Nine questions for the wedding photographer

I was thinking about questions that I would have asked my wedding photographer if I was planning a wedding this summer and here they are: the questions that are important for your partnership with your wedding photographer.

Do you believe in love?

We live in skeptical times.. Some see only the vanity and the celebration as such, including all the rituals, hour after hour that have to be caught by the camera as if they were the most important thing in the wedding. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and that is why it is important for the photographer to see beyond the visible, beyond the official kisses, beyond the rituals. If the photographer has kept his faith after all weddings and divorces he has witnessed, it means that this guy has a heart. Heart, being an important factor for the good and emotional wedding photography.

If you could change your profession today, would you change it for another?

To live on photography as a business is a complex issue, especially when you live on the Balkans where services are often undervalued and dealt with the statement: “I have a friend who will be able to make it”. I wouldn’t change photography for all the best jobs in the world. There’s nothing more emotional and charging than preserving moments that will never be repeated. There’s no greater award for your work than seeing the happiness in the eyes of your clients.

What music do you prefer?

The photographer could not be a fan of the same music that you admire, right? Well, I think it is better if you share similar taste at least. The “music question” is just a pivot point that will lead you to the aesthetics. If you both like Toni Storaro and Gloria /popular pop folk figures in Bulgaria/… then you are the perfect match… but if one of you wakes up with Metallica and the other one falls asleep with some strange oriental sounds and frenetic voices…. then I think that this will sooner or later find a reflection in your relationship with the wedding photographer.

Show me your favourite personal works?

Sometimes photographers dig too deep in the commercial work and forget to shoot for themselves. This is no good. In order to preserve the passion, the photographer should always find time to shoot for personal projects… no matter whether it would be landscapes, portraits, street photography…. Non commercial projects are those that speak of the soul of the photographer and soul is important as we already mentioned above.

Who are your favourite photographers?

With the answer of this question you will find out what inspires your wedding photographer, who are his heroes in photography. Even if you have never heard about them, you can always check later and thus add one more piece to the wedding-photographer-puzzle.

What is your favourite moment from the wedding day?

Here you will receive a variety if answers – some will say: the artistic photo shoot, others: the ceremony or the party. This will guide you to learn more about the approach of the photographer – is it more staged or is it more photojournalistic.

What about gear?

This is the most commonly asked question. My five cents are that gear is important, but as you see in my list it comes after some more important questions. Nikon, Canon, Fuji, Sony and all those lenses… Actually, when you go to the dentist, do you ask him what kind of equipment he uses? It is the person behind the gear and his works that are important, so don’t fall into the gear trap.

Show me your favourite wedding?

I often meet with future clients who want to see pictures from their wedding venue. The wedding venue is just a venue though. I would prefer to see the photographer’s favourite wedding – again with the idea to see what inspires him/her to create beautiful wedding photography.

How many pictures do we get?

I am kidding, of course. This is a question that is popular in modern ages, but it shows basically that you are after quantity and might “inspire” the photographer to shoot in series in order to respond to your requirement for thousands of pictures. We live in a digital age, when quantity prevails and kills quality. Believe me, if your wedding day is interesting and full of emotions, no photographer would miss the chance to capture them all and of course, deliver all these beautiful shots to you.