Re: [Leica] re: most important person at a wedding?

[Ted Grant <tedgrant@shaw.ca>]

JCB said:
Subject: [Leica] re: most important person at a wedding?
> Also, I've seen weddings shot journalistically. They were just OK. The
> clients liked the photographs, but in the end, missed having the
> traditional photographs. There should have been two photographers. One
> shooting traditional Hasselblad and the other shooting reportage Leica.<<<

JCB,
But why Hassie and not a Leica in competant hands?  Or as I had to do as a
rookie comercial shooter for a company... use 4X5 Speed Graphic, flash bulbs
and the list of mandatory photos in your pocket not to miss any of "the most
important pictures of the wedding!"

Hell there's a wedding guy here in Canada that sells a set of playing type
cards for wedding shooters with all the mandatory poses and pictures with
the light setting angles and chalk marks on the floor where to set them, for
about $100.00 bucks a pop. But he guarantees if you follow the card set ups
you'll make a fortune from the wedding as every sitaution will be perfect.

I've seen the results by some shooters.....aaahhhhhhhkkkkkkkkk!!!! cough,
cough, puke !

I'll take an experinced photojournalist doing a wedding any day for the best
pictures that show the bride, her mother and few snaps of the groom that'll
blow away any fancy set up where everything looks like it's cut from a
catalogue crap!

Obviously you'll appreciate I hate weddings. And a carry over from the old
man here, my son Scott  a professional shooter with his own business has
special business cards printed boldly on the back....."I DON'T DO WEDDINGS!"
And hands them out as soon as the word wedding comes from the mouth of a
prospective bride or anyone looking for a wedding shooter.

But if one is stupid enough to do them, they should be wise enough to charge
exorbitant rates to off set the agony of doing them. I mean why would any
photographer subject him/herself to an agonizing day of misery unless you're
going to have major income return? And if you're not yer pretty stupid!

I believe I've told you how I finally ended people asking me to do their
wedding. Very simple, as I started out with a set fee for the complete shoot
including film. When the day was finished I handed all the film to the best
man if he weren't too drunk to look after it.

He in turned handed me in "cash" the sum agreed upon by the bride and groom
in our final arrangements, one thousand dollars. They got all the film had
it processed and printed and I never heard from them again. I thought the
thousand would deter people, hell all it did was get me more requests
because the bride would show what and how I shot theirs, so their friends
wanted the same thing.

Quick fix I thought!  Charge two thousand that'll get rid of them! It did, a
few, but they kept coming.... OK lets kick ass and it went to four thousand
and that killed off a bunch of them, but there was always some idiot stupid
enough to get married with more money than brains, so it went to five
thousand!    ... I gave them film they gave me 5 big ones cash and I'm
history.  It worked, as only a few over the years have been stupid enough to
pay me 5 thousand and it's the easiest money you can make for a one day of
misery picture taking. :-)

But I still hate it and these days I absolutely refuse..... however? If the
price were right I might be persuaded. ;-)

ted




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