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| The Kiss in the Gazebo |
Think Again ! Think about everything that could go wrong with this plan.
Unless your friend is a professional photographer he/she has probably never photographed a wedding before. It requires different skills than the average amateur possesses. The wedding photographer must be part theatrical director, part psychologist, part time manager, and, most importantly, skilled and reliable photographer. The professional wedding photographer works under great pressure - pressure to get everyone together for photos, pressure to pose people without making it obvious they are posed, and pressure to get the photo right the first time. (No one is going to restage their wedding because they are not happy with the photographs.)
But the most important thing your professional wedding photographer has to do is show up on time with working camera equipment. This may sound incredibly basic but I recently had an experience with a semi-panicked bride which illustrates the point.
I received a call on a recent Sunday night asking about my photography services. The call was from the groom who mentioned they had spoken to me a while back and asked if I remembered. After a couple reminders about the ceremony I said yes, I remember your wedding. He then asked if I was available to photograph their wedding the following Saturday (6 days away).
At that point the bride got on the phone and apologized for the last minute call, said she had really liked my work, but they had originally chosen another photographer. Apparently the photographer called them earlier that day and said he would not be able to photograph their wedding.
Luckily, I was not booked for that particular weekend so I agreed to help out with the last minute booking.
But my curiosity simply got the best of me. I had to ask. What happened ?
Turns out the couple was on a low budget and a friend with a camera had offered to take their wedding photographs for them. This friend did not have any wedding photography experience but he had a nice camera. Thinking they could save some money from their already tight budget they accepted his offer for photography.
Then - at the last minute - he called to say he would not be at the wedding. But he did offer the bride his camera for her to use at the wedding. As if she did not already have enough to worry about apparently he thought the bride could just do "selfies" for her wedding photography !
Fortunately they found out before the friend with a camera ruined their wedding photographs. I was able to take the assignment at the last minute (it never hurts to call, I might be available) and we got some lovely photographs as you can see from the examples here.
But remember the true cost of a friend with the camera may be simply not having any useable wedding photographs. When compared to the cost f hiring a professional photographer, the professional photographer starts to look like money well spent.
