Photographer

spurs_gal

I'm having a real problem finding a suitable photographer and I'm hoping you lovely people can give me some advise!

We are getting married in May with a 3.30pm registry office wedding. We are looking for a photographer just for the wedding itself and photos afterwards in their gardens. My estimation would be around an hour - an hour and half at the most. I'm struggling to find a photographer who is willing to do this. I understand its awkward as most people book all day, but for us all day doesn't suit. We are asking everyone for copies of their photos so we can put together our own album, but I'm now worrying that we may not get the photos we want - hence looking for a photographer.
The best Ive found is £300 for all day, but as I said we dont want/need all day and they are not willing to cut the price at all. We're on quite a tight budget and in the Portsmouth area. If anyone could advise me that would be great!

Thank u :beer:

workinginoz

It's not what you want to hear - but this is a good deal for what you want.

By giving up the main middle section of their day, the photographer will not likely get another job that day - losing a full wedding days work of possibly 5 to 900 pounds or more.

Also, most charge between 100 and 150 an hour. No photographer of any value or talent would turn up for an hour only for a wedding - it's too important to get the right pictures.
Does this fee include a pre-meeting to get to know you and what you want? All of this is their time and some charge for it.

If you're making your own album up it sounds like you getting to keep the jpg files? This is an additional 150 to 300 pound fee at many photographers.

Alternatively, you could contact your local university or college and invite students to do it for expenses. They get it in their portfolio and you get shots for cheap...

I'd also say, if you only want one hour and they will only do all day, then well, take the day. It's one day; your guests aren't going to catch those candid moments for you, just the posed ones. What about getting ready shots or recpetion arrival shots?
You deserve to be made feel special and to remember it!

I've been quoted anything from 500 to 1500 for 4 hours! In the end I am paying 500 for 4 hours.

Sorry, not what you want to hear as I said, but I think you have a good deal and if I was you, I would use the time.

Feanor

Hey

I just thought I would share. I have booked our photographer for 7 hours on the day for £275.
This is her website. Definitely worth checking her out!
http://www.alexandrarose.co.uk/

x

Feanor

Oh and forgot to say, she does a 4hour package for £180!

Mrs_Arcanum

Alternatively find a friend with a decent DSLR kit and ask if they would be willing to specifically do the time you want. SiL used DH's kit for our wedding & got some lovely shots. DH in turn did this for a friend & they were delighted with the pictures (this in the days of film only as well).

MrsDrink

I can't really help cause I'm in Lincolnshire, but we're getting married at 2pm (in July) and have booked a photographer for 2-3 hrs (if I want it, if not just 1hr 30) to cover the registrar ceremony and a few after shots. It's costing us £200 and we get a CD thrown in with 300dpi jpegs of the photos. So it is definitely do able. The idea of our photographer 'hanging around' for a day or pre-/post- ceremony fills me with dread. It would then turn into something more formal than we want.

(Hiya MelOz! You haven't been on the July thread for a while - hope everything is ticking along nicely for you x)

I agree with workinginoz - by coming to our registry office ceremony for 1:30ish (to get photos of our family arriving) he probably won't get any more 'work' booked in that day. But that doesn't mean the rest of that day is written off. He will be able to do any editing/non-shooting work for other projects/weddings in the morning, and if he feels like it he can begin working on our CD after our ceremony when he goes at around 3:30pmish (after he's taken some photos of us as a couple/group). I don't imagine a wedding photographer works every minute 9-5 Mon-Fri snapping. They will need some time to do all the other stuff.

I found my photographer by googling 'wedding photographer' on the maps part of google with our post code (we're getting married in our local registry office about 2 miles away), and just sending off an email saying "I don't want a fuss, I want action shots rather than posed ones, and I only want the ceremony covered, what is your best price." Two out of the four I contacted offered me a price, a third offering me a price but said at that time they wouldn't want to book a couple of hours during 'peak season' incase another wedding came up, but closer to the time would have been up for it. I then met with the one we've gone with to talk through in detail the type of photos I want, and more importantly checking his demeanor and making sure he will blend into the background. (Because there is only going to be around 19 of us, including MrD and I at our ceremony one more person will really stand out - it was important that he is soft and quiet enough to blend into the background during the ceremony.) I guess because I'm laid back, and I don't want the formal shots, not having a formal 'pre-shot meeting' is fine with me. Although I can pop into his gallery in town any time and have a chit chat and he's great at replying to emails.

If you haven't already, try emailing photographers that are very local to your venue of choice. If they have to spend hours either side of your wedding just getting to you they are less likely to want to come for just an hour or two. (Our photographer can actually walk to our registry office if he wanted to!)

Hope you are successful!

(PS From going for months saying I don't want a photographer, I now can't wait to have a photo taken of us with our town church's spire in the background - not for religious purposes, but because it's a landmark of our town - I can't wait!)

spurs_gal

Thank you for your replies. I dont really want before or after shots as we are having a very informal day and I want a very relaxed day. I know Photographers are always going to be one of the expensive parts of our day, but just think £300 is quite a lot as it is about 1/4 of our entire budget. But that could just be me being cheap! I also understand that if they did our wedding it would limit what else they could do for the day. I think we may have to just look at getting photos from our guests. But thank you for the suggestion of asking uni students - this is something else we will look at.
Thank you again for your replies.

MrsDrink

You could always try contacting them again closer to the date and seeing if they can do you a deal. If they haven't got anything else booked in they may be a bit more negotiable in terms of their time and costs. I totally agree with you about wanting to keep it a relaxed day and feeling that a photographer hanging around would change the atmosphere of the day. That is exactly our feelings. (I'm going to take photos of as much as I can - like the shots of my bouquet, rings, shoes etc, and our guests will take photos of the reception). My only worry was asking a guest to take photos during the ceremony itself because then they wouldn't be able to relax and watch it with the rest of our guests, and I didn't want any of them to miss out in that respect. That's why after months and months of saying we weren't having a photographer I changed my mind

littleoldme_2

post an ad on your local gumtree , detailing what you want.

you will get responces

i have not long done this for a family shoot, i did get people at the lower end said they would do it for free (was just starting out) right upto £3000 (yip thats £3000 guy doing it for loads of years and only offers himself for the day) nearly 90% gave a link to where you could go and have a look at there work . did get a few that just said " i'll do it "

its worth a try nothing to lose

bubbles0169

i dont have any reviews but these look like what your looking for
http://www.creamphoto.co.uk/index.htm

danielley

With cream photo they offer £50 per hour for taking the photo's but there are no prices listed for how much it will be for buying prints or the right to the images from them, I am going to contact them , so I will let you know what they say.