Wanted - photographer for wedding in Cornwall

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Because of the shi'ite-storm it stirred up, that's why...

My views about this are on the other thread...

And I agree: there should be a 'Photographer Wanted' Section, as it looks like we're on the e-map now for this sort of thing and I'd hate for this Forum to get a bad rep as a bunch of curmudgeonly old farts...oh...wait a minute...

Seriously if there are those on here who are prepared to work for experience - as someone else posted earlier, it's no different to Models and Photographers doing TFP/TFCD jobs for the experience - then 'we' should be able to service that requirement - no matter what our resident Wedding-Tog Mafia think about it...
 
Arkady said:
Because of the shi'ite-storm it stirred up, that's why...

My views about this are on the other thread...

And I agree: there should be a 'Photographer Wanted' Section, as it looks like we're on the e-map now for this sort of thing and I'd hate for this Forum to get a bad rep as a bunch of curmudgeonly old farts...oh...wait a minute...

Seriously if there are those on here who are prepared to work for experience - as someone else posted earlier, it's no different to Models and Photographers doing TFP/TFCD jobs for the experience - then 'we' should be able to service that requirement - no matter what our resident Wedding-Tog Mafia think about it...
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:clap:
 
There's also the small matter of this taking business away from a local photography firm.
 
budfox said:
There's also the small matter of this taking business away from a local photography firm.
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Ahh who cares about them - they'll be going under by next year anyway - best to get it over and done with quickly, I say... :lol:
 
budfox said:
There's also the small matter of this taking business away from a local photography firm.
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I don't think it does, I agree with most things about this thread, but it doesn't take business because the bride, for whatever reason, won't pay for a professional anyway

Hugh
 
Arkady said:
*snip*.

Seriously if there are those on here who are prepared to work for experience - as someone else posted earlier, it's no different to Models and Photographers doing TFP/TFCD jobs for the experience - then 'we' should be able to service that requirement - no matter what our resident Wedding-Tog Mafia think about it...
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More or less exactly what I was going to post. At the risk of upsetting some of the wedding photographers on here I personally do not have a problem with a) people asking for cheap/free photographers and b) photographers willing to do it for no payment. I did a few when I first started and it was a great way for me to gain experience along with doing others as a second/assistant. The ones I don't like are where people who are usually friends or aquaintances expect you to do it for free, I had exactly this situation a little while ago, our neighbours son who now lives in the northwest was home for the weekend and mentioned his wedding saying "You'll get an invite because we want you to do the photography". Knowing what the family are like I knew he would be wanting a freebie so I didn't mention price until he phoned me a few weeks later - when I told him how much it would be it was met with a stony silence. Funnily enough he decided to use a local photographer and I never did get the invite. :lol:

There was an interesting article in Professional Photographer (I think) a few months ago where a photographer did free weddings for a year - he explained to couples that he was new to the business and he was obviously targeting the market sector which operates to a very low or no budget scenario. He was successful in his venture and picked up enough bookings to start the business properly.

For those of you who are considering taking on these free jobs all I can say is go for it! It's a great way to gain experience and hopefully you will learn loads without making too many mistakes. :D And if any of you want any advice just drop me a PM although I'm not saying I know all the answers.
 
I put a price together to cover just this sort of eventuality too.

I happily shoot the ceremony and some group shots and B&G shots at the venue and provide them on a DVD. That way the couple can add pics taken by their guests and have the best of both worlds. A full record of their day plus some professionally shot stuff that does not cost a fortune.

My only risk is that I fill my calendar with cheap shoots when I could be doing more expensive work but I'm at the stage with my business that I feel I can take that risk.

So far being quite well received. :)

It means a lot less risk for the couples involved because they get me for a few hours with all the kit I would normally use on a more expensive wedding to shoot the core of it, but then they can add what they like to that. I also make the full range of products that I can supply available to them so they can have as much of that professional service as they deem fits their budget.
 
CAUTION One reason not to do this.. even though I am not against the idea..

What happens if you agree so far in advance to do a free wedding like this... But between now and then you get asked (for same date) to do a paid wedding or paid as a second or blah blah? You will be kicking yourself
 
KIPAX said:
CAUTION One reason not to do this.. even though I am not against the idea..

What happens if you agree so far in advance to do a free wedding like this... But between now and then you get asked (for same date) to do a paid wedding or paid as a second or blah blah? You will be kicking yourself
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No, you just let this bride down, simples!

Seriously, that is what has happened to a few I know of this year. Then the couple have had a mad scamble at the last minute to try to find a decent pro that's not booked. One of my friends picked up a booking in just such circumstances only 10 days before the wedding. They were lucky, it was a Friday and my friend was free. They eventually came round to the idea that you get what you pay for. :)
 
boyfalldown said:
I don't think it does, I agree with most things about this thread, but it doesn't take business because the bride, for whatever reason, won't pay for a professional anyway

Hugh
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+1

When I did it - I even got the couple to sign a contract stating that they werent taking my free offer as an alternative to a paid professional.
 
