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Professional photographers are very passionate about insisting that you shouldn’t ask just any friend with a camera to take your wedding photos. But aren’t they just out to make some money? They are running a business, after all. What’s the real difference between a professional with a fancy Canon camera and your friend with one?
Seattle Bride set out to answer that question and the results are quite fascinating. They asked Cody Ellerd, a professional travel writer with a Nikon D60 to tag along with Joey Hong of John & Joseph Photography at the wedding of Vicky Wu and Chris Nicoll. Cody Ellerd has had a few of her shots make the covers and pages of magazines so she definitely has an eye for photography! To quote her, “If you didn’t budget for a professional photographer at your wedding, I’m the friend you might call to take pictures.”
After her experience with John Hong, Cody has changed her mind about hiring a friend for her own wedding which she is in the midst of planning. To quote her, “I now disagree more than ever with the digital-age adage that “now everyone is a photographer”. Tens of thousands of dollars in education, equipment and experience separate me from the pros. Professional photographers, like any other artists or business owners, need to spend money to make money. When you hire them, you’re helping them pay for their investments.”
An example of Cody’s shot:
And John’s:
You can see the rest of the photos and read the full article on Seattle Bride’s website.
There are so many reasons why I would be scared to ask a friend or family member to photography my wedding. Do they have a contract? What happens if their camera or lens breaks? How will they handle the posing of group photos? What if their landscape or portrait photography skills don’t translate well for the varied circumstances of a wedding day?
Are you having a friend or family member (non wedding photographer) photograph your wedding? Or, how are you making room in your budget for a professional?
This is a great post, Avocado! I think professional photograph is in anyone’s reach…even if a professional photographer is out of the reach of your budget based on the packages they have on their Web site, it’s always worth the time and effort to see if they can come up with a custom package. Maybe it’s less hours or no album or whatever, professional photography is worth every penny!
Unfortunately, my pictures usually end up like that first one! For us, photography was too important to leave to chance…we made sure the budget allowed us to hire a pro for as long as we want on the wedding day!
Thanks for posting this, Mrs Avocado!
We’re actually having a friend photograph our wedding, but she’s a professional sports photographer. She’s spent the past year learning how to transition into wedding photography, and she says she loves shooting weddings. Normally I’d agree completely - don’t just get a friend to shoot your wedding - but I’m confident my photo-friend will do a good job.
such a helpful post! I’m convinced 
Interesting post!
We’re having my future sister in law’s best friend shoot pictures for ours. She’s a photography student and she’s shot a couple weddings before and honestly, I’m fine with whatever happens. If I have one good picture of the whole day, that’s enough for me. Our overall budget hovers around 10K and spending the average on photography would mean we’d have to invite fewer people, nix any hosted drinks, etc etc. Not worth it to me. But I’m confident in my FSIL’s friend, she’s got the equipment, she’s got great shots in her portfolio generally, and we’re happy to help her continue building it.
I’m going to hire a professional. I have a cousin who is a great amature (I’ve seen his shots of his friends’ weddings), but I want him to enjoy the wedding and be in the family shots. I’m hoping he’ll bring his camera though and capture some other things. And use him for the rehearsal dinner. SO, I’m considering him to be my “back-up” plan.
We are having a close friend shoot our wedding–but she is a professional photographer, so it works out. We happen to be friends with a number of professional photographers which came in handy–before our friend offered to shoot our wedding as a gift to us–we were going to pay another friend who quoted us $1,000 and he has shot numerous weddings and we’ve seen his pics. But then our friend offered to shoot as a gift and is also shooting our rehearsal dinner—so we got really lucky!
Thank you for posting this. Too many people these days think they’re a professional photographer (me being one of them. ) There’s a difference between shooting a good photo and shooting a good photo because you understand f-stops and shutter speeds.
You usually do get what you pay for.
if you are on a low budget get a pro who is just starting out. We hired our photographer fresh out of college. He has a photography education and takes excellent photos. He is just starting his business so he is investing in new equipment all the time. Plus his prices are cheap! We were one of the first to book with him so we got even cheaper rates then he is offering now.
We found him on craigslist. I highly recommend going this route!
