The Documentary Photographer » Wedding Photography

No Awards

Roger Overall — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 16:24:18 +0000

I can say with certainty that I won’t win any prizes in the 2012 Irish Professional Photographers Association (IPPA) National Photographic Awards.

The reason is simple.

I didn’t enter.

Instead, I was asked to participate in the final judging as a stand-in judge. A real honour.

It was a terrific experience and gave me a real insight into the judging process.

You can read about it here: Judging the 2012 IPPA National Photographic Awards.

Lapland Wedding – Day 1: Early

Roger Overall — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 10:54:13 +0000

My least favourite time in the world is Oh-Bloody-Hell Hundred Hours, which is roughly any time before 9am. I’m not a morning person. It’s almost a clinical condition in my case.

Such an affliction makes early starts something I don’t look forward to and enjoy even less.

In the past five days, I’ve had three 4.30am alarm calls and one at 5.30am. In return, I’ve seen some stunning sunrises in spectacular locations. You can read about that over on the Circle of Confusion blog.

Lapland

Today’s 04.30 start was necessary to catch a flight. I’m flying to Lapland to photograph a wedding for a couple from the Netherlands.

I’ve never been to Lapland, though when I was a little boy, very little, I am sure I caught its most famous resident sneaking into my room one Christmas Eve to deliver a stocking of presents. I can see it in my mind’s eye as clear as if it were happening right now. If I meet him on my trip, I really must say thanks.

What would you suggest?

This assignment is a peculiar one, and I would like to throw it open to my regular readers. The arrangement I have with the bride and groom is that I will waive my usual photography fee in return for all my expenses and full commercial rights in the photographs. Some photographers will raise an eyebrow at the latter. After all, shouldn’t photographers own full commercial rights in their images? Of course. But I wouldn’t normally feel comfortable gifting or selling photographs from a wedding to a third party for their commercial use – a hotel, for instance. In this case, it was the couple’s suggestion. In fact, they were positively eager.

I’ve had my thinking cap on for a while, and the obvious ways in which to monetize the trip have presented themselves. That is, the ones that are obvious to me. I have a couple of nibbles from the professional photography magazines, for instance. Bridal magazines would be another obvious one, though there are challenges there.

This is where you can help me. How would you monetize a trip to Lapland to photograph a wedding? More brains are likely to come up with more ideas than mine is capable of on its own. All suggestions welcome.

Social media

I’ll be blogging and tweeting my way through this trip. Look out for the hashtag #laplandwedding on Twitter if you’d like to follow.

***UPDATE*** Reports have reached me that no snow has fallen in Ivalo. Normally, some would have fallen by now, leaving a permanent covering until spring. This is bad news from a photography and marketing point of view.

Words and Actions

Roger Overall — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 13:40:45 +0000

Although I’m withdrawing from wedding photography, I am still taking bookings for 2012 (my final season) and I continue to get enquiries. I recently received an email that showed the direction the wedding photography business is taking. Here’s an excerpt:

“If you’re available would you please provide a quote for the following?

Pre-wedding meeting at Venue (Ceremony & Reception at same location)
Approx 4 hours on the day
Photos provided on USB key or DVD in RAW format, edited and unedited and in black and white
No album required

Can you please advise if we will have full unrestricted access to our photographs with the ability to alter them as we see fit?”

The statement that no album is required is nothing new. Brides have been asking for disc-only wedding photography for years now. I’m not going to repeat my own views on this.

The really interesting bit is the fact that the couple are looking for RAW files. They specifically wish to have the ability to manipulate the digital files themselves. A photographer’s post-production style is as much part of their photographic vision as the image they capture with their camera. Capture and post-production combine to produce a photographer’s signature – that which makes their work recognisably theirs. It’s a bit like asking a builder to build you a house, but to only deliver the bricks – you’ll do the rest, including the design.

I don’t want to dwell on this aspect too much because there is a more captivating one.

A few months ago, I attended a meeting of wedding photographers where the state of the industry was under debate. The majority of people in the room were advocates of disc-only packages. A few said: “We should give the market what it wants.” Only a handful protested at this; most were in full agreement, happy to bow to the market. They advocated that the market should drive a photographer’s business. The customer is always right.

To these photographers, I have a challenge. Now that the market is asking for RAW files on a USB fob, are you going to stand by your words? For you, it’s time to hand over the penultimate control that you have over how your work looks and feels. Time to hand over the expression of your vision and voice as a photographer. The market seemingly doesn’t want you to express yourself in your editing and post-production anymore. You said you’d give the market what it wants. Now is the chance to step up and do it.

