Poon Vs Tang A Photographers Lament

And avoid working with people that, when you and your names are put together sound like a vulgarity in court papers.

Wowsers

just another reason i don't want to be a wedding photographer. but yeah, that name is a funny one.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Nine years ago a couple who had just gotten married out of state contacted the school I had attended looking to hire a photographer. (That right there should have been my first clue of what was to come).

The wife called me to explain the scenario thusly: They lived in South Carolina and this was a second marriage for both. They wanted to have a reception only for family and friends in NJ.
We verbally agreed to $50 an hour and they get the images, no prints. All righty then, off we go.

I walked around shooting everything. They had me shoot a pose of the bride and her parents before entering the reception. In 3 hours I shoot over 200 images, including the bride and groom posing in seats in the vestibule with various groups of family, friends, etc (that was not discussed).

After those 3 hours, I was called aside and handed a check for $150 even though we had agreed to a four hour shoot, but I took it went home and edited down to about 175 pictures. I did two versions of each, a web size jpg so they could post them online and 11x14 TIFFs for printing. They took up 8 cd's and I sent those off with a bill for $80 processing and editing fees. Enter fan and excrement.

The wife sent me a letter stating they refused to pay the fee as a) it was not part of the agreement and b) there were no images they could print as large portraits. Oh, and C) they didn't see any pictures of her with her father. At this point I had a couple of choices. I could sue in small claims court but I had no contract written out or I could get bitchy back. Guess which one I chose.

I printed out 3 8x10's of the posed shots with a big red SAMPLE across their faces and mailed them stating that apparently, they don't know how or can't with their shitty computer, open TIFFs. I explained that every image on those cds was good to at least 11x14 and that could be doubled as they see fit. I also explained that out of 175+ images, the one of her and her father coming in was, unfortunately, too dark but there are plenty of them dancing.

I will NEVER do another wedding, EVER but at least I have some good shots for my portfolio.

Moral of my and Mr. Tang's stories: Get it in writing!

and no matter what, something will happen and you'll get yelled at. one wedding i was at, the video guy just happened to be changing his cards when an important speech was going on. at others, the photographer has to gather people around and make sure they are all grouped up. easy to leave people out of it. i think many will ask the people that hired them to tell the photographer who needs to be grouped together.

and i did learn the hard way to NEVER give them ALL of your images. only show the best no matter what. don't tell them you shot 1000 but only gave them a 100. a long time ago i shot things at my cousins bar mitzvah, nothing more than snap shots. it was dark, i did the best i could. and as a gift i shared the images i had, because some were not that bad, but others weren't totally great. i shared them like this because sometimes you want the person in the background.

well after that moment they didn't let me them. all during a cruise we had to go on, they would put a hand in front of their faces like they were some movie star or something. it was all rather annoying. and to this day there isn't a single picture of them on that cruise, so oh well for that. but this was over a course of many years - all from that one batch of images. and now when she can she compliments my work. but too late for that.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

My take away -- How can anyone think "dumping" every single image you shot on to the client is smart? Have some artistic integrity. Protect your brand. Out of focus images belong in the trash can.

funny! I just read this and came here to see if anyone had posted it yet!

This is a reason why you couldn't pay me enough to do wedding photography.

I paid a lot of college tuition shooting weddings during the film days; never had any major problems. I still shoot the occasional wedding. They are mostly a lot of fun. People look their best and are in a partying mood.

Having a contract is not enough. Also listen to your gut. Are these happy people? Are they scraping to put this together or are they celebrating and spending money? If there is tension/arguments when you're putting the deal together, PASS.


Dan Turner
Dan Turner's Seven Keys to Selling Art Online

I did one wedding a million years ago, the film was messed up by the lab. The father of the bride is still looking for me.

This was a great read, David. Thanks for the link.

Ahhhh, takes me back to the good o'l days, I used to photograph an average of 3.5 weddings a week, crazy times indeed, but the money was good!!
In terms of law suits those really were the good o'l days nobody sued, but then I never gave them a reason to sue, most all of the shots were posed, I had a list of photos that I did, then asked if there where others that they wanted, hardly ever did they, I took a lot of shots, family guests, and yes the food table, mostly bride and groom, and all of this with a hand held Mamiya RB67 ProS.

That really was a great read.

My standard wedding rate when asked is 15K. I have a couple great wedding togs that will "second shoot" for me for 10K including editing.

Yupp, that is how I handle wedding inquiries.

(Haven't shot a one of them yet.)

there will be the day when the mafia asks and then... hmm.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

yipes.
I shot two small to mid size weddings back in the early 1980's and though the images came out great I swore I would never do another again.
This article reminds me of what ran through my head the whole time shooting. It's just not my bag. :)

id never do one, organising people is one big issue, then always the worry of them not coming out, actually i was askd to do a wedding shoot when i was 20 and a mere hobbyist, in fact i had my arm twisted to do it, the professional turned up. A few days later, his entire set had failed for some reason, all that was left was mine! lol, luckily a few of them were pretty good. i just handed em over. Glad not to face the music. Must have been hell.

Interesting article.

I've done a few weddings for friends and family. In all cases I was happy as all get out at the outcome as were my "clients".

A couple of thoughts on that; I would never shoot weddings for a living. They are hard work and few people realize that shooting a wedding is more than just snapping the shutter for a few hours on wedding day. There is planning, discussions with the couple, not only on what they expect but what you as the photographer expect from them. Things like getting a list of everyone they want in the photos, making them get someone who can be the "people gatherer", insisting on being at the rehearsal so you know the lighting situation and know where you need to be positioned, etc, etc. Then there is the post work of combing through thousands of images and not only picking the best but the post editing work that makes them really stand out.

I've seen some weddings shot by people who clearly had no clue as to what they were doing. At one there was a woman whom I was assuming was a family member or friend that had a Canon Rebel. She was using a cheap tripod with the center stalk all the way up and the legs slightly pushed in, so that the viewfinder was about 8 inches higher than her eye level. She would stand on tip toes to look through the viewfinder, thus bouncing around the cheap tripod while trying to press the shutter. I felt horrible for that bride. They saved a few bucks but probably had no useable photos from that wedding. That said I learned 2 minutes into shooting my first wedding that a tripod is useless during the ceremony. It's best to be completely mobile.