Unfortunately, once again the newspapers contain a story about a Bride & Groom’s memories of their wedding day having been ruined by a non professional photographer.
The headline looks bad but when you read beyond the headlines it appears that Mr & Mrs Sanderson decided to save some money for their reception and honeymoon by asking a friend to photograph one of the most important days of their lives. It appears that the photographer, Ben Fagan, was wanting to build his portfolio but following the wedding rather than backing up the images immediately he put the memory card in his wallet. When he lost the wallet a week later after a fight in a pub he still hadn’t backed up the images. We will probably never know how good a photographer the friend was but what can be certain of is that he failed to follow what Professional Wedding Photographers in Cheshire would deem standard practice.
As a Professional Cheshire Wedding Photographer I know that wedding photographs are precious and I follow a 5-point plan to ensure that my clients always receive their images.
1) Use multiple cameras during the day.
2) Use multiple cards during the day, typically one 4GB or 8GB card per camera for each of the main stages of the wedding; the preps, the ceremony, the reception, and the first dance.
3) Have a system of recognising a used & blank card – this eliminates the possibility of using a card twice and overwriting images from earlier in the day.
4) Backup all the images to the laptop BEFORE leaving the venue.
5) Backup all images from the laptop to an external hard drive BEFORE going to bed (even if this means staying up until 3am)
This means that by the time I go to bed on a wedding day I will have at least 3 copies of all images (1 on the cards, 1 on the laptop and 1 on the external hard drive)
Tight Wedding Budget? You can still get a Professional Cheshire Wedding Photographer
It is clear that this wedding was done on a budget; 60 Guests and a UK honeymoon is not exactly extravagant but then neither is Professional Wedding Photography.
Remember; once the cake has been eaten, the flowers have died and you’ve returned from your honeymoon all you have left is your memories and your photographs.
As a Cheshire Wedding Photographer my standard 8hr coverage starts at £575 and is spread over the months before the wedding. To put this in comparison this is just £75 more than a 2 night stay in the Loft Suite at Upton House; the 5* B&B the couple in the article chose to spend the start of their honeymoon before spending a further 6 days in the Cotswolds. Looking at it another way when you add in the time spent processing the images and the time spent on the day this works out at less per hour than a typical garage charges to service your car. If you are on a really tight budget a professional Cheshire Wedding Photographer is likely to be open to negotiation for late booking or reduced coverage deals.
Professional Wedding Photography is really a small price to pay to ensure you get stunning images of your Wedding Day.
Related Blog Posts:
Cheshire Wedding Photographer – What to watch out for…
N.B. The prices of Upton House were checked on 15/06/2012 and was for a 2 night stay starting on 30/06/2012. Other rooms were available at prices ranging from £300 and this may not be representative of the price paid by the Sandersons.
