems and to satisfy the customers they serve but occasionally, bad things happen to good people and something goes south. The only remedy is to rectify the situation whenever possible and somehow manage to placate the client and make good on your guarantee. The caveat is, things can go very wrong and seriously affect your business if issues like this occur frequently. When folks tell me or write that their experience with wedding photography was plagued with dissatisfied, disgruntled and uncooperative customers, I have to suspect that something is wrong. It's a matter of frequency- if a photographer has a high rate of dissatisfaction and seems to engage in personality conflicts and incompatibilities with many of his or her clients, they have to be doing something wrong. If the expect to remain in business, prosper and maintain their mental health, they need to get to the bottom of the problems, diagnose the faults and make corrections. Introspection and honest self analysis can be painful and requires courage, sticktoitiveness and determination but it can be extremely beneficial in business and other aspects of life.
For photograhers who are interested in this kind of work, please don't be discouraged by all the naysayers and doomsayers. The profession is alive and well among many masterful shooters and the industry deserves new blood and enthusiastic shooters.
Right here on the Hog, there is a Wedding Photography Section. All interested parties are invited and welcome to join in with questions, answers, suggestions, shop talk, business issues, technique, marketing and good conversation in a friendly atmosphere. Pros. aspiring pros, rookies, or just folks who are interested in many techniques that can be applied to other areas of photography are more than welcome.