That option leaves photographers with one solitary function in life: to take the photograph. Yet how long will it be before the market starts telling them how to frame the shot and when to release the shutter? Where will that leave them? They certainly won’t be able to call themselves photographers any longer.

Sometimes, it is good to give the market what it wants. Sometimes it isn’t. This is one of those occasions.

Mirror Image

Roger Overall — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 19:18:38 +0000

Here’s a confession. Motorized machines don’t really interest me. When men huddle together to talk about cars at parties, I’m lost. I watch Top Gear and can distinguish correctly the front end of a car from the back at least nine times out of ten, but that’s as far as it goes.*

Motorcycles leave me even colder. This is good news, as it means my mid-life crisis is unlikely to morph into a desire to dress up like a Rolling Stones roadie and straddle a chrome-encrusted noise factory so low slung that my rear end is barely four inches off the tarmac.

Not all men are so lucky. Earlier this year a crowd of bike enthusiasts gathered outside the Brehon hotel in Killarney for some kind of bikefest. Regrettably, it coincided with the reception of the wedding I was photographing. My eyes are still hurting at the sight of so much middle-aged blubber oozing out from under tight T-shirts and over the waists of even tighter leather slacks. And everyone walking about as if they’d scalp you if you glanced at them the wrong way. That’s a hard look to pull off when you are so clearly a purchasing clerk, or an accountant, or an insurance broker, or whatever office-imprisoned dullard in real life. Do honest-to-God warriors of the road really have Gold Member credit cards and rooms in four-star hotels?

As for the noise – it was like being punched in the ear. What is the point of riding something so loud it makes the flower girls cry?

The only redeeming feature of the bikes parked outside the hotel (if you discount the release of dopamine and adrenalin from laughing so much at the sight of a ‘Goldwing’, surely the most comedic bicycle ever built) was the fact that the occasional mirror allowed me to produce an interesting take on the wedding reception.**

This photograph was harder to take than it looks as I had to contort my body to get the right angle. In the end, I had to crop a little of the mirror (and myself) out of the frame. (c) Roger Overall 2011

*That said, I did enjoy touring the surrounds of Arles in July in a classic Porsche 911. Though this was likely more to do with the friendly and engaging company, the endless talk about photography, and the availability of good food and wine at the end of each ride than with the car itself.

**Don’t even think about suggesting what a great photograph it would have made to get the bride and groom to go on a bike.

Stepping Back

Roger Overall — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 08:23:24 +0000

This year has been a very important one for me in terms of my style. I’ve found myself stepping back a lot more.

Often, as photographers we tend to concentrate on a detail. We like to isolate particular things, actions or people. In this instance, I could have stepped in and filled the frame with the groom editing his speech. I could have gone even further and just photographed the pen in his hand writing on the paper. That would have been a very limited story, though. By stepping back, and I mean way back and including the environment, the story expands. To me, this says something of the separation of bride and groom on the morning of their wedding.

Editing (c) Roger Overall 2011

Airborne Flower Girl

Roger Overall — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 09:49:10 +0000

My reflection on this year’s main wedding season continues with this photograph taken just before the bride and groom were announced into the dining room at a wedding celebration in Co Waterford.

Airborne Flower Girl (c) Roger Overall 2011

How Should A Newcomer Enter The Market?

Roger Overall — Mon, 23 May 2011 23:03:17 +0000

I recently wrote a post about how I face the possibility of being pushed out of the wedding market. It generated a little bit of comment and a couple of private email exchanges. One of the comments was this, posted by Rick Bennett:

“When a young photog has very little portfolio and no word-of-mouth, it seems to me that price is the only way to attract attention. The alternative is to charge nothing while the portfolio and word-of-mouth develop, and that is difficult to sustain for very long.

I take it from your footnote that you disagree with my perspective (as a new photog with a fledgling portfolio and the whisperings of word-of-mouth). I do hope you’ll expand in a future post what you think the right choice would be (and that isn’t meant as sarcasm–I do hope you will).

Cheers,

Rick”

I promised Rick that I would. Here goes.

When anyone comes into a market that is new to them, it can be overwhelming. This is definitely the case for photographers, regardless of whether they are self-taught or fresh out of college with a degree in photography. The business side of photography is something they simply haven’t experienced yet. So, without guidance, it is tempting for them to base their business on the most obvious unique selling point: “I am cheaper than the next guy.”

It is tempting to do so for a number of reasons.

Firstly, it is an easy model to work with. Find out what others are charging and place your own prices lower.

