Planning a wedding can become a part-time occupation.
After you’ve found yourself a date and location, you’ll probably then look towards finding yourself someone who specialises in wedding photography.
Where do I start?!
To cut through all the info and recommendations you’ll get, remember this one point: the photographs are what you’re left with.
This has nothing to do with who the venue like to work with (or pay commission to), who your friends recommend (tastes do differ), or if the photographer’s personality is fantastic (but work is so-so). By all means, use these sources to help research photographers, but realise that when the wedding day passes, it is simply the photographs you’ll care about (well, hopefully each other too!). And as the years pass, you’ll only care more about them. So it only makes sense to prioritize the work of the photographer, right? Don’t compromise on this.
I’m not saying forget all the other important qualities that make a great photographer, simply begin with their work, and then make your way down the list.
“To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them”
– Elliott Erwitt
If you look at the qualities you almost certainly don’t want in a photographer it only makes things clearer. You likely won’t want someone who is there to control the day and it’s events. You won’t want someone who is stopping you and arranging posed or setup images throughout the day. You don’t want the same one-size-fits-all approach which gives you generic images, lacking any personality or character. If you remove this regimental type approach, we can see you want someone who will let events unfold in their own imperfect but beautiful way.
So arguably the most important skill a photographer has is his eye for seeing a photograph. If your photographer is a creative thinker, they are someone with vision, and has spent many years developing and refining this. They will have an in-depth understanding of lighting & composition, and how to use this in hugely varying real-world situations. They can make the ordinary inspiring, and bring clarity to the chaos.
Can you begin to see why this is such an important quality to have in your wedding photographer? It’s not about repeating set images, or going through the same routine over-and-over again. It’s about the way you observe the world. And this one element will leave you with the most important thing: photographs that you love.
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