I come from a film background where i was learnt my trade by producing a high consistency across the wide spectrum of images required to effectively tell the story of a wedding day. Shooting on film with no "live preview" or high tech "P for Professional" mode meant that to be a good wedding photographer, one had to be well versed in the use of light, composition and timing. Understanding how to use a light meter was imperative.
These days, it seems that these skills are becoming rarer, with the selling point to clients being the quantity of images taken.
The lack of these skills apparent in many coming into the profession is a worry for those of us who care passionately about the quality of wedding photography in this country. From what i have seen, the work of many newcomers is often no better (or worse) than the photography that can be produced by a keen relative with the latest toy from Nikon or Canon. To help us to justify our rates we really do need to offer skills and service that is head and shoulders above the abilities of friendly amateurs otherwise there is no real reason for our services to be employed and we only really have oursleves to blame.
The plus points of being able to shoot machine gun fashion on a modern day digital SLR have been discussed to death on all sorts of forums, but it does seem to me that the prime skills that separated the real pros from the wannabees are being mostly discarded in an attempt to WOW clients with a huge amount of mediocre images.
For example i just booked a wedding where the client had been "educated" by various photographers she had spoken to that she would need to receive a minimum 300+ images from a 4 hour coverage to do her day justice. One "photographer" suggested that he would deliver over 1000 photos of her day, seemingly regardless of the venue, number of people, weather and all the other variables that a wedding day can and no doubt will throw up.
She saw one of my weddings with just 105 images and was easily convinced that quality was indeed better than quantity. A comment was made that my album actually had a "lot of photos" and that how comprehensively "the story was covered".
My point is that we are educating clients to look in the wrong direction and this is dangerous in what is already a very challenging market place.
Talking to my colleagues from all ends of the market the "shoot 2000 to get a few good ones" approach, is becoming a seriously dangerous trend in this industry. In my opinion this is another part of the slippery slope that professional photography is moving down and if we are not careful to maintain standards and put quality first, it will be us and our clients who suffer in the long run.
The coming year will see me trying to not only maintain my values and standards but if anything raise the bar yet further. I am looking at producing images from a different perspective, maybe introducing a new look but at the same time keeping to the basic skills of lighting, composition, exposure and dynamic story telling that i have always used.
Not only should this help keep us moving forwards, it should also bring an even better product to our clients and help to keep my passion and motivation to the fore.
I have added a post on the Art Visage Fan Page on Facebook and would love to hear your thoughts either there or if you prefer, please post your comments here.
Happy New Year!
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