About/meet Rory.
It quite off putting when your paying a large amount of money to a person you have never met, I wouldn't, but many of you have over the past 5 years and I am grateful for your trust.
Simply to say why I do photography, I do it for my daughter. Several years ago I was ran over and lost a important part of me, this can never be replaced. Now I replace this with capturing memories by imagery (photography). Imagine waking up and not remembering part of your life? It could happen, it did to me and now I record all the special days of my family life and people's lives from all over the world with photography.
I have been taking images since an early age (11) and have developed skills for the details and important things in life, which is what makes me a good photographer. Many clients comment on how I capture people and who they are in a single image. Is it a gift? Maybe? I studied psychology and read people who they are snf thisI believe delivers great imagery capturing 'the charecter' of the person and the moment, a perfect reflection you could say. Most of my work is a reflection of the bride and groom or the person whom I am taking the photograph of, as such my work changes with every person as you will see in the galleries on this site and many other website which have my work displayed.
I am a photography advisor and trainer and have helped many other photographers from around the world, I have been published helping other photographers, possibly you may have short listed tsomeone I have advised or trained. I am also a ordained Reverent - and you can view my certification here. This means that I can carry out wedding services
I have been shooting weddings for around 4 years without a single complaint and it has been all great feed back both from the guests and the brides and grooms at the weddings. - until now that is. I have had two complaints, both have been to do with the digital negatives that are randomly selected and clients not being happy with this, mainly due to them not reading the info & FAQ pages.. I find weddings one of the best times in people life with their new beginning, its a great place to be and work, stressful? yes it is a little. I do get nervous everytime I go to a wedding and meet with people for the first time.
I know people hire me for my style as a artist - at least I should hope this is the case - I am down to earth and a friendly person who gets on with everyone - funny comment by a guest who asked me how long I had known the bride and groom, I replied, "well about 2 hours today, and I have met them once before a few months ago"
I do take my work serious, and presentation is of my utmost priority. When I first started it was all about giving the best price which often lead to less than perfect delivery - By this I mean, photos that are mounted look so much better - Now I have adapted what I do to deliver great presentations and for a good price. In fact there isnt much profit in many of the packages and some I would actually make a loss with one or two of them.
One thing comes to mind when people are looking at photographers, I know you all think that when it comes to a wedding its automatically double the price for everything. Sadly this is true, The costs which we have in providing albums is very high - about 300 times more than a normal album - but often I think that what people really miss is that there is a lot of time that goes on behind closed doors and is not seen by the clients when it comes to photography, its more than the day we are actually seen shooting on the wedding day.
Let me take you through the role of a wedding photographer..
Once you have your web site up and running you have insurance and a few grand of kit, you can make a start. Advertising is one of the largest costs to be considered
next to the kit costs. Then you go to meetings with the clients at no rewards, fuel isn't free and niether is my time - hence the detailed websites with losts of information -. You then have a booking, So you have all the paper work which need to be double checked - I have had brides give me the wrong dates! - The day before, all the cameras and equipment are prepped, charged and cleaned for the big day.
On the big day, I arrive early dreading that you may get a flat tyre on route - Has happened once to me - You get there and meet the groom - if they are there - you start taking images of the venue, groom and the guests as they arrive - not knowing who is who - Then look around the venue to see where the best opportunity will be for the group and other shots, you consult with the vicar/registrar on weather you can take images, then you rush outside to meet the bride. You take some shoots as everyone is waiting for her arrival, and you also need to be inside before her. - two places at once which is always a little hard to do-
You shoot the ceremony in a dim lit church or office - this cast other colours on the images - shooting at a slow speed to get the lighting right and hoping there is no big movements that cause a blur - then capture the B&G as they walk up the isle, then run outside to get the leaving of the church/office.
Everyone come flying out behind them and your trying to get candid shots of the kisses and congrates - while many people come stand in your way - you then start to organise people and get hold of the best man and chief bridesmaid to get people ready for the groups shots - often having to be done quickly as no one asks when booking, how long will the photos take and the reception is only minutes away- Your then under pressure to deliver and give everyone what they want, that's everyone..
Your constantly followed by uncle john with his digital camera who gets under your feet just to copy the same layout you have - I don't see why as this will not give you a wide range of images and its annoying - You then have to be friendly and funny so everyone look happy in the photos - I am funny, honest it not trying -and check to make sure everyone has there eyes open and looking the right way - not at uncle john - Then its pack everything up and off to the reception - before everyone else, thats two places at once again -.
Getting to the location first to ensure that you get the B&G getting out of the car and going into the reception, then shooting guests in there little groups - involves contestant adjustment to the camera for correct lighting depending where they are and the weather -. Then into the meal and capture the guest before they eat and the food as it is served, then a little sit down between courses - hurray - for some packages this would be the time I have to prepare the sildeshows and images for the afternoon.
Then in and out to check which stage they are at and when the speeches will start, mean while backing up all the data on to a portable storage drive.
