International Wedding Photographers ZaraZoo Wedding Photography – Cape Town

The photographer is one of the first wedding suppliers booked when it comes to planning your wedding.  Here are a few tips and advice you should follow when choosing your wedding photographer:

Before rushing out to buy 20 wedding magazines, do the following:

1. Update your Facebook & Twitter status and ask your friends for referrals to photographers that covered their weddings.
2. Visit the blogs of these photographers and short list them if their recent work looks good – beware of recommendations from people that got married more than 3 years ago – this is a fast changing industry with new talent emerging regularly.

Then:

1. Do a Google search for “Wedding Photography [Your Venue] – This will churn out the blogs of most of the top photographers in your area.
2. Skip the results that take you to online wedding directories
3. Look at the photography blog results for at least 3 pages of the results produced by the search.
4. A photography blog is used by the photographer to showcase his latest work, and it is on that form that you want to book a photographer.  Most websites will have dated photos, because it is more difficult to update than in the case of blogs.
5. Look for the style you like.  (This will be discussed in more detail later)
6. Make a short list of photographers you like and send an enquiry for their packages.

Once you have received their package details:

• Keep your budget in mind, but be open to increase or lower it.
• Do not discard the highest quotes because they are out of your price range.  A mistake that might cost you dearly!
• Look at the length of  the service.  The photographer needs to cover at least 8 hours.  This will ensure him being there from the preparations though to the dancing.
• Do they include an album?  – This might bump up the price.  If the price is above your budget, ask whether you could take the cost of the album out.
• Most people nowadays receive cash gifts for their wedding.  You can use this to buy the same album after the wedding.
• Make sure a disk with high resolution images is included.  This is standard nowadays and can save you a lot of money in the long run if you want to print some of your wedding photos.  Some photographers charge exorbitant rates to do reprints.

After careful consideration, choose your top 5 photographers and give them a ring for a chat.  After the chat, choose 3 and book a face to face meeting with them.  Meet them at their workplace / studio as you will be able to see the most examples of their work there:

At the face to face meeting:

• Make sure you will get along with him / her.  You will be spending about 2 hours before the ceremony and an hour after the ceremony with this person.  An irritating personality or too intrusive style can make you stressed in a time that you want to relax and enjoy.  An easy going person without too many rules and regulations is a good bet.
• Make sure he / she is assertive, but not bossy.  The photographer must have a clear modus operandi, but must still be able to accommodate your unique requirements.
• Most photographers will give you their “best of” album to look through.  Make sure you also look through an album of a full wedding.  By looking through a full wedding, you will easily be able to judge whether their skills are shaped all round and not just fin certain areas.  You want the whole wedding covered, don’t you??
• By this time you will have a good idea whether you want to book this photographer or not.  If you got a bad impression, politely end the meeting and move on.
• If you really think of booking the photographer, then discuss their rates, deposit needed and future payments
• Make sure the product they offer is clear and that you are aware of the delivery time after the wedding.
• Make sure you discuss overtime charges and hidden extras like travel and accommodation fees (if applicable)

Contracts:

• Make sure you sign a contract with the photographer – it will bind him to that date.
• The contract should list the package and details of the product he will deliver and stipulate a time frame for delivery

If you follow this procedure, you can be guaranteed that you will choose a good photographer that will deliver the product you’re after.

Good luck with the planning!

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These tips were compiled by Stefan Steenkamp (International & Award Winning Wedding Photographer)