Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/05/16
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I shot weddings for money while I was in college in the late 1960's. I charged less for being there if I was the "only" photographer. The way I learned to be a skilled darkroom technician was in realizing that my commercial edge, and source of next semester's tuition, was in the printing and finishing and not in the shots themselves. I have reported on the LUG several times about what I learned in 4 years of shooting weddings to support myself. The summary is that weddings are social rituals, and that ritual wedding photographs are part of the larger ritual of marriage, and that my job as the paid photographere was to produce those ritual photographs, not to get good shots. This all took place before the era of the 1-hour developing station, so I also used to deal with this situation by having my prints ready sooner than the amateurs. This trick no longer works. You are absolutely right that having good-quality amateur pictures reduces the revenue. I tried to make it up by charging a fee just for being there. You will note that I am not longer supporting myself by photographing weddings, and haven't for 30 years, so my business advice is probably irrelevant. I saw competition with amateurs and relatives as part of the reason why I had to get good at it. Your pictures are fabulous, by the way.