Cameras & Camcorders

[mtrump]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weq9--5jAMk
 

[XL]

In general, you get what you pay for.  You have to be really good to be making an income with photography, especially with so many quick startups undercutting you.

People have asked me what I would charge... I give them a quote and they turn around to buy a camera themselves.  Big day comes...

• they didn't buy the extended battery.... they have 10 seconds of footage of them walking down the aisle before the battery dies
• the video is so shaky viewers get motion sickness because there is no monopod or tripod used
• the camera man gets the on and off switch mixed up because the camera is just thrown at them
• the photographer only has the 18-55mm kit lens.... great wide shots, but is unable to get close enough to the subject
• the photographer is no where to be found because he's busy deleting pictures as his 512kb card is full.
• no external flash to light up the room properly.  Are you sure people want to wait 13 seconds for the flash to recharge?

Lesson.... Pay your photographer a fair rate, otherwise don't complain.

I've walked away from projects where they expect minimum wage and they don't even cover gas.  Sorry paying me dinner at the banquet doesn't count, I won't have time to eat as I'm too busy taking pictures and videos (doing my job).

I don't encourage this, but in the right hands.... it can be done...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yviV-HB6poQ

[MayA200]

My wife and I spent 4x on our photographer than we did on her wedding dress. I am glad we did, the photographer was awesome, and out of the 400 or so pics we took i would say i like about 75% or so of them. I would highly recommend getting someone who knows what they are doing to do the photography of a wedding

[Fuji_Gordon]

Amen. That's why I got out of Wedding Photography.

[Snapshot]

I've helped photograph a couple of weddings and yes you just keep going and going and going... 

Its a big job.

[XL]

Here's some tips for anyone planning to do weddings...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o9pKc-iFoQ&hd=1

I've had a few people ask if I would be upset if they walked in front of my camera for a shot.  OK... it's not my "butt" being projected on a 70 inch screen in 3D, as well as HD.  Your call. 

[Juice0904]

It's topics like these that make me happy my wife and I have a friend in photography who charged us an AWESOME rate for her photography for our wedding. Nobody wants to spend that kind of money on photography, but it's one of those necessary expenses if you want to relive the memory. We didn't get a video of the ceremony, because while we're both fairly sentimental people, it isn't likely we'll stick a DVD of the ceremony in and sit and watch. We do sit down and flip through the wedding album every now and again though.

JB

JB

[XL]

What is a fair rate?

http://www.petapixel.com/2012/01/26/why-wedding-photographers-prices-are-wack/