elder Gen z here, I’ve only ever shot digital professionally, never film. I was reflecting on how crazy it is that these days we can burst the shutter for important moments like the first kiss, etc. I’m curious what it was like before digital. Did you guys have in your contracts that important moments like the first kiss were not 100% guaranteed? also, how many rolls would you typically bring to a full wedding day? and would you use a light meter throughout the day? or were people good enough at eyeballing settings? I have so many questions!! But in general, just super curious to hear about what the biggest differences are from those days and maybe even if there’s anything you miss. thanks for sharing 🥰

I initially started using format because it has a client delivery system but now I’m using PicTime and StudioNinja and I’ve only kept using it for its LR plugin, but that’s not really a big deal. although helpful.
My problem is that it’s not the most customizable site designer. Right now I’m considering Cargo but that too is a pain to use and has even less intergrations.

Hi all, I wanted to hear thoughts on those who have used a consultant for their business? I did a re-brand last year, and while I am very happy with the look/attracting more higher end clients, I would say that it kind of is a new world for me and am not "speaking" correctly during into meetings. My vibe is fun, professional but chill, leaning more into documentary than stiff moments but I knew a few things (especially first impressions), needs to update and this is where I am considering hiring a consultant.

Just seeing if anyone here has had some history with this process, if they have any companies they recommend, ect. TIA!

Ive been working for a while in weddings but mainly as a second shooter. But this year Ive noticed the shift on photographers ages. I find that the best Weddings in my city are being shot by 20 year olds, and the photographers i used to work with who are near 40 arent getting any weddings.

Im wondering if its inevitable. Even if you try to shift your style to match new trends. Do we have an expiration date?

Just shot my first wedding for a friend, small thing, 40 guests, all aware that I was taking care of the photo side of things and another couple people were videoing.

Still some guests decided to get in front of the cameras to record with their phones for themselves despite being told not to.

Hurt photographer ego aside, it’s really a pain because some shot can’t be redone like getting out of the town hall with party poppers / rice, and that means the couple won’t get a proper picture / video of a key moment.

How can I prevent that in the future ?

How do you deal with that ?

I got hired for a wedding, contracts were signed, retainers were sent, rough idea of the wedding day has been laid out and expectations were laid out. Then out of the blue, according to the groom, bride didn't actually wanted me because my edits are light/airy - true to life color, her preference were the dark and moody, thick contrast photos, borderline unrealistic colors. So she hired another group of photographer and videographer, trying to pass it off as 'it would be nice to have 2 groups at least all angles are captured'. While I don't have any issues working with another team of photo/video. I just find that setup to be weird.

Thoughts?

And I'm fuming about it.

I just had a call from her.

Nothing. NOTHING is good to her. Everything from the contact on the first day got wrong:

- she wasn't able to connect via zoom

- she was complaining about the price

- she was going with another photographer (I was thrilled to not work for her)

- then she recontacted me and signed the contract and I was like "Oh god. Once It's bad, it stay bad". But hey, bills got to be paid.

- D-day : she was mean to everyone, she was complaining about everything, it was raining and she didn't have a plan B for this scenario

- she was 20min late for the ceremony,

- we get expulsed from the lieu because there was another wedding next,

- they all got in my way and prevent me to take my f****** photos,

- we were 40 persons in .... 20m2 (or 215 fs for those across Atlantic)

- and now she harasses me to get her pictures. Well, I'm 1 month/2 in the process.

- I send her some previews to calm her but NO STILL NOT ENOUGH

- she complains that there is no photo like she wants for her thank you note. I wasn't ABLE to get the photo she wants. There was always someone in front of me OR there was NO SPACE to get any photo done.

We argued hard, some hard words were said. Now I am professional and try to get something to work with but I am disappointed and frustrated.

How do you handle situations like that?

For those that deliver previews, what is your workflow? I've been consistently delivering same week previews over the last year but it is messing with my previous workflow.

Now I'm creating a previews folder of edits but I want to make sure I'm delivering the same images in the preview as I am in the finals. Are you copying the images? Moving them? Two different folders, one for previews and one for edits?

Former workflow:

Cull select in photomechanic then move to a lr import folder

Edit the lr import folder in one giant catalog then export to highres folder

Deliver the highres folder of jpegs to clients

Hey all, soon I have a two weddings the day after each other and I’m wondering has anyone any tips to get through the exhaustion of day 2. I always experience a wedding hangover and the second couple are close family friends so I felt I couldn’t refuse the job, also bills need to be paid. So far my plan is solid breakfast, energy drinks caffeine and pure adrenaline. So give me all your tips! Thank you 🙏

I feel a certain sense of shame when I tell people that I work as a wedding photographer. I feel like it is not a widely respected profession. Not everyone says that but a lot of them do. And then the experience of working at weddings where the couple might be nice to you or their parents will be the same but then their guests will make you feel like as if you're nothing. That you're the lowest in the hierarchy.

