A Photographer & Videographer’s Thoughts – Keeping Things Professional

Weddings are expensive, there’s no two ways about it. It’s quite possible to have a wedding on a budget but even then it’s hardly cheap and for most people that means that somewhere along the lines you have to cut some corners.

One of the increasingly common approaches that brides and grooms are taking to this is to have either a photographer or a videographer but not both; choosing to have the professionals take care of whichever is more important to them and asking a friend to fill in either taking pictures or recording a video to fill in the blanks.

On the face of it this is a perfectly sensible money-saving scheme – you’re accepting that you’re not going to get the standard that the pros can achieve but at least you’re still getting something that you can look back on and the pro that you do have with you on the day will be able to make sure that you’ve got something truly special, whether that’s the photos or the video. It really is a solid theory but here’s the unfortunate truth – it almost never works.

The thing is that photographers and videographers are always looking for similar shots and positions and there’s a certain professional etiquette that goes with that. Sometimes there simply is only one available shot and if you don’t know how to work it and how to make sure you’re both in the right place at the right time then you can end up destroying each other’s shots and both of you coming away with nothing. It’s sometimes hard enough to work together when both parties are experienced pros, and when you introduce an amateur into the mix you need to be aware that it may well cause you some serious problems.

We’ve seen “uncle bob” photographers and videographers walking within a couple of feet in front of the bride and groom as they walk up the aisle, not only blocking every possible shot for their colleague for the day but also the view of the entire congregation. We’ve been blocked out of the confetti shot by a camera suddenly being raised unexpectedly in front of us, we’ve literally been elbowed out of the way by eager ‘uncle bobs’ desperate to get the shot. We each have first dance footage of photographers and videographers more or less dancing the tango with the couple they’re that close, and when that happens there’s simply nothing the other person can do to get around them, they will be in the shots.

It’s important to remember that capturing someone’s day is massively pressurised and if you’re passing that responsibility into a friend or relative’s hands they’re going to be desperate to do a good job for you, after all these are your memories and you only get one shot at it. But whereas a professional will have the experience to take that pressure on board but have the confidence to know what will make a good shot, the amateur is likely to just be desperate to capture every last moment to make sure they don’t miss anything important. We were all amateurs once and we’ve all been there. In doing so though it’s easy to forget that actually you are compromising those precious memories by not allowing the person best equipped to capture those shots to do their job properly. It’s not their fault, they’re just not experienced enough to do what you’re asking of them – if they were then we professionals wouldn’t have a job.

This is not to say that it absolutely CAN’T work, just that it very rarely does. If you do want to go down the route of using a friend it’s important to just make it clear to them what you’re expecting of them and make sure they know firstly who the photographer/videographer is and make it clear that the professional should have priority on the shots. Just like anyone else photographers and videographers hate feeling like we’re being rude in asking people to stay out of our way, so if we’re properly introduced in the first place it can help to break the ice and give us the opportunity to explain how we work through the day and allow us to tell the other person when they are causing us problems without being patronising or short tempered. If the amateur party understand fully that they need to be watching what the professional is doing and placing themselves accordingly then there’s a much better chance that the day will run smoothly for all concerned. With these little steps put in place beforehand you might well get some great photos and video from the day, but there is another question you should ask yourselves firmly before going down this route: is it worth the risk?

Sometimes the answer is yes – if you really do want photography and videography but absolutely can’t afford to pay for both then maybe asking a friend is your only option and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that as long as you remember that you are putting your memories in the hands of an amateur – they may not be able to cope with different lighting conditions, are unlikely to carry backups and don’t have that level of experience that guides the professional on a wedding day. That’s not to say that they won’t do their absolute upmost to get some nice shots for you though and sometimes it’s better to have something than nothing at all. But all we ask is that you don’t forget that sometimes by trying to have it all you can end up with nothing regardless, and sometimes it’s better to have one full record that brings the broadest of smiles to your faces than two half-captured records that each draw a tear. Weddings are all about moments, moments that flash by in the blink of an eye – make sure you’ve got the right people there at the right time to make sure that moment is never missed.