Hiring Uncle Joe

 
Hiring Uncle Joe
A Fictional Story Based on Real Events

The names and locations in this story are fictional but it illustrates the real and unfortunate horror stories in wedding photography that we hear first hand from clients, contacts, friends, wedding guests and others.

Everything starts with the Same Line
“My Uncle Joe owns a splendid camera.  I am going to offer him $500 to be my wedding photographer.”

While Uncle Joe may be a very good man and knows photography, there are a few reasons why you should go hire a professional.

As previously discussed in the section entitled “How to Choose a Wedding Photographer,” wedding photography is so much more than being a good man with a nice camera.  Uncle Joe may possess a splendid camera.  Let us think of Uncle Joe as a lawyer with a passion for photography.  So he may possess not just a nice camera but the best camera in the market at the moment, like the Canon 5D Mark II which currently sells for $2,700.  Because Uncle Joe loves taking pictures in his spare time, he bought and now owns a full set of Canon L series lenses and accessories which cost him $15,000.00.

This makes Uncle Joe much more capable and better prepared than 99% of the Uncle Joes you will find out there.  We will further assume that Uncle Joe goes out frequently, maybe a couple of times a month to shoot nature and urban scenes using all of his great equipment.  We assume further that Uncle Joe even had some of his great photographs published.

Uncle Joe feels great and confident about the wedding and is sure he will do an awesome job.  Uncle Joe goes to the wedding location and does some outside shots.  Everything looks good so far, so he steps inside where the wedding preparation is taking place.  Uncle Joe shoots with the cameras help because he doesn’t like to manually expose his pictures.  Unfortunately, the camera is only so smart.

Uncle Joe notices that his lens is not wide enough when he started snapping his preparation shots.  He quickly goes out to swap his lenses in the car since he didn’t anticipate this problem.  The bride’s makeup is already done by the time he gets back inside the preparation location and the stylists are now working on her hair.  Uncle Joe has no camera lighting or any additional equipment for lighting because he didn’t have the time to check out the lighting before the wedding date.  Uncle Joe starts figuring out the problem and decides that he can raise his ISO settings at its highest to capture enough light, and get the proper exposure for the scene.  This works and he gets the shot.  However, he doesn’t realize that every picture he shot will be too grainy when blown up bigger than a 4 x 6 print.

Uncle Joe now goes to where the groom is to take some more shots.  Uncle Joe adjusts his camera settings after looking over the scene, based on the camera reading.  Unfortunately, the men are wearing too much black because of their suits, and the camera reads this and was over exposing all the shots to compensate for the dark colors.  Uncle Joe doesn’t realize this and kept on chugging away.

Let us assume further that this is a simple wedding and the ceremony is about to begin.  Uncle Joe finds a great spot, prepares his zoom lens and waits for the moment.  The groom walks in to find his place and Uncle Joe shoots his pictures like a pro, takes 50 shots of the groom while he walks down the aisle.  Uncle Joe’s focus settings were unfortunately not set for moving objects, so all his 50 shots of the walking groom are out of focus.

In a little more while, the father and the bride begin their walk down the aisle.  As with the groom, Uncle Joe fires away and takes 50 more shot, none of which will be crisp and in focus.

While the ceremony is ongoing, Joe takes several great shots.  After a while, Uncle Joe again realizes that the lens of his camera is not wide enough, so he runs to his car to grab a different lens from his bag.  He sees the couple as they kiss for the first time but he is still too far away to take a shot.  Uncle Joe missed shooting the first kiss.  He also did not consider to shoot the family of the bride or groom while the ceremony is being performed because he was concentrating on the bride and groom and do not want to miss anything done during the actual ceremony.

The time for formals are right after the ceremony, so Uncle Joe asks everyone to go to his favorite spot outdoors so he can take his shot with a beautiful view.   He made the subjects face away from the sun, so that the grandeur of the scene is captured by his camera.  But because the shot is done in the bright light of the noon-day sun, the camera is under exposing the entire scene.  Uncle Joe doesn’t realize this and that the background he likes is so bright.  He takes only a few formal family shots, and takes only a shot of each set of people.  He never realizes that each shot will come out too dark and completely underexposed. (See below).