Secondly, it means you don’t have to face up to the arduous task of figuring out what your own cost of doing business is and building a pricing scheme that matches what you need to earn. By the way, basing your prices on those of others is folly for exactly this reason. You don’t know what other photographers need to earn to cover their own expenses. They may need more than you, or they may need less (their overheads may be low, their spouse may be a high earner who covers the mortgage, etc). If you base your pricing on a photographer’s whose revenue needs are lower than yours, you’ve set yourself up for financial failure from the start.

Thirdly, competing on price means we don’t have to worry about that trickiest of questions: “What is the value of my photography?”

I think that basing a business strategy on low pricing stems from one thing. Fear.

Fear that you are not good enough to charge a sensible rate for your work. Fear that others won’t agree with your valuation.

That fear can come from several sources, but in the case of a new photographer it most likely comes from angst that they will not do a good enough job. They worry that they lack the experience. This may well be the case. After all, if you don’t have a portfolio of wedding work to show, chances are that you are inexperienced.

Inexperience is of itself not a bad thing. It can be overcome.

Yet if you are inexperienced, should you be offering yourself as a professional wedding photographer in the first place? Wouldn’t it be wiser to gain experience as a second shooter for an established wedding photographer before striking out on your own? Wedding photographers, or any photographer for that matter, shouldn’t really be learning their trade on their client’s dime, regardless of how small that dime is, should they?

So, what should they do instead?

Like I say, inexperience is not a permanent state. Enquire with established photographers about shooting for them, or accompanying them as an observer. In some cases, you’ll be met with apathy or even hostility. Don’t worry. Not all established wedding photographers are so insular. Many will agree to let you accompany them. It will be on their terms, but they will let you in. As a side note, make sure you find a photographer who shoots in the style that you are drawn to. No point following a documentary wedding photographer if your heart is set on a more fashion-shoot approach.

Ironically, your goal here, in my opinion, is not to produce a body of wedding photography to show brides. Rather it is to gain experience of what happens on a wedding day and the role of the wedding photographer. Photography is the easy bit. Understanding the mechanics and sensibilities of a wedding day is the real expertise of a wedding photographer.

If your wedding photography doesn't give you a proper yield, you will find it hard to survive. Charge properly from the outset. (c) Roger Overall 2011

But what about photographs?

You’ll probably end up with some pictures by doing this anyway, but even if you don’t, I don’t think you need to worry.

Your key selling point, the one that nobody can compete with you on, is your photographic eye. If you work hard enough at building your own style and interpretation of photography, you will stand out. You will be unique.

That has at least two benefits. One: you can charge a sensible rate. Two: you will be able to attract the right kind of customers

Go out and produce the kind of work that you want to. Build a portfolio of work that is an expression of you as a photographer. Ask friends to model if you want to go down the fashion-shoot route with your wedding photography. If you want to shoot documentary weddings, go and shoot some personal documentary projects. Strengthen your voice, your eye, your style.

If you need to fund this by taking a part-time job in another field, that’s fine. Do what you need to do to pay the bills until you are able to quit the part-time job because your photography is generating sufficient revenue.

Once you have a unique voice, you should value it. That means that you should value your photography. Charging cheaply for your work is the same as admitting that your work has little or no value. And that’s simply not true. Every photographer should be able to stand behind their work and fight for its value. Nobody else will.

Eventually then, you’ll end up in a position where you have experience of what a wedding day is, along with a portfolio of your own singular images.

That leaves one final ingredient; one that is most often overlooked by newcomers and established professionals alike. Your passion. Why do you want to photograph weddings? What is it about them that appeals to you and connects with you deeply? If you can’t answer the last question, wedding photography is not for you. Seriously. Weddings are too important to be tackled by someone who doesn’t connect with them personally. Someone who is dabbling in weddings because it seems an easy business to get in to is no good to the bride and groom. They deserve better. If you aren’t passionate about wedding photography, find another outlet for your photography.

If you are passionate about weddings, you’ll find that your enthusiasm is going to help you tremendously. Sure, you may not have the bulging wedding portfolio, but if you’ve attended enough weddings with an established photographer, you’ll know and appreciate the complexities of the day. You will have experience of weddings. And you’ll be offering quality photography with a style unique to you. If the couple connect with your style and they get the sense that you know what a wedding is all about, and they get your passion, you’re on your way to making that sale. “Listen, your day is going to be fabulous and I would love to capture it for you in this style of photography. Just imagine your wedding expressed in this way.” Some won’t get it. They aren’t your clients. Others will. They are your clients.