As the friend-tographer to many of my friends and some family, I wholeheartedly agree. I have a decent eye. I have two dSLR bodies and a couple of lenses. I can take a decent shot. But I don’t have the BEST equipment, nor do I have the money to spend on it (since generally I operate as a friendor - not a paid vendor). So all I can promise is that I’ll do a better job than Your Random Uncle With A Point-And-Shoot. If it comes down to not having the budget for a true pro photographer, I’m happy to oblige my friends. But I am no pro, and you can clearly see the quality difference between my photos and a true professional’s - especially in low light or motion settings.
I’m lucky enough to have a friend who’s trying to start a wedding photography business and wants to build her portfolio. She’s transitioning to it from a different photography background (like Ms. Bear Cub’s friend) so she has a lot of experience and I’ve loved all the photos she’s taken previously, but it’s still cheap!
An interesting follow-up would be interviews with brides who didn’t have a good experience with a professional photographer (i.e. Mrs. Shortcake). While the details aren’t important, and of course hindsight is 20/20, I only liked about half a dozen shots taken by my professional photographer. At the end of the day, he and I had very different taste and style and I should have gone with someone who had a record of doing weddings like I wanted rather than taking him at his word that he could do what I wanted.
While I wouldn’t recommend anyone to avoid professional photogs based on a few scattered bad experiences, I guess what I want to say is that at the end of the day, no matter how much you spend or who you hire, there’s no guarantee that you’ll like your wedding pictures.
My FI’s father really wanted to photograph our wedding. I’ve seen some really great pictures that he’s taken, but he’s more of a self-taught hobbyist than a professional. My mom helped me put my foot down and insist on hiring a professional, and I couldn’t be happier about the decision!
This is a great post. I think a lot of people think that portraits and other types of photography are an easy transition into weddings but there’s so much more going on that it could be much too overwhelming unless you have a lot of experience as a 2nd or third shooter and a really high quality camera that you know how to use exceptionally well. Just cuz you take pretty pictures doesn’t mean you’re a wedding photographer, haha.
I think it definitely depends on the situation, and everyone should use their best judgment. We had an experienced friend photograph our wedding and we are very happy with the results. Also, there is something to be said for having a friend rather than a stranger there for your engagement shoot and wedding. It made us much more comfortable to have our close friend capturing our day rather than a stranger unfamiliar with our style or interests. And, since ours was a destination wedding, having a friend do it meant we could avoid the hassle and uncertainty of trying to find and book a photographer from a distance. Our friend had photographed other weddings before ours, which helped a lot - I definitely wouldn’t recommend letting a friend do it who had no experience!
I should note that I’m not a professional wedding photographer, but a professional military photographer….there is a difference.
I think there are different levels of amateur photographer… just as there are different levels of professional photographer. I was shocked when looking for ours how many bad so-called professional photographers are out there. Sadly just because you’re paying out the ear for a service, doesn’t mean it’s top quality.
i was lucky enough to have friends that ARE professional photographers! Looking back the only thing I would’ve done differently is write up a contract….but it was tough because they took our photos for us as a wedding gift!
If I wasn’t 100% confident in their ability to shoot, we wouldn’t have hired them.
My aunt is a photography enthusaist and photographed all of my cousins weddings. Her camera failed at one of the weddings (she did not know until afterwards). It was a huge disaster and she felt terrible about it. Not sure if this was a sign of things to come, but the cousin whose pictures were ruined - her marriage did not last either.
My sister was the first cousin to use a prof. photographer. She felt a little bad doing it, but did not want to risk it. I am using the same photographer as my sister.
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Mrs. Avocado, Seattle Age and Occupation: 23, Student Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Consultant Engagement Date: July 27, 2008 Wedding Date: October, 2008 Blogging Since: June 30, 2008 Venue: LDS Seattle Temple & Hotel 1000 About Me: Somehow this little farm girl found herself a genuine Pole to fall in love and eventually move away to Poland with. I am an LDS bride attempting to plan a private religious ceremony, ring ceremony, seated reception for 100, and an open house while coordinating for guests flying in from across the United States and as far away as Poland. I try to avoid fads, excess waste, and saturated fat. I strongly endorse photography, DDR, calorie counting, rss feeds, cooking, and utilizing your resources.
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