How Important is Experience in a Wedding Photographer?
Hiring an experienced professional wedding photographer is, without a doubt, an investment. Given the size of that investment, many couples are tempted to shop for bargains, sometimes opting to have a smaller San Francisco City Hall Wedding, looking for a young photographer who is just starting out in business or considering that amateur photographer who took such nice shots at the company picnic. Choosing those routes means taking a big gamble. You might get lucky and get great work, but chances are great that you will get just what you paid for, wedding photos that don’t measure up to ones done by a trained and experienced professional.
Advertisements on the internet or newspaper for bargain rate wedding photography can draw your eye is your budget is stretched tight. These low rates can be due to several factors. Young photographers often charge bargain basement rates to draw budget minded brides to their fledgling businesses as they work to establish a reputation in the field. Some of them are very talented, and will command higher rates once they have a bit of experience under their belt. Others, not so much. Many will not make it in the wedding photography business, as their skill and talent are lacking. Unless you know a lot about photography, hiring a newbie can be very risky business. Sure, you might get lucky, but if you don’t, you won’t have any wedding photos to show your children in 10 years.
Photographers who have been in the business for years may offer low rates as well, billing themselves as men of the people with the noble goal of providing affordable wedding photography to brides on a budget. While it is possible that a few of these photographers cut their rates out of the goodness of their hearts, to ensure that no deserving bride has to do without wedding photos, more often than not, their low rates are due to low quality work.
Keeping your budget in check is always a challenge when it comes to planning a wedding. Doing so can mean making some hard choices. However, there are things that can be done well at a bargain rate and things that can not. Cutting corners on your wedding photography rarely turns out well, and you only get one chance to get it right. And, since your wedding pictures will be the only tangible memento of your wedding once the wedding day has faded into family history, trusting them to chance by using an inexperienced wedding photographer is never a good idea.