I am quite new to this forum, and I am quite surprised that people come here expecting a free day's work from someone. I can understand the argument, if like myself you are trying to get experience at wedding photography, but it can also lead to pushing down the quite reasonable fees which photographers charge.
I have been unemployed for the past year, after working for 33 years in finance. I cannot get a job for love or money (forgive the pun).
A few months ago, a "friend" said that he knew a couple who may want me to photograph their wedding in November. So, I said I would get in touch with the couple and talk about their expectations - number of photos, cost, hours in attendance. My "friend" then said that he had told them I may do it for free (some friend). I should point out that I photographed the "friend's" wedding a couple of years ago, and whilst he was happy with the results, he didn't pay me or even thank me.
So, if you do a wedding for free, then beware, it may place you on a very slippery slope, where the word goes around, that you are a bit of a "soft touch".
 
KIPAX said:
CAUTION One reason not to do this.. even though I am not against the idea..

What happens if you agree so far in advance to do a free wedding like this... But between now and then you get asked (for same date) to do a paid wedding or paid as a second or blah blah? You will be kicking yourself
Click to expand...

Honestly - if you value your businesses reputation, you should honor your agreement.
 
KIPAX said:
CAUTION One reason not to do this.. even though I am not against the idea..

What happens if you agree so far in advance to do a free wedding like this... But between now and then you get asked (for same date) to do a paid wedding or paid as a second or blah blah? You will be kicking yourself
Click to expand...

I think that one way around this, would be completely honest at the start. Say to the bride who wants the "freebie", that if paid work comes along then it will take precedence.
There are too many people around who want something for nothing nowadays, and I do not seem to be one of them.
If someone ever again approaches me to shoot their wedding for free, then I will ask them how much they are spending on the catering, wedding car, suit hire, bridesmaids, honeymoon and stag and hen parties. I assume that none of them were "freebies", why should photography be any different?
 
Moonhawk said:
Honestly - if you value your businesses reputation, you should honor your agreement.
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I agree, but I think the bride puts herself at very big risk of this happening by looking for a free tog this far in advance - anyone working for free now may be looking for paid work by then, and they also may take the view that their not worried about what a free wedding over the other side if the country does to their rep

Hugh
 
Moonhawk said:
Honestly - if you value your businesses reputation, you should honor your agreement.
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Exactly and lose money.. personaly its got nothing to do with reputaton.. I just can't let people down and although not weddings I ahve been caught in this situation.. hence the caution.
 
andy700 said:
If someone ever again approaches me to shoot their wedding for free, then I will ask them how much they are spending on the catering, wedding car, suit hire, bridesmaids, honeymoon and stag and hen parties. I assume that none of them were "freebies", why should photography be any different?
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I think it depends on what you mean by free - if you're appraoching it on a 'Time For' type of basis, ie they get photos of the day, and you get valueable experience and portfoio material then its win-win and you're both gain alot. If however the assumption is that you have a camera therefore you'll do it for free then I agree with you

Hugh
 
I think an absolute minimum fee of £75-£100 should be charged to cover things like wear and tear to an mid to expensive camera ,batteries ,flash etc .What if you drop something ie a lens !! who pays for that ,,,You would ,So in my opinion i could not do a full days work using £££'s of equipment for nothing :shake:
 
Janice said:
AH!! I wondered where it came from, to suddenly have 2 requests within 15 mins!! Well spotted! :D
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I googled on one of the user names :)
 
boyfalldown said:
I think it depends on what you mean by free - if you're appraoching it on a 'Time For' type of basis, ie they get photos of the day, and you get valueable experience and portfoio material then its win-win and you're both gain alot. If however the assumption is that you have a camera therefore you'll do it for free then I agree with you

Hugh
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Exactly the way I am looking at it. Without any material for a wedding portfolio - its very difficult to effectively market a business. By shooting weddings for free you gain much needed material and experience and the couple get some nice photos (hopefully) - win win. What will be the return on this investment?

How many pro's started off shooting at friends and families weddings in order to use these shots in their marketing - whats the difference, some of us just dont have that many friends :sulk:
 
Rats! posted coment in wrong thread. Senility getting the better of me!
 
boyfalldown said:
I think it depends on what you mean by free - if you're appraoching it on a 'Time For' type of basis, ie they get photos of the day, and you get valueable experience and portfoio material then its win-win and you're both gain alot. If however the assumption is that you have a camera therefore you'll do it for free then I agree with you

Hugh
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Hi Hugh,

Yes, your second point is very valid, because so many people think that wedding/portrait photography has suddenly become child's play with the advent of DSLRs. In my case, there seems to be an assumption that because I am out of work, I will be so desperate that I will do anything which offers a glimmer of hope for the future. Of course what this does mean, is that this can be played out thousands of times, and consequently the "something for nothing" culture flourishes, which in turn has an adverse effect on people trying to make an honest living.
 
