justin_hall

I've only done a dozen weddings and I've already had a taste of the dreaded BrideZilla - or even worse, the dreaded "Evil Mother-In-Law-Zilla".

 

As a photographer I will now only sign a contract with the Bride or Groom, I don't care who pays me - but it must be the Bride who signs the deal.

 

Weddings can really bring the worst out in people - and without sounding sexist its usually the women who are a nightmare. Men are usually simple creatures who go along with whatever and normally write the cheque happily at the end.

 

I've even been a guest at a friends wedding where the Mom has started ordering me around like a right little Nazi. She was the Nazi I mean. I wasn't.

 

My suggestion is that (as you guys are in the USA) therapy and counseling is the best bet. The best of luck.

 

Or fly me over from the UK and I'll do a nice location shoot free of charge - maybe with the help of some other photographers here at photo.net.

Thanks Dave & Bill, is the PPA a USA thing? I'm in England you see...

Actually I would have to agree with Kari about grabbing your camera and getting out there. Whilst it's a terribly sad thing thats affected people - good photographers almost have a duty to record such events for the future.

 

The one and only bit of photojournalism I've ever done was of a building disaster in the UK, just one photo has sold 20 times on www.fotolia.com.

I think what I'm really missing is the opportunity to work with other like minded people - David you mention apprenticeship which would be great. Perhaps even joining a club might help? Sometimes I just want to turn to [imaginary person] and ask them what they think about ISO/Location/Whatever...

 

"Self taught" is a bad phrase you are right, in truth many great photographers have taught me via books.

Based on all of your feedback I'm currently thinking that there are many valuable courses that can help me improve but I don't necessarily need it. My photography business is successful insofar as I am booked up for many months and have weddings booked into 2009.

 

I think this is more due to my background in business, the web and working for marketing agency rather than my prowess as a photographer. In fact I think the most mediocre a photographer could easily become very successful if marketed correctly.

 

You know I might just look for some decent week long courses in the UK - any suggestions anyone?

You've got a great set of gear ready Blake, you obviously know your stuff - whatever happens just relax and enjoy it!

 

To answer your questions:

 

1) Contract? Not sure, I need one too - based on UK law in my case. I do have a photo consent form I use which is available on the Downloads page of my sit justinhall.co.uk, feel free to borrow it and adapt it for your own needs. If you get a good contract template - could you share it with us all?

 

2) as above

 

3) i never advertise anywhere personally - I take lots of business cards and example work to every shoot I go to, people always pick stuff up and I get great referrals. in fact all my business is referrals. it's the best way.

 

4) i don't use film. I have to confess amongst my esteemed peers reading this that I have never used film (since I was like 12), I'm not even sure I know how to load film? how embarrassing... I may be one of the only photographers looking to migrate from digital to film - I think it's got a great future, especially medium format, lomo etc

 

5) my favourite film for weddings? i'm english - so 4 Weddings and a Funeral I guess...

I'm 100% self taught which fills me with immense pride on the one hand and with

occasional (and frequent) bouts of self-doubt on the other. I've never been

shown how to use flash, develop my own film or even the basics of composition.

 

At the tender young age of 33 I'm wondering whether I should do some formal

photography education, course or degree? I believe I'm good at what I do but

would it make me much better?

 

My question is how much value do you place on such education? Especially in the

wedding business...

Well said. And good luck to anyone in California - I hope everything works out for you. In England we had terrible floods this year - maybe there is something to Climate Change after all...?

Jack - thanks for your comments, I agree with all of them. The Gallery page is all old work (a year old!) and therefore I look at much of it and cringe! Hopefully my new work is a bit more arty and I'm gradually learning things and becoming more versatile as you say.

 

I think I have a couple of years more "on the job" training before I will feel truly happy with my abilities, feedback and inspiration from the guys and gals here sure helps a lot!

Thanks Tim - praise indeed from you, your work is awesome! Not another gunners fan? I'm surrounded by them!!! Give me a shout next time you are in England - we can go and watch a match!

Well the first thought is that the photos actually are sub-standard, without seeing them we have to give the benefit of the doubt...

 

Assuming that they are actually good shots however then there is a fair chance that they are trying to pull a fast one. One of the problems in paying for albums a few months after the wedding is that people develop a bit of apathy/resentment for paying for something in the past - that has been and gone. Like paying for your sofa/couch over 5 years - 3 years later you feel cheated!

 

Saying that people are ruthless and cunning at dodging paying for things (I know I am!), and will probably try anything to steal what's rightfully yours.

 

I regularly have people complaining to me that "why couldn't I right-click and download MY photo off your web site to print it at home - your site doesn't work, please email it to me", you can guess my response....

 

Where are the snaps then, lets take a look...

 

j

The words "evil" and "stepmom" work together like Strawberries & Cream - if the fairy tales are to be believed, but there must be some sort of history going on?

 

Do Mom and Son not talk? Has he done something to rile her? Did he discover her having an affair with a circus-dwelling midget tap dancer which turned into some bizarre love triangle with her previous tight-rope walking "bi-curious friend"? ("Allegedly" - for legal reasons).

 

I suspect it's all a misunderstanding and if people just put their differences aside, sat down and had a nice cup of tea and chat it would all be resolved with just a few minor lacerations.

 

Won't anyone think about the little children?

 

Keep us posted....

Would you fly me there? I'm in the UK...

I always carry two cameras, one has a nice all round 17-55mm 2.8 and the other a long 70-200mm 2.8. No lens swapping and a nice insurance policy (when not if) a camera goes tech on you!

