PhotoExpo Javits Center NYC

PhotoExpo is an annual trade show in NY City with a huge amount of floor space

devoted to everything photographic.

 

Some observations: There is a company called Bella based in San Francisco. A

casual google web search did not bring them up immediately and I didn't search

for their borchure among the many I collected yesterday. They have a big sign up

beckoning "We are hiring" in foot high letters.

 

They are a wedding photography company. Their role is to do all the post

processing of digital images - proofs, albums, prints, etc. The hired

photographer is required to shoot a wedding and submit the memory cards by

FedEx. They book the photographer for twelve hours at $750 for experienced

photographers. Any extra time is pro rated.

 

No experience? If your submitted images are decent, they will train. You then

get to do "starter" weddings at $250 [several] before they let you loose on

someone's serious wedding. Who's the "starter bride", I don't know? No second

shooter unless the couple specifically asks and will pay.

 

Equipment: Two digital bodies [film - no] and flash. As I said, they provide the

memory.

 

They have done 2500 hundred weddings since 2003. They were in 39 markets last

year and expect to do 3000 weddings this year alone. I got this info from a

representative at the booth, so there may be some discrepancies.

 

Not for nothing the number of divorced couples now outnumber married couples,

another useless but interesting fact that recently was announced in the news.

Bella is all over the place and discussed many times here and in other photography forums. Not sure how you search could have missed them. Sounds like a good deal for people wanting to work for slave wages.

Was that admonishment really necessary? Curious about that business model, I just put

"Bella" into pnet's search and got no hits.

I'm not a wedding professional but I have had the opportunity to shoot some weddings candids for close friends' children. I've been cruising this forum for awhile and don't recall much said about Bella.

 

More to the point a lot of people make a living out of the photography they perform and this company certainly has a plan and a market share that is much larger than any individual. The wages are really not very good considering the dollar/hour ratio. I would hope that the quality of work would justify a more equitable distribution of the profit.