We live in times that are unique and innovative to anything else ever experience on this earth: digital photography is no exception.

In the last three years we have seen a huge technologically advancement in the digital age, photography being a large part of that expansion. We see digital photography everywhere: from the camera that fits in your pocket to the instant digital photos your dentist can take of your entire mouth. These are wonderful times we live in for the advancement of profession photographers, but it has made choosing a wedding photographer much more of an educated and sometimes difficult task.

After many conversations I thought it appropriate to write some thoughts on what it really means to be a professional wedding photographer, starting with my own personal experience.

For myself, it all started in the mid 1990’s when I began to acquire my love for the technological beauty that is photography. Not many people realize it but there are many dimensions to photography including history, ethics, technique, and styles, ect. I have degrees in Photography/Liberal Arts and began shooting with black and white film. I couldn’t image doing this professionally if I didn’t have my degree and experience to back me up,

When you become a professional wedding photographer it becomes one of the most important jobs you will ever have, it is a job, it is more than just love and passion for photography.

In order of importance, when picking a wedding photographer, consider experience and education before passion and love. In these hard economic times, many hobby enthusiasts have picked up their cameras and started shooting, charging way too much money for what you get in the end. Remember you get what you pay for.

Many of the wedding photographers that have popped up have no business license, no liability insurance, and no education. People are just picking up the new digital cameras and shooting, which is all good and fine if you want to talk some photos, but that doesn’t make someone a professional wedding photographer. These people aren’t paying their dues to the system, they are not prepared for the “anything can happen” scenario, they have no back up equipment, and in my opinion do a disservice to our profession by being paid under the table and not taking wedding photography as seriously as they should. (It’s like hiring an unlicense contactor.)

Wedding photography is fun, exciting, and beautiful, but it also requires lots of preparation, lots of mental power, and the ability to work under high stress. If you are a photographer, you shoot weddings, and you are reading this, then I hope you are one of the few that are doing justice to represent our profession be educating yourself and paying your dues.

It is sad to hear the horror stories of wedding photography gone badly, of people being ripped off and having no photos of their wedding, of the inexperienced photographer who lost all the digital negatives because they didn’t have a good back up system.

When you choose us as your wedding photographers you can rest assured that you will be taken care of no matter what happens. We have gone that extra mile so when your big day arrives you have no worries about your wedding photography, because there is nothing that will stand in our way of you getting those beautiful once in a lifetime memories!

If you have any questions or concerns about choosing a wedding photographer, feel free to contact me.