Cake cutting and
speeches underway, now there is a need to be in three places at once capturing the face capture the B&G faces the guests and speakers.
As thing never are planned well, this leads directly onto the evening reception bar 30 minutes when I can get some shots of the B&G if their feet are not sore or they are about to pass out from rushing about since 5 in the morning.
With evening receptions
most people will arrive, often a meet and greet will take place where you capture all the guests. Then its time for the first dance, slowly the night slows and you chat to guests and capture the nights events.
by now its around 22:00 - 23:00 hours and my feet have given up and I have cramp in my arm from dragging around Kg's of kit all day. Keeping a happy face say good bye to the B&G guests and parents and drive back to the office. Off load all the kit from the car and back up the storage disc on to the office servers. by now its around 01:00 in the morning and I drive home.
What happens after the weddings day..
You get up aching from the marathon that was ran the day before - thats what it feels like -, have something to eat and think about the images that were taken the day before. Off to the office for 09:00 and then load up the images into a preview so you can view them all.
Starting with putting all the images in order and folders in the correct place. Then create a folder for the selected images that I like, and move this around until all the images have been viewed. By this time its around 16:00 and time for lunch. A quick slide show of the image which have been selected and then its time for post processing. Each image is checked and simply corrected - this take around 2 minute per image - from the 500- 700 that have been selected - Then these go into photoshop for retouching and editing. This varies on what the images are of, and can range from a few minutes to 2 hours for each image.
The selected and corrected images are then loaded and resized and saved for a web site section or slide show. this take a few minutes to do as its automated. by now its around 23:00 and time to go home. You get into bed dreaming about what image goes with what and how you can change things on certain images.
You wake up around 8 o'clock and head into the office with the ideas from last night and get started, Half way through the day your ready and re do the images ready for the web site. Then spend the rest of the day building the web site and loading it to servers, by around 18:40 its finished and you send off a email to the bride and groom with its location then rush home to put Evelyn to bed - my daughter - .
You start building the slide show with the images the next day getting the best music that suites the day and you have licence's to use or go a buy some more. This takes around 5 hours to complete and go to DVD.
You then sit back and wait for the B&G to return from honeymoon for their order. Then start on parent album designs and layouts, this take around another 4-6 hours the following day.
When the Bride and Groom return from honeymoon....
When the B&G return they read the mail and go to the web site to order there images from the package and the additional images that they want. The order comes with a few montage images which have to be made, these takes around 1 hour to finish each. If there are framed images this take a few days to get back from the framer as well as the labs to send the prints, so 5 days later they are all ready to visit the B&G or hold a meeting with them. all the order forms and disc are sorted out, and then its just a matter of deciding what photos to have - there can be as many as 3000 photos to select from dependinig on the style of the photographey and the album. If there are lots of photos, this usually means that two albums have to be made. and for choice 3 or 4 parent albums.
Once the visit has been arranged the slide show in shown, and all the emotions can be heard from all the family which has gathered especially to see them - uncle johns there making comments how he's got the same images - well john you did follow me around all day - Then the Prints are revealed, everyone is ohh, and Ahh and remark on the quality of the images. uncle john asks why his images did look so good as he has the top of the range camera 11 MP and they don't look anything like this - My reply is that my 6 MP camera is a professional camera and its better..** technical details** ahh he reply's I must get one of them - I then check that everyone is happy and everyone got what they want. At these times its really like I am an extend part of the family we sit and chat like old friends.
Then when I get back to the office I get some of the images from the web site and place then on to the gallery of this site so that new clients can review the work. or the images are selected placed onto a DVD for slide show viewing, this takes a few hours becasue the music has to match the photos need to be placed in the correct order and then the title and credits have to be made. I think that they can take a day to finish.
Then its just sit and wait for the client to select the images that they want, I find it funny that people will always order the full amount of photos that is with the package, no more and no less. Then I offered 60 with one package people would take weeks to select the 40-50 then really find it hard to select the remainder, often leading to me waiting for weeks or months for the order to be completed. This isnt good which is why I now charge for data storage as there is a higher risk of losing the files, we all know what that means! No photos
So now you know, A wedding photographer doesn't work for 6 hours, print the images and walks off with your money. It is a long day with a few other added days amd some times weeks after to get everything ready and finished, it also take away time with my daughter and even just plain and simple sleep. I would say that he average wedding takes around 80 hours to complete.
After reading this artical again, it seams like its no fun at all, it is not that bad and is fun on the day for me.
When I am not at work I am working on computers, businesses, networks, and other photography areas. I run NationalPhotographer.co.uk and grafixphoto.co.uk which keeps me busy. In general I work a 126 hour week, which is how I manage to fit everything in. and why I dont like to shoot weddings from Oct till the March so that I can keep with things.
You can see some of the other work that I do on websites around the world, the BBC normally have a few and I have a small gallery here