Now we’re ready to talk price. This is a blog post in its own right. For the moment, let’s just go on the rule of thirds. It’s a rough rule of thumb, but statistical analysis done in the US by the PPA does bear this out. Two-thirds of what you charge (ex-VAT) goes on costs associated with being in business and undertaking assignments. So roughly one-third of your ex-VAT price is left over for you (and the income tax people). You need to price your work so that that one-third is a sensible amount of money for the effort you put in. In the case of a wedding, that’s easily 40 hours.

Does all of the above guarantee success? Nope. You could do all this, only to discover that the combination of you, your style, your voice, your passion, your photography doesn’t connect with enough people to sustain you in the wedding business. That is what prompted me to write my original post to begin with. However, I do believe you’ll stand a much better chance than if you base your entry to the market on price. That will only work for a while – until the next lot come in and undercut you.

A final note. I want to thank Rick for asking the question. Without such interaction, our profession is going to be poorer. I don’t have all the answers, just strongly held beliefs. I think Rick, by merely asking the question, has shown himself to be engaged with his future as a photographer. He has also afforded me the opportunity to speak my own mind. Thank you, Rick.

The comments are open.

The Wedding Photography Market Is Dying – Good

Roger Overall — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 18:50:47 +0000

I heard a report on the radio recently that 1,000 people are leaving Ireland every week. A large share of them are young, single people setting off to find work and opportunities that Ireland’s crippled economy can no longer offer them. At the same time, the number of people who are photographing weddings to earn money (either as a main income or to supplement another revenue stream) is increasing.

Put another way, while demand is shrinking, supply is increasing. Smaller pie, more mouths.

You don’t need to be John Maynard Keynes to figure out what happens next.

Prices go into free fall.

On the face of it, that is great for brides. They are in a buyer’s market.

Is the mainstream wedding market on the verge of changing so much that I am no longer compatible with it? (c) Roger Overall 2011

That’s not so good for many established professional wedding photographers. With wedding photography reduced for the most part to a commodity (the purchase of which is determined by price), they face being overrun by a tidal wave of newcomers charging less*. Unless they can react to what is happening, they will go out of business.

I think the marketplace for wedding photography will be totally transformed over the next couple of years. When the dust settles, I think that most wedding photography will be cheap and unremarkable. Only a small number of high-end professional wedding photographers will be able to exist, catering to a relatively sophisticated clientele. They will have developed a unique style and product offering, though these alone will not guarantee their long-term survival.

From my own point of view, I have to face up to the very real possibility that I shall be forced to abandon the wedding market. It would sadden me to have to step away from wedding photography. Yet on the other hand, it wouldn’t be the end of my world. While I am very proud of my wedding work and will always seek to photograph fascinating marriages, if the market decides there is no place for me in it, I shall take my leave of it. My passion is photography. That is a transferable skill and the opportunities for a photographer are legion. Even as I type these words, different avenues are opening up for me. New possibilities are presenting themselves based on my interests.

So, maybe the changes in the wedding market aren’t all bad. Sure, they scare the hell out of me, but perhaps that’s what I need. I’m being pushed to investigate new markets and connect with new types of clients. I could have ambled along quite successfully for many years in the wedding market as it used to be, reaching a comfortable plateau both artistically and financially. I’m middle-aged (early middle-aged, but middle-aged nevertheless), so I’m entering that phase in my life where security is preferable to excitement. That’s when creativity really suffers. Chances are, if things had stayed the way they were, I wouldn’t have fulfilled my full potential as a photographer.

So, if the wedding market is going to show me the door, at least I can take comfort in the fact that I can choose which door to leave through. And likely on the other side I’ll find an equally fulfilling career.

*For many new photographers coming into the industry price is the only obvious way for them to distinguish themselves. It is the wrong choice, but in such an overwhelming business environment and with a lack of guidance, it is an understandable one.

Anatomy Of A Wedding Day #15 – Anne & Daniel – County Cork & County Kerry, Ireland

Roger Overall — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 08:30:46 +0000

Here are some wedding photographs by way of a change of pace. People are coming up to me to ask about my sudden obsession with cattle and meat. They are starting to worry that it is unhealthy. I have even been asked whether I’m giving up wedding photography altogether. The answer is “No” – at least, not willingly. The way the market is heading may force me to in the next few years, but that’s another blog post entirely.

In the meantime, as long as couples still give me the privilege of photographing their weddings, I’ll continue to do so. Here is a selection of photographs from a wedding shot in December. I won’t forget it in a hurry. I had to abandon my car in the snow by the side of the road on my way back from the wedding reception. It could go no further on the icy roads. Fortunately, it was only 50 metres from my house. It could have happened 50 miles from home. That really would have been a story.

Anatomy Of A Wedding Day #13 – Kristel & Bernard

Roger Overall — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 22:03:46 +0000

I photographed six weddings between 10th December and 10th January. My busiest Christmas period ever. Exhausting, but very satisfying as well.