 

And lots of batteries, memory, spare flash, swimsuit, snorkel....the usual.

By the way Rhett your work is outstanding, many people on this site (including myself) could learn a lot from you.

 

j

I totally agree, and Gerald hit the nail on the head too. Personally I have been cutting my teeth on home portrait work - I actually made a statement on my web site saying I'm an amateur and I don't do weddings!

 

The funny thing is that people viewed this as some Freudian/reverse psychology type thing and I got bombarded with requests to do weddings.

 

I am still by no means a professional (just the other day I screwed up 10 minutes worth of shots by leaving my ISO way high when I walked outside - GULP!), and weddings is all about planning and people skills.

 

When I first set out I was obsessed with equipment and "settings", I'm now far more pragmatic and concentrate on the people, the location and obviously the light. I would encourage other amateurs to do what I did - make your mistakes and learn your lessons on non-wedding shoots before you wade in and potentially screw up someones biggest day...

 

Oh and stop worrying about the size of your lens - a real pro could do it with a fairly crappy camera and a fixed 50mm lens...

Hi Michael,

 

It would be good to see more of your work, most of the shots were indoors and made good use of composition and angles. You obviously have an eye for it and know what you are doing. It would be great if you could show some more work with natural/available light and see how you make the most of those f2.8 lenses.

 

Great work and keep it up!

 

j

I hate flash, I really hate flash. It's so difficult to use it well and puts so many people off.

 

I really like the HTML site though - I would dump the flash and just work on the HTML, a good simple site with nice navigation and straight to the point.

 

Great photos too - always helps! ;)

Hey Bob,

 

Thanks very much for your opinion - and yes I agree about the fonts, the next version will be much more uniformed and I may well take your advice and just have one navigation bar. Great feedback, again thank you.

 

j

What I'm about to say might be quite contrary to most posts on photo.net. The web is without a doubt one of the most important tools the modern photographer has in his/her arsenal. It's used as a tool to deliver goods to our clients (enabling them to buy online) and as a marketing tool.

 

We all want to know what we (as a community) feel about each others sites - me included - yet the ultimate measure is that of business success. So, if the web is such an important tool then why do so many photographers attempt DIY. Don't get me wrong there are some great sites out there but they are vastly outweighed by a slurry of badly designed, badly written and generally shocking web sites.

 

If it so important then pay a professional to design it - someone who understands marketing and advertising (not your friends nephew's girlfriend who is handy with Dreamweaver and clip-art).

 

Nobody would dream of producing their own radio advert or glossy brochure - you would leave it to a pro. The irritating thing is that these sites really let down the fabulous work of the photographer.

 

It becomes a refelction of both creativity and professionalism. One would expect a photographer to be creative - a clipart/flash nightmare just contradicts everything you stand for.

 

Whilst some excellent advice has been offered on here I would encourage people to invest money in a professional site - like you invest money in cameras, lenses and equipment.

 

If you have to do it yourself - just keep it simple. Be straight forward and honest, say it how it is and let your personality and the photos do the talking.

 

So if you really don't understand your CSS's from your Javascripts, your eyebrow menu's from your breadcrumbs - get someone who does to build your site for you. Do the things you are good at... learning how to become an (even better) photographer...

 

Thats my pennys worth.... of course I'm opening myself up to a whole bunch of criticism of my site, do I never learn?....

 

j

Hi Leah,

 

Wow - your first wedding, good for you!

 

I am by no means a pro and people could spend hours pulling apart my work BUT, I now have a 10 weddings under my belt and would offer the following advice:

 

1) Start with home/location portrait shoots. If it goes wrong it's not a big deal, with weddings you can't re-arrange - portraits you can always go back.

 

2) Get some good books on exposure and learn what ISO's/F-Stops/Aperture to use in any given circumstance. Pretend you are shooting film - only give yourself 36 shots and not the insurance of another 1,000 jpg's to find the lucky shots. Self discipline served me well. I sometimes test myself - grab a difficult guest/difficult location and tell them we have just 1 shot to get the picture... nothing like a bit of pressure...

 

3) Learn from every gig you go to. Something WILL go wrong, be it the weather, the people or the equipment. C'est la vie. Just keep doing it and keep learning from it.

 

4) You have an eye for it - the rest is just technique and practice.

 

5) Jonathan Jones mentioned getting a good f2.8 lens. It does make a massive difference and lets you get away from using evil flash. Personally my flash-kit is an absolute emergency piece of insurance which I have had to only use once (out of 10 weddings).

 

You will be a pro in no time - the best of luck and let us know how you get on with your other shoots.

 

j

Thats great Peter - plenty of useful information. Thanks for taking the time to post a reply.

Hi everyone,

 

So I've been an avid voyeur of photo.net for some time and have learned a great

deal from you all.

 

I've recently posted up my new site and have already decided to re-design it for

2008. I have the slight advantage of working for a marketing agency (as a day

job) as a web consultant so have a plethora of friends who are web designers,

creatives, developers and techies.

 

I usually spend my days building big flashy web sites for car companies and

actually went to the opposite extreme for my own site, would you do me the

honour of having a look and passing comment?

 

For the techs amongst you I will be moving to a pure CSS site next time round (I

have some issues with fonts/firefox IE7) and may move away from Photobox.co.uk

if anyone can suggest a good, easy to use alternative?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

j

 

www.justinhall.co.uk

 

P.S. I guess I would like to know what you think of my photos too!

 

P.P.s FYI I designed, built and hosted my entire site using Frontpage 2000 and

notepad. PS Elements 5 was used for image work. I bought my domain from

easily.co.uk and use built in Win XP FTP.