It is now February and we have completed two wedding fairs and taken 4 bookings for weddings, three this year and one in 2013. The wedding fair circuit has proven, for us, to be the best form of marketing so far by a long way. I think when you are relatively new to an area, or new to this form of photography, you do need to get your name out there as quickly as possible and at wedding fairs you do get a one to one with potential clients, who are there looking for a photographer and are interested in what you have to sell. Of course we are living in times where everyone wants to have as much as they can for as little spend as possible, and there are many 'photographers' out there willing to give it away for nothing, but we are here for the long haul and will try and weather out this storm.
I do think the storm will blow over as more and more horror stories of failed wedding shoots emerge, here is but a small example;
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1218248/Newlyweds-win-court-battle-1-500-wedding-photographer-shoddy-pictures-include-missing-heads-car-close-ups.html
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/872387/couple-sues-over-disastrous-wedding-photos
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8292164.stm
There are many many more where the couple just did not want the fuss of suing the photographer and lets face it, suing in not going to suddenly provide you with the images that we not taken or poorly taken on the day.
I have just been reading a fellow photographers blog regarding the price you can expect to pay, against the level of competence the photographer will have.
http://www.niccleave.com/wedding-photography-prices-uk/
I must say that I think he is a little out with his figures by a little, as he is providing price comparisons against ability, when the price these days is more directly linked to the number of wanner be photographers working in an area that are willing to charge very little for their efforts, forcing the rest of us to rain back our prices or move out of the area altogether.
This current situation does remind me of what it was like for tradesmen back in the late 70s and early 80s. This was a time when there were large numbers of electricians, builders, plumbers etc all out of full-time work and claiming benefits. These out of work tradesmen then offered their trade skills direct to the public at a fraction of the normal price.
These people were not relying on their trade skills to pay the bills, the government were doing this for them via the benefits system, and they had no over heads to pay except travel costs. I remember many legitimate tradesmen being forced to cease trading or go bankrupt as a result of this kind of work practice.
photographers are currently finding themselves in the same sort of position, especially at the lower end of the wedding market where money is a little more constrained. The cheap wedding photographers that are now plying their business mostly have full time work, normally outside of the photographic industry, and use the wedding photography as a means of generating extra cash on a weekend. These people seldom have any insurance, normally are equipped with limited equipment and have no fall back plan should they be sick or otherwise unable to attend the wedding day.
Well for now I think all we can do is hunker down, demonstrate the reasons why a full-time professional photographer is always the best way to go and wait for the wannabes to fall by the wayside, and more importantly the public to wake up to the fact that this is a very important aspect of their big day and should not be treated with any less importance than the wedding dress, cake or car.
No comments:
Post a Comment