Other lives – an FAQ for South African wedding photographers
I’ve been at this since 7 this morning, answering emails, and there are still about 20 left. Quite a few are clients but a lot are other South African wedding photographers, so I thought I’d put together this little blog post faq to answer some of the question that seem to come up a lot.
Before I jump into it, I just wanted to say that when I started working in this field I was just coming off 12 years of photojourn for a whole lot of publications and the one thing that struck me was the lack of resource and information sharing in the wedding photography field. You couldn’t even get anyone to tell you what they were charging!! So from day one I had a policy of answering any one who asked me anything. It has however gotten to the point where I get 10-20 emails a week, some of which start with “Please run it through step by step and please bear with me as I am a novice at this and still learning! PLEASE HELP”. I unfortunately can’t help everyone and it has gotten to the point where the amount of emails is overwhelming. I am in the process of putting together a bunch of marketing seminars that will be very practical and very orientated towards the South African wedding market and getting results.
Feel free to add anything in the comments.
Q: How much do you charge for a wedding? How do you price it?
A: You can always look at my latest prices by sending a mail to prices.at.droreyal.co.za. My seminars have a large section devoted to pricing and package structures and options.
Q: I’m an aspiring wedding photographer can I come shoot with you sometime?
A: We invite people to apply for second shooter positions once a year, we pick two and we train them for months before we allow them to shoot along on a wedding. It would be irresponsible for us to bring anyone along who does not know what we expect and is not up to our level of experience. This year we had over 300 requests. This matter is closed.
Q: How do you get <insert look> to your images
A: I use photoshop and Lightroom, I use my own actions to get the effects that you see. Every once in a while, when I have time, I package some of the actions and offer them to other photographers.
Q: How do you get so high up in Google. This normally goes along with How do you get so many hits on your website.
A: 100% of my marketing is done through Google. I don’t advertise in any mags and I don’t subscribe to any portals. This ensures that the values that I want associated with my brand are always there. I talk about how to use Google and new media, web 2.0, word of mouse or whatever you want to call it in my seminars.
Q: How do I improve my marketing? Where should I advertise?
A: We are going to be holding two seminars on marketing for wedding photographers, keep an eye on the blog for details.
Q: What albums do you use? How much do they cost?
A: I use Asuka Book albums exclusively.
Q: Can I call you sometime to chat?
A: I’d love to chat, I can talk about photography all day. Unfortunately, I no longer work for a boss who will pay my salary regardless of whether I’m on the phone, surfing all day, or actually working. I’m looking at consulting structure where we will offer one on one consulting. Drop me a line if you’re interested.
Q: What equipment do you take with you to a wedding?
A: I’m not a big fan of a lot of equipment, I try keep my photos as natural as possible. I have a small backpack with my main D200 (all the cool kids have one) and a backup camera, as well as SB flashes for both. I have a 50mm for the one camera and an 18mm for the other. No massive zoom lenses to hide behind, no reflectors, big bags, no fiddly bits and pieces. Just real moments and a camera. I’ve recently acquired a remote trigger for my flashes – haven’t had a chance to use it yet.