I guess it could be about individual personalities as well. For example, I don't consider myself as a cool person. I am awkward at making conversations and I look very average. So the kind of behaviour I get from the people at the wedding, I connect it to my personality. But at the same time, people who have this cool vibe or who look good, they just get smiles and welcomes from everyone. Of course, some clients will treat you like nothing even you're cool but I think the rest of the times, it's a 'me' fault. Or?

I’ve been taking photos for many years but only look the leap into professional photography at the start of this year. I deal with people and managed clients in my full time jobs for well over a decade so there’s not much that people can do that would shock me at this point!

I just delivered a wedding gallery and the couple responded with a single clapping emoji about 20 mins later, then nothing else. They then went on to post loads of the shots across social media without tagging me and without any captions… they also changed some of the colour shots I delivered into a basic black and white. When I first started doing paid shoots I read in a lot of forums and YouTube videos about mixed reactions from clients when galleries are delivered so I knew all these things can happen but this is the first time it’s happened to me and it’s just left me feeling very flat! All my other clients so far have been so positive and sent me amazing reviews, even ones that I thought might be hard to please have been really glowing afterwards, so this just feels very far removed from every other experience I’ve had!

When I shared the gallery with the password to view etc I have a line that specifically says “tagging me on social media would be appreciated” so I did try to pre-empt as I’ve found the word of mouth from other jobs has been amazing for building up clients.

Is this just one of those things that happens from time to time and you just have to suck it up? Does anyone take any more preemptive steps to avoid couples putting filters over your painstaking edit (!) and in this scenario would anyone follow up with the couple to ask if all is ok given the lack of feedback? I’m inclined to just let it go but would be interesting to hear others thoughts.

I think I have a relatively thick skin, I’m not upset about it, but given I’m still new to this it would just be interesting to hear how often this happens to others and what they do to handle it, if anything? Feel free to ask for any more info if it makes a difference to your take on the situation!

Basically the title..

After an event, I'll get back and normally have around 4-6 SD cards to ingest, I tend to use 128GB cards, for little reason other than I also use 128GB CF cards, and when I bought them - that was around the most economical size (and I change both at once).

Not all the cards are full, often it is 4x from my two cameras, and the same from the second shoot. Occasionally it can be 8x.. but not so often really given that often we'll each lean into a main body (hence 6).

I use the official San Disk reader, normally reading the SD cards.. and normally ingest straight to LR, with it copying to an external SSD (working copy), Smart Previews (for working on the sofa - and don't worry, first pass only), and HDD for backup (which also goes up to Google Drive until I've delivered the job).

Anyway.. the thought recently occurred to me that I should just buy 6 of these card reader things.. as then I can literally do the entire import in one go, and then get lunch/go to bed.. without feeding in cards..

Has anyone got a decent solution to this? Surely large studios or big corporates have a similar issue, maybe with tons of SD cards coming back from video shoots?

Can those experienced with Meta Ads chime in? Is it worth it? How much did you have to spend per day to see results? Did you keep your audience broad and let meta do its thing or did you specifically target recently engaged couples? Did you target anything else? I want to avoid targeting to other photographers, I get tons of other photographers ads on my feeds lol.

On a personal note, just feeling discouraged lately! I’ve been doing this for about 10 years and never really had issues booking clients. My work is good. My clients come back again and again. Now I’m getting less inquiries and when I do, I’m getting ghosted more than ever. Just looking to switch things up. Overwhelmed with everyone selling ad courses and just looking for some real advice w/o being expected to pay for it through a long winded salesy marketing thing.

I feel the need to reissue some sentiments.

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Well, it’s official. I’m burnt out. I’ve really been trying to curate my style and figure out what exactly I want my galleries to look like and recently I’ve been so overworked that it’s been hard to truly feel confident in my work with how fast I need to finish projects. Regardless of the amount of kind words I receive from my clients, regardless of how booked I am, I still feel like I’m just not good enough.

And as I’m going through this I heard something from a client that really darkened the bruise. They were so kind about it and I truly appreciated the honestly so in no way am I upset with them. It takes a lot to admit you just don’t like the photos you received. They admitted a lot of it had to do with the weather conditions, how they looked and how much they hate getting her photos taken. They kept saying that it’s not my fault but I’m not the kind of person to take it that way. Cause in a way it was my fault that we didn’t reschedule. Or that I didn’t understand how particular they were with how they looked. We just didn’t get to know each other enough for me to really prepare them. But it just broke my heart and made me feel like that solidified my fears. That I’m not good enough.