Just out of interest, when people shoot a wedding for free do they just hand over a CD with full res images on it?!

Would have thought some people would be happy to shoot for free in order to get the experience but then at least get the sale of an album to help recoup costs?
 
AliB said:
Rats! posted coment in wrong thread. Senility getting the better of me!
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Sure it wasn't the thought of naked soldiers in camo paint with big weapons?;)
 
AliB said:
That's nice. Florida for the honeymoon and marquee hire...........but still want a photographer for nothing.

Personally I won't touch that with a bargepole. If you can afford £1300 for two nights in NYC and a week in Florida you can at least offer a minumim wage for your photographer.
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:p I have somebody at present with a 200 guest wedding@ £100/head venue trying to beat me down on price in a less than pleasent manner, I'm coming quite rapidly to the bargepole conclusion on that one as well

Hugh
 
Arkady said:
Because of the shi'ite-storm it stirred up, that's why...

My views about this are on the other thread...

And I agree: there should be a 'Photographer Wanted' Section, as it looks like we're on the e-map now for this sort of thing and I'd hate for this Forum to get a bad rep as a bunch of curmudgeonly old farts...oh...wait a minute...

Seriously if there are those on here who are prepared to work for experience - as someone else posted earlier, it's no different to Models and Photographers doing TFP/TFCD jobs for the experience - then 'we' should be able to service that requirement - no matter what our resident Wedding-Tog Mafia think about it...
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:clap: spot on

Arkady said:
Ahh who cares about them - they'll be going under by next year anyway - best to get it over and done with quickly, I say... :lol:
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:clap: The Untouchables comes to mind

sdb123 said:
Whilst I agree in the main with your post, the section in bold is a little off in all honesty. Somebody posting this general feedback on photos may not be overly confident to provide detailed feedback; your post shows a lot of consideration (compassion even) for people's positions but then you lose sight of this by criticising a key part of our community. :shrug:
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OT but I'll respond ..... This argument for not making comments is boring ..... if you join a forum like this then that is the point detailed feedback isn't necessarily needed but an opinion is ! ...... like Art, Photography is subjective so some will like .... some will not ..... just give a considered opinion .... my point was not really aimed at this type of senario but more of the fact that a lot of regulars/experienced TPers seem reluctant to give more than a brief unhelpful comment ..... ?? :shrug: I may have got this wrong......

Hacker said:
More or less exactly what I was going to post. At the risk of upsetting some of the wedding photographers on here I personally do not have a problem with a) people asking for cheap/free photographers and b) photographers willing to do it for no payment. I did a few when I first started and it was a great way for me to gain experience along with doing others as a second/assistant. The ones I don't like are where people who are usually friends or aquaintances expect you to do it for free, I had exactly this situation a little while ago, our neighbours son who now lives in the northwest was home for the weekend and mentioned his wedding saying "You'll get an invite because we want you to do the photography". Knowing what the family are like I knew he would be wanting a freebie so I didn't mention price until he phoned me a few weeks later - when I told him how much it would be it was met with a stony silence. Funnily enough he decided to use a local photographer and I never did get the invite. :lol:

There was an interesting article in Professional Photographer (I think) a few months ago where a photographer did free weddings for a year - he explained to couples that he was new to the business and he was obviously targeting the market sector which operates to a very low or no budget scenario. He was successful in his venture and picked up enough bookings to start the business properly.

For those of you who are considering taking on these free jobs all I can say is go for it! It's a great way to gain experience and hopefully you will learn loads without making too many mistakes. :D And if any of you want any advice just drop me a PM although I'm not saying I know all the answers.
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:clap: spot on had a same senario re a portrait .... encouragement and offer of help from a wedding tog ..... restores a bit of faith ..... :thumbs:
 
Foggy said:
Just out of interest, when people shoot a wedding for free do they just hand over a CD with full res images on it?!

Would have thought some people would be happy to shoot for free in order to get the experience but then at least get the sale of an album to help recoup costs?
Click to expand...


I did a friends wedding for free as I know they had no money, husband was unemployed.

I gave them a cd of all the shots but put together a wedding photo album book as my wedding present to them.

All the family loved it and asked how much but wouldn't pay cost price plus the price of a couple of pints. Neither would they pay for prints, but strangely enough I was asked where I was getting the pricing for my large prints as they couldn't match it at Boots/photobox etc.

An Experience - oh yes it was ;)
 
The people who think that asking for something for free is rude and inconsiderate, are you living in the real world?

