Great tips on here. I am currently working on my contract as I have several wedding clients this year. Also I am purchasing my own lenses as I have only done second shooting for weddings and used borrowed equipment. I am searching this site for info on what is best to start with. I am thinking a 70-200 and 17-55. I have bought a canon 7D and a 50mm so far. I want to spend around 5000 total. Any ideas?

I love this industry…but you do get alot of cattiness from photographers who feel threatened by new comers. Some of the newer photographers I know are some of the best I have ever seen.

My adivce…to each their own.

you’re always improving as an artist so just shoot and don’t let anyone discourage you. I’m new to weddings but I was also a bride and I know how a wedding works..i have done high profile sporting events, Hollywood and corporate plus news events to feel pretty confident in myself. I also have over a decade of graphic design experience that helps me bring the best out of my pics… People forget that pricing your work doesn’t involve the coverage. I don’t care if you’ve done one or 2000 weddings, price yourself fairly. Its 30% photography and 70% post processing ….people are crazy if they think post processing isn’t factored into prices…telling amateurs to price themselves 1/2 as the pro is stupid.

One tip I learned is to require, by contract, that there is a “photo coordinator” assigned by the wedding couple to help wrangle guests, keep the snotty ones in control, etc. This takes tremendous pressure off the high-strung brides of today, helps ensure that someone who knows who Aunt Martha is can get her to the group shot location for that photo, and means the photographer can do what s/he does best: take the picture.

At my own wedding, I didn’t worry about the shots getting done, and when I got our photos back, the only photo missing (unfortunately) was me with my parents together out of a long list. And my friend who got to play the role had a great time.

I have that requirement in my contract for all event photography. (I do mostly nonprofit events, but occasionally new weddings) and find, especially when it comes to getting pictures of the “big donors” it’s invaluable. If the organization doesn’t assign, then it specifies I am not liable.

Capturing great wedding photographs takes years of practice and sometimes you get those great shots that stick in your mind for ever. I have been a pro wedding photographer for over 20 years and still learns some new things every time i take photographs at the various wedding venues.

Making sure you have insurance, various back ups, should you fall ill on the big day. Do you taking wedding pictures with a another photographer, can you cover the event on your own etc etc.

Its a lot to take in and I wish everyone luck that goes into this fantastic line of work.

Wedding photography can start indoors, move outdoors, into bright sunshine, into shade, into mottled light and then back indoors under a mixture of different lights with potentially different light temperatures – all in the same day.

ALWAYS have backup equipment – remember the motto: two is one…one is none. Always have at least 2 of everything.

The best way to cut your teeth on Wedding Photography is to second shoot / assist an established pro for at least a season before accepting weddings of your own.

I have been reading the articles on wedding photography. My husband has been doing photography since his teenage years and he is now 45 and he made the switch to digital in 2001-2002. The digital processing is a constant learning experience. We have been doing that together. AND, I thought that weddings would be such a pleasant day to capture memories. Flowers, awesome lighting with candle light, champagne, all smiles, etc., Which my husband reminded me constantly of lighting as he was MANUALLY doing the math to double check his work. Math and photography? I just carry the second camera! But the purple popped!

Our pictures are turning out beautiful, but the bride is unhappy. Some say she is just complaining so I won’t charge her for the wedding. To make matters worse this was a favor, and we work together during the day. I brought her 70 prints (which we have 373 more coming) and she did not show a single soul. Eyes were poppin and everything! My husband likes the rebel’s by canon and we have all the lenses, as Pat has said we reinvest everything into equipment. We have the EOS and then the XTi, both do really well, the difference between the EOS and the XTi is amazing in itself. And then of course as soon as we bought that camera not but a couple years later comes the 50D and Windows VIsta BLAH, we were just catching up! The wedding party was uncooperative and I was yelled at 3 times, wanted to cry. One lady said to me, “Gee, I guess I am just an endcap for the day.” I just tried to keep them in order. Wedding are VERY HARD and I now understand why they aren’t for the faint of heart. The grooms sister took over the photo shoot with her point and shoot, and we are pretty laxed with people wanting to shoot our poses, but they could not get a clear shot as I was beginning the posing for the next shots and they told me about it under no circumstances that I was in their way, which was said to me by the Groom through his clinched teeth. This caused a dramatic loss in photos of the Bride & Groom by themselves because the Church only gave us 30 minutes to get our shots and I am sick over it. It seemed that they were all more interested in taking pictures than having their pictures taken?

So, my question is: When your equipment is on the mark, settings are good, pictures are good, your batteries are charged and you have managed to capture a few heartfelt moments (Mother of the Bride wiping a tear from her eye, as she had pinned the coursage on her mom), and the bride is unhappy what do you do? We were with them from 2:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. We left at 10:30 and they decided to do the bouquet toss and garter throw at 11:00 p.m. when the reception was over at 11:30! The jury is still out as to whether we will be taking on anymore weddings in 2010. We will finish our 5 this year as we are under contract with the couples we have signed up now, but I just don’t know.

Oh, one last comment, I know my post was long, but I have not slept since May 9, 2009! The Bride did bring in all the point and shoot pics in to our work and showed them around with pride. I about fell through the floor, they were grainy, and because we were not allowed to use a flash in the ceremony, they were noisey and dark, but some parts of the picture had light, does that make sense? The pictures looked “thin” with no depth, lack of color, like smeared ink maybe, I guess. My husband can explain all that better than me, but I am telling you, I hope people do not think that was our work.