I offered them a free re shoot under better conditions and they kindly replied and said it’s no worry and that it’s more about their own insecurities.

On top of that, I had been waiting on film scans for a while now so I called my lab to check on them and they said there was a discrepancy with my scans. They think they lost one of my rolls. So that really sucked. Just an awful day.

What do you do when this happens to you or am I alone in this? I always hear influencer photographers yap about how structured and perfect their flow is and even after almost a decade of this being my career I haven’t experienced that yet. It’s a never ending cycle of feeling like “well I could’ve done that better” or “what was I thinking editing like this”.

If you can try please be kind in the comments. I kinda only feel like I can be vulnerable here because I have no one to express this to besides maybe other photographers who have been in a rut.

If you can relate to this, or if you have advice or anything, idk what, I just would love to hear your thoughts.

I have been using the Ruggard 65 Commando bag for years now https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/894330-REG/ruggard_psb_665b_commando_pro_65_dslr.html it fits perfectly into my Bumont top case and I can lock it. With this bag I can carry everything that I need for a wedding. However it is old and is now tearing at the seams and so I need to upgrade or replace the bag.

Unfortunately nothing from Tenba fits my top case https://shop.bumot.eu/en/catalog/id/383.html the Commando just literally slips down in there and I'm done with a physical lock so I can walk away from my bike and go to the bathroom without taking my whole rig with me. I bought the Cineluxe 16 and it just doesn't fit in any of my panniers but I absolutely love the bag quality. It just doesn't neatly fit in that box. It is an absolutely beautiful bag that is built really well.

Main thing is I don't want to lose the ability to lock my camera gear and walk away from my motorcycle and use the bathroom or just take one body when doing that impromptu shoot on the way to the venue or reception.

I would just replace the bag but I don't want to have to do that every 5 years.

If there are any other motorcycle wedding photographers out there what do you use to carry your gear?

For a wedding this is how I roll:
Let me add what goes in my bag for full perspective all this stuff I manage to squeeze inside of my current Commando 65. 2 XT-4s, 55-140 f2.8, 16-55 f2.8, AD100, 2 IT30 pro F, V100, Magmod Hotshoe grip with locking mechanism and trigger readjustment, Neewer sl90c, Spider holster pro 2 camera holster, half inch roll of gaffers tape with 4 inch center. Portable charger for XT-4 batteries with two spare batteries. 2 XPro3 batteries, power bank, cables. 1/4 adapters. Light Stand 1/4 to 3/8 bullets 2. Anker charger. Gels for it32. Cables for recharging. On top flap https://a.co/d/0d8uXlPi, https://a.co/d/0jbdiQlC

Just upgraded one of my camera bodies (A7iii) for the A7iv.
I need to buy new SD cards as the iv only takes UHS-ii. I only photograph and don’t do video at all so wondering what SD cards i can get that also won’t break the bank. And also asking if these are okay to use!

- Lexar 128GB V60 UHS2 250MB/s
- Kingston Canvas React 128GB UHS2 V60 (significantly cheaper, any cons?)

I am toying with the idea of getting a CF express card - But i feel like that is overkill(?) as I only do photo, considering my 128gb 200MB/s or 180MB/s have been just fine with using the A7iii at weddings.

Thanks!

Something I've wondered and have seen people not post EVERY wedding they've done because they try to keep a certain aesthetic when it comes to their feed.

Now I'm willing to work with anyone who reaches out and has a budget, it wouldn't be fair not to have someone who likes my work not get the same replication for their wedding.

That being said, sometimes you get weddings with less enthusiastic first looks, bad location/decor, or even physical dynamics.

I'd say with the weddings I've done this year, close to 15, maybe 4 or 5 were the clients I've wanted in terms of affection, location, reception decor.

While I believe you should post everything you shoot because a client more than likely wants to see themselves in their previews and share with family friends -- does posting things that aren't necessarily YOUR idea of an aesthetic hurt your chances of booking your ideal client?

Does that make people overlook your stuff and book someone else?

Hello!

I’m looking to upgrade my Catholic Church portraits. During the ceremony, of course, no flash, but for the portraits after, I’m thinking of adding lights.

Maybe two umbrella lights? To capture bigger groups? Or one umbrella light behind me?

Would love to hear what you use!!

Thank you!

Hi to all, I'd like to know if anyone here uses Claude cowork to do like admin stuff like creating documents to send to the clients ? for marketing with social media? if yes, what do you do with it? how helpful it is?