So, everyone proceeds to the reception venue and Uncle Joe realizes he has been working for 10 hours!  He thinks he should relax a bit and start enjoying the wedding since he is part of the family too.  To accomplish this, he passes on the camera to his young son who is a photography enthusiast too and tells him to continue the shoot.
Uncle Joe is already so exhausted that he went to relax and doesn’t shoot the rest of the night.  He figures it will not matter much because he has helped out the bride and groom all day and saved them a lot of money by doing the photography for so cheap a price.

Uncle Joe does not have the knowledge and the software to post-produce images.  He simply transfers the photos into a DVD and gives it to the couple with all the photos burned into it.  When the bride and groom starts to watch the DVD in anticipation of their uncles beautiful work, the bride is in tears by picture 100.  Uncle Joe shot 2,000 pictures that are either too bright, too dark, blurry or out of focus.  The bride and groom was looking for their first kiss and it was not there, and the receptions shots Uncle Joe’s son did were all of kids.

This story maybe fictional, but the events and the outcomes are based on real situations that wedding photographers like us hear about too often.  In fact, many of the guests of our clients have approached us during shoots to tell us their “Uncle Joe” stories and experience.  They always say they wish they had hired us for their wedding photography.  So why do this Uncle Joe situation happen?  The bottom line is because Uncle Joe although it is unlikely, may have all the professional gear and experience in shooting outdoor scenes and nature, he doesn’t have the following:

1. The ability to adjust his camera settings quickly to adapt to different lighting scenes. Wedding photographers only allot  2-3 seconds to adjust settings on the fly.  If he is too slow, the wedding photographer is almost guaranteed to miss some special moment.

1. The knowledge of his camera reading and interpreting light to compensate for under or over exposure. In situations like these the wedding photographer must trust his experience rather than the readings of the camera.

1. The foresight to be prepared for an emergency situation with a secondary camera standing by with a different type of lens. Professional wedding photographers will always scope out the venue where the ceremony will be held and other venues and scenes prior to the wedding and make plans.

1. The carrying cases on hand so that his necessary equipment and accessories are available to him at all times. Professional wedding photographers will always carry their camera and equipment so that they are readily available, or nearby where they can retrieve what they need in a few seconds.

1. Experience shooting fleeting moments that seasoned photographers knows they only have one chance to capture. A first kiss only lasts 1-2 seconds, and photographers don’t normally know exactly when it is going to happen. The wedding photographer must be ready on standby staring through his lens, prepared for this moment to happen.

1. Experience and knowledge needed to anticipate good angles and great approaches for each scene.

Only experienced photographers will instinctively know where to stand and select the angles to choose from.

1. The energy to work for 12-18 hours non-stop without breaks. The wedding photographer’s job is to continue the shoot without rest or taking breaks because they can’t stop ceremonies in mid-air. Our team staggers their breaks when moments are non-crucial.  When there is a team, one or two additional wedding photographers keep shooting while one is taking a break.

1. The ability to supplement natural light with artificial lighting or create unique lighting scenes. Understanding how light and lighting works in a photograph can only come from careful study, experience and training.  A photographer can only become a master of lighting when he has tried shooting in every possible lighting situation and have viewed what the final product looks like.

1. Experience in getting people together and directing them to form large group formals.  The wedding photographer’s personality shines through in this situation and his tact is very important. An experienced wedding photographer knows how to interact with the groom, the bride and members of their family.

10.  The knowledge and techniques in advanced focus.

11.  Experience in shooting extra shots of crucial pictures because the subjects may turn up blinking or sporting awkward expressions if there is only one single shot.

There are so many other things in addition to all these that Uncle Joe needs in order to take wedding photographs of professional quality from the start of the day to finish.

There are lots of things in a wedding budget that you can consider to save money on but wedding photography should not be one of them.  You would want a creative imagery of your wedding day with a professional quality because your photos will be your timeless heirlooms.  They are to be shown and handed down to your descendants for generations to come, so you should only settle for no less than a professional wedding photographer on your special day.

There are times when wedding photography studios like our own will customize packages in consultation with clients so that the packages will fit within their budget.  We advise clients to choose quality over products and choose to hire 2 photographers than just one and forgo the prints, album and slideshows at the moment. Newlyweds are starting new lives together and they are often on a limited budget.  We will be keeping your file and you may order them after three, four or even five years when you have established your family and can afford to order those large prints.  It might prove better to wait a few years to get your gorgeous and real imagery than to accept low quality photography now in an inferior album presented to you after you get back from your honeymoon.

To sum it all up, it is imperative that you get a professional photographer to shoot the creative and superb images that you can order later than settle for mediocre work now.