Should you hire a professional wedding photographer or rely on family and friend pictures?
The digital age is upon us, my friends, and with it every style and type of digital camera. Lots of point and shoots and cameras within phones.
All kinds of cameras are everywhere, and especially at big events such as a wedding.
I would say that if 100 guests attend, nearly 30% of the guests have some sort of point-and-shoot camera.
During those important moments of the wedding day, guests want to take pictures of the couple, to load them onto Facebook or Flickr right after the wedding and maybe even print a few of them.
So the question has to be asked: When you are getting married, is it even necessary anymore to hire a professional wedding photographer?
That is a good question, and I hope I can help to convince you that the answer is a resounding YES, HIRE THE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY PROFESSIONAL.
- This is one day that you will never be able to go back to. If there is anything that a bride and groom will regret as time and life goes, it’s to document the day for their children and grandchildren to have for years. Guests will certainly be there, as I said above, with cameras, but let’s now talk about those cameras.
- Point-and-Shoots lack the sensor and the light–They have much smaller sensors to capture the incoming image, and the tiny flash that sometimes comes with them is woefully inadequate to cover the subject. Click here for a breakdown of the sensor in the Nikon d300/d5000/d40 vs point-and-shoot.
- The Dreaded Point-and-Shoot pause–How often have you seen a beautiful moment only to see it pass by because your point-and-shoot camera took too long to focus and prepare? Those wedding moments move fast, and even faster in low light. Oftentimes, they won’t shoot at all because they can’t focus properly.
- Guests are there to celebrate with you, not work for you — Sure, they may capture one or two special shots, but should you expect your guests to be the photographers? Will they even want to do that?
- Disposable table cameras for your shots should never be the option–It may be tempting to place one or two of these disposable film cameras on each table, but mostly it will be the young ones who take the pictures. My wife and I purchased and placed those cameras for our wedding guests even though we also hired a professional. I am so glad we did because after sending off and receiving back the pictures from those fifteen cameras, we got maybe ten pictures that showed something worth keeping. We had to dump the rest.
I have a vested interest in you choosing to hire a professional wedding photographer, because it is what I do. But it is also what I am passionate about. Whether or not you choose me, my desire for you is to have beautiful wedding photography, lasting images and a high quality wedding album that you can joyfully pass down from generation to generation.
Hire a professional wedding photography and you will never regret your investment.