I'm a relatively young and new photographer and I am looking to develop my skills. You can't just walk up to a wedding and take the official photos. You have to have a bride and groom who agree to it and are prepared to take the risk of having their big day photographed by someone inexperienced. It is a win-win situation. They get photos, the tog gets experience. Assuming the tog already has the right kit then it costs nothing to shoot as many photos as you can fit on your memory cards. Burning them on to a DVD might cost you about 25p for the disk.

If you got a young dress maker fresh out of college wanting to get her name known then it wouldn't surprise me at all if she made a few dresses for free to start off the word of mouth recommendations. The same could go for a florist or a caterer or a DJ. The difference is however that the dress maker, florist and caterer all have actual costs involved in supplying their goods so any reasonable bride and groom would expect to pay for them. They know however that taking a digital image is totally cost free for an amateur photographer.

I have done modelling shoots on a Time For CD basis. Absolutely no money changed hands.
I have done photos for a friends band for his promotional work and absolutely no money changed hands.
On Sunday, then next month and again in November I am shooting weddings for people that (claim they) can't afford a professional photographer. I am more than happy to do it free of charge because it is good experience for me. The way I look at it I am getting paid, not in money but in experience which for me is worth more than the money.

Having said all that, I can see why the professional photographers are getting upset. These free amateurs are taking their business away but I'm afraid that's just the photographic world we live in these days. DSLRs are affordable to everyone and they are getting easier and easier to use so every Tom, **** and Harry can potentially shoot a wedding. If you are on a tight budget then why pay a pro £1000 or more when a guy that works with your cousin's neighbour will offer to do it for free.......or worse still, a TP member!!!!
 
-Rob- said:
The people who think that asking for something for free is rude and inconsiderate, are you living in the real world?

I'm a relatively young and new photographer and I am looking to develop my skills. You can't just walk up to a wedding and take the official photos. You have to have a bride and groom who agree to it and are prepared to take the risk of having their big day photographed by someone inexperienced. It is a win-win situation. They get photos, the tog gets experience. Assuming the tog already has the right kit then it costs nothing to shoot as many photos as you can fit on your memory cards. Burning them on to a DVD might cost you about 25p for the disk.

If you got a young dress maker fresh out of college wanting to get her name known then it wouldn't surprise me at all if she made a few dresses for free to start off the word of mouth recommendations. The same could go for a florist or a caterer or a DJ. The difference is however that the dress maker, florist and caterer all have actual costs involved in supplying their goods so any reasonable bride and groom would expect to pay for them. They know however that taking a digital image is totally cost free for an amateur photographer.

I have done modelling shoots on a Time For CD basis. Absolutely no money changed hands.
I have done photos for a friends band for his promotional work and absolutely no money changed hands.
On Sunday, then next month and again in November I am shooting weddings for people that (claim they) can't afford a professional photographer. I am more than happy to do it free of charge because it is good experience for me. The way I look at it I am getting paid, not in money but in experience which for me is worth more than the money.

Having said all that, I can see why the professional photographers are getting upset. These free amateurs are taking their business away but I'm afraid that's just the photographic world we live in these days. DSLRs are affordable to everyone and they are getting easier and easier to use so every Tom, **** and Harry can potentially shoot a wedding. If you are on a tight budget then why pay a pro £1000 or more when a guy that works with your cousin's neighbour will offer to do it for free.......or worse still, a TP member!!!!
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yes but 'Time For' isn't free thats the point. Its the I don't expect the tog to get anything out of it attitude thats annoyed people. If you work for say, portfolio material then although your not working for cahs, your still gettting something very valuable for you as a tog. Its the presentation of the idea of doing it for zilch thats the issue many have with this, and it does seem entirely one way


I'm not upset by this sort of offer, people looking for free togs are never going to pay for a professional for whatever reason. There's always going to be people who won''t pay for a photographer, a car, a cake or whatever for whatever reason- thats not upsetting me or loosing me business

Hugh
 
If you are supposedly on a tight budget would you be spending £1300 on a trip to NYC and Florida and £800 on a dress? As one other poster on here has just done?

Don't be naive and take it at face value, there is budget and there is attempting to get something for nothing.
 
I did a wedding for free last weekend, they are good friends of mine and it was my first wedding, I couldn't have charged them anything as then there would have been expectations of what shots they wanted, whether they got value for money etc. They had no budget for a photographer rightly or wrongly, originally a pro tog who was a family friend was booked to do the wedding pics as a present, but he pulled out 4 weeks before the wedding, hence me doing it with my dad.

I doubt you'll find anyone to do a wedding for free, are any of your friends photographers? You will never find a pro or even semi pro that you don't already know (i.e. that you're not already friends with) who would do it for nothing.
 
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