One thing I would like to do here is give a big, public thank you to Mike Hutt of Aquarius Photography and Con Scanlon of Anvil Studios, both of whom loaned me cameras last month when my second body had to go for urgent repair.

Mike also loaned me his Canon 50mm f/1.2 lens. This lens generally gets a bad press.

Let me give you a mini-review based on my own experience:

O. M. G.

If I decide to stay with Canon as my main camera system I shall buy one.

Meanwhile, the busy Christmas period means lots of photographs to show and discuss.

I like a reflection, as regular readers already know. I also like to capture my subject in a splash of light. If I can get both: happy days! I set the exposure for the pool of light and waited for the groom to appear. Then it was down to luck. The groom appeared fixing his collar, which adds story to the photograph. Only afterwards did I really notice all the triangles and sharp corners in the frame, which I think really enhance it. I also like the shadow on the wall on the right. It adds a quirkiness. (c) Roger Overall 2010

For the bride and her entourage, wedding day clothes are a big deal. Much less so for the guys. In fact, I went out and bought a new pair of shoes on the morning of my own wedding. So it's not uncommon for the lads to be putting on their suits on the day and only then notice various tags that need attention. Teeth, bread knives, scissors - anything will do, really. In addition, the clock gives us a time check that adds some a chronological anchor. (c) Roger Overall 2010

Women are amazing. They know everything about clothes. Even men's clothes. More impressive still is that this is the bride. To me, this picture tells an awful lot about Kristel. She is calm, authoritative and has the respect of others. The kind of person you go to with a problem you need help with. She is cool when others might feel pressure and accommodating when others might not be (this is the morning of her wedding, don't forget). (c) Roger Overall 2010

What can I say? Flower girls just melt your heart every time. From a documentary photographer's point of view, they are the best invention ever. (c) Roger Overall 2010

A fluke. He looks as if he is holding the door open. Yet if he were, he'd be about eight feet tall, or have arms of similar length. There is something Escheresque about this picture that appeals to me, though at the time I was merely concentrating on his gesture. (c) Roger Overall 2010

Wedding guests often go off into their own little microcosms that are worth keeping an eye on. The father and his child are in a bubble of their own. A lovely moment amidst the bustle. I saw the interaction and decided to stand face-on to them, placing them at the edge of the frame, where your eye comes to rest. Then it was a case of waiting for the right moment. (c) Roger Overall 2010

The most story is often in the smallest gestures. (c) Roger Overall 2010

You don't need to be standing right on top of the bride and groom to tell the best story. By stepping back, you give context and something for your eye to dwell on. (c) Roger Overall 2010

I find getting a good shot on the receiving line is either dead easy or absurdly hard. Ideally, I look for interaction between both the bride and groom and their guests. Sometimes, it just isn't working for me and I can't seem to get it. A cluttered line of sight is most often the problem. Here, though, there was plenty of space in which to move and free up my view. (c) Roger Overall 2010

A light shining above a group of talking people is always a promising situation. Especially if they are enjoying themselves. One of them is bound to throw their head back in laughter, illuminating their face. (c) Roger Overall 2010

It is comparatively rare to see the groom discussing his ring with his friends. For a shot like this, in a crowded room, I like to get close. Often you blend in better by standing nearby, particularly in small spaces with lots of people. Groups talking amongst themselves rarely pay much heed to anything outside their circle. (c) Roger Overall 2010

It's a long day for children. (c) Roger Overall 2010

This is a very special photograph for me. Not only does it show a terrific moment, but it shows two brides whose weddings I've photographed embracing. (c) Roger Overall 2010

The area around seating plans is always a rich hunting ground for documentary photographers. I was able to get an elevated view on some stairs and then simply waited to see what happened. (c) Roger Overall 2010

I spent a lot of the time over the Christmas holiday period shooting at slow speeds at high ISO. Here, I was able to rest the camera on a railing, allowing a slowish shutter speed to get a hint of motion blur. The Canon 5DII autofocus is truly miserable so there was no hope of the camera locking on and holding focus as people walked towards me. Instead, I pre-focused and popped the shutter when someone walked into range. (c) Roger Overall 2010

Taken before the couple went into dinner, three things come together here: the reflection, the groom fiddling with his newly acquired ring and the bride's expression. It often happens on wedding days that the short time before the bride and groom go in to dinner is one of the few chances they have to chat to each other. I often hang back for a few minutes as these moments are usually full of photographs. I don't linger too long though. I don't want to intrude on this precious time together. (c) Roger Overall 2010