The Ultimate Incentive to get debt free… again. Dinah & NIM go head to head!

Tete_en_l'Air

Birdie85 wrote: »

Why do people think that buying a flash camera and taking photos on a wonk makes them a good photographer!

Though my 'trick' is the shallow depth of field (artily blurry background)!

I haven't checked my lottery either, fingers, legs, eyes crossed! well done on the bottles Flower, at least you'll get use out of them!

It's very clever that the charity shops can tell you how much your stuff has made for them, but you wonder how much it all costs, the technology and sening letters out and so on (am I being a spoilsport there?)

Birdie85

Tete_en_l'Air wrote: »

Though my 'trick' is the shallow depth of field (artily blurry background)!

You take really lovely photos and I'm a fan of The Wonk when it is called for but you're not charging £100s to take photographs of people then taking such 'arty' photos that you cut people's heads off! The majority of their wedding photos are truly awful, I'm no good at taking pictures and have no idea about light and balance, but even I can see that they're bad! I showed SIL2B and she said that she's asking her photographer to take all of their wedding photos straight on and to add The Wonk afterwards if they feel like it needs it!

Tete_en_l'Air wrote: »

It's very clever that the charity shops can tell you how much your stuff has made for them, but you wonder how much it all costs, the technology and sening letters out and so on (am I being a spoilsport there?)

Agreed. It must take them ages to sort through stuff and cross reference with the donor's 'account' rather than just going through all donations in one big lot.

Thinking about charity shops, my Mum's friend was a manager in one for a few years and my Mum would help out one afternoon a week, she'd buy new clothes then take them to the shop to get a Cancer Research label saying £4.99 then show Dad her 'bargain'! How naughty is that?! :rotfl:

poddle911

Tete_en_l'Air wrote: »

It's very clever that the charity shops can tell you how much your stuff has made for them, but you wonder how much it all costs, the technology and sening letters out and so on (am I being a spoilsport there?)

Nope, it's all true! I find it's the same with giving blood - they bombard you with letters and telephone calls even if you're a regular donor who just happens to miss a session. Why don't they spend more money on extra staff at each session so they don't turn people away or keep you waiting over an hour even if you've made an appointment! I'm more than happy to donate, but they don't make it easy!

Birdie, SO naughty of your mum's friend, but a little bit genius

Hm, you really get some horror stories about photographers - at least if you have a contract with a pro then you have some comeback if you're not happy. Part of me would love to go the MSE route and get someone we know - a hobbyist or new freelancer - but it's super risky!

Thanks for the suggestion, NIM, but I'm all the way on the south coast. (No wonder the luck hasn't reached me yet!)

N.I.M

Poddle you could do a trial run with some of the newbies and see how they come out?
Have them pitch / tender for it?

Birdie85

One of the girls on the Wedding board got a really good deal (she didn't say how much, but that she was on a tight budget and was delighted with the price!) with this lady and her photographs were really lovely, she's based in London but I know she travelled to Brighton for the shoots. She gets featured on Rock & Roll bride a bit too so you never know, you may become famous in blog-land!

I wouldn't go down the hobbyist route TBH, too risky. Some other friends did that and their photos were really poor, the girl taking them obviously had no idea what she was doing with a wedding crowd and failed to get the proper group shots, the lighting was all wrong, she missed a lot of the normal 'must-have' shots throughout the day etc.

Oh and totally agree about the blood people! I haven't donated in ages because I got so sick of waiting around for 2 hours every time I went. Why make a big deal about getting more people to donate if you don't have the resources to accomodate them? Especially when most people make appointments so they know how many people are going to be there!

Dinah93

Our photographers were actually from near Crewe, but they cover the country. I immediately ruled out anyone who had 'the wonk' as you put it!

You might have a contract with a pro Poddle, but getting your money back after a court battle is no substitute for wedding photos you love. See if you can speak to previous customers, we booked ours based on personal recommendation from friends of friends.

They probably need to track how much it all sells for in order to claim gift aid as thats claimed against the person who donated.

poddle911

Thanks for the advice - Birdie, she looks great, but SUPER expensive! Will have a good look at her blog when I get home.

Birdie85 wrote: »

One of the girls on the Wedding board got a really good deal (she didn't say how much, but that she was on a tight budget and was delighted with the price!) with this lady and her photographs were really lovely, she's based in London but I know she travelled to Brighton for the shoots. She gets featured on Rock & Roll bride a bit too so you never know, you may become famous in blog-land!

Dinah93 wrote: »

You might have a contract with a pro Poddle, but getting your money back after a court battle is no substitute for wedding photos you love. See if you can speak to previous customers, we booked ours based on personal recommendation from friends of friends.

Absolutely, it's not the contract part that I'm worried about - as you say, more the security of having someone with a brilliant reputation and lots of positive recommendations.

I'm a little bit in love with both of our possibles worried about adding any more to the mix!

Dinah93

Do either of them have a facebook page where previous customers have said good things? Or can you find any reviews? At the end of the day its their style you're buying, that and the package - one of my friends only got 40 images which isn't many when you think about it. I'd rather have none printed and lots on a disk.

Birdie85

poddle911 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice - Birdie, she looks great, but SUPER expensive! Will have a good look at her blog when I get home.

It's always good to have to a look around just to get ideas for what kind of shots you want even if you do end up with someone else I got the impression that she gave the girl (FlyDragonFly is her name) a super good deal though so I guess it's a lesson that anyone can be haggled down, especially if you're getting married in an interesting venue that they'd like to add to their portfolio!

I wish we had amazing and original wedding photos. Ours are nice because of where we were but there's nothing terribly exciting about them... maybe we'll have to get dressed up and have a fun shoot at some point!

On the subject of photos, do you guys have a lot of photos of yourselves in your homes? We haven't got kids or pets and we start to bicker about which 'side' gets more coverage if we put up photos or our families so we have lots of pictures of us from various holidays and occassions scattered about and my friend laughed the last time she was round and said it looked like a tribute to us... I just thought it was quite nice but now I'm wondering if it's weird?!

Tete_en_l'Air

I don't think it's weird Birdie, depends how many there are I guess though! When I moved into my house last year I was going to get a load of photo frames which hold three pictures and have one for each trip we'd been on, eg one with the Eiffel Tower, The Louvre and us in Paris, another of The Coliseum, The Vatican and us in Rome, it was gonna be so lovely til he ruined it