Richard King

also to consider: work permits, visas. Is insurance valid at destination Some questions posed are a bit harsh. If he is ill in the middle of nowhere, he is ill. If you are paying for a team of photographers, the price will be considerably more I strapped my back up and put on a stiff upper lip in CUBA once when my back went just before a shoot. Bloody painful, a lot of tablets and rum (later in the day) helped a lot. Murdered the rest of my stay

Quote: Originally Posted by Evan Baines This is interesting to me as well.... I've been searching for forums/sites that have information for couples planning European weddings and they don't seem to be that popular here in the US. I'm kinda surprised. If we ever do a vow renewal I'd think hard about a European destination... I know I'm looking forward to shooting some weddings in Europe! Well we would both be happy to advise. I ama photographer, liz my fiance is a wedding planner, and we live in England! We would be more tham pleased to organise weddings for US brides and grooms Richard & Elizabeth

This is the rub. What is a digital negative? What is a high resoloution image? Always ask: What format, what size (dimensions in pixels), what bit depth, what image size (MB) High res to me is massive to you, and tiny to a high-end commercial photographer __ Dont touch the photo's in your album, contact the original photographer. Believe it or not, the editing process is long, painstaking and hard work.. We only supply edited images. If a photographer is not, then a corner has been cut (and half a week has been liberated from the PC) Richard King

and we are gettng married in the UK in august! will be a really intimate affair

Well We live in the UK, and plan weddngs in the UK and shoot weddings in UK, europe and buyond. UK weddings are certainly different to US ones, and infact, spanish, French, italian and greek weddings all have a different feel and flavour to them. Dated is the wrong word. UK and ireland is certainly adopting some of the customs from US wedings, however You guys basically adopted our customs all those years ago. We pinched some ideas of the continentals etc.. If you want beautiful interesting venues, with ancent history, original rolls royces, real church bells, and a intimate meaningfull wedding then we could wholeheartedly recommend the UK or other parts of europe Richard & Elizabeth

This is very tricky There are 3 sorts of destination photographer 1. lives at the destination 2. lives near you 3. lives elsewhere The first guy will know the destination well, and will either be excelent, or "just hired by the hotel" and be shaby. So in essence - try to find out what you are getting. Once, in Cuba I was handed 3 negatives and prints from the "official hotel photographer" 1 week after the couple left! "could you give these to the bride and groom when you meet them". Not good. On the other hand I know some excelent British photographers who actually move for half a year to a resort in spain and offer british brides a superb service, and the office back home deals with all the paperwork and printing etc.. Interviewing and meeting in advance this sort of photographer is difficult The second type will for sure be a great photographer, you can interview them easily, and they will take great photographs. However, if they do not travel much, then the logistics might be a bit much for them.. the gear and cases they have will be oriented to bundling in the back of a car, not the hold of a plane. They will possibly noy be used to working in the lighting conditions of where you are getting married, and not know the venue The third type seems more risky, but infact will be very used to travelling and shooting, and be set up grandly for it. Interviewing and meeting them face to face before the wedding is tricky. These types of photographers are generlly at the top of the game I agree professionalisim is a must, however accross the world there is a massive range of "acceptable levels and standards of work". The chap in Cuba did his best, with the old russian camera and and thought his work was superb. A lot of the "professional qualifications" are infact just letters given to a photographer for joining an organisation (that is a bussiness). So whilst i agree with the other photographer above, if you do use a "qualification" as a factor in your decision, check out what the photographer has to do to get it. In some cases it is just sending in a panel of 10 ok images and paying the money.. in others it is actually submitting a large panel of first rate images in a album from one wedding, having an interview etc.. the standard for passing varies massivley When choosing a photographer first decide what style YOU like, then assess the photographers work online - does it consistantly meet your style and standards? Sort out a budget. Only look at photographers in your budget. If they dont publish straightforward pricing, dont bother. Get a short list. Email them all at the same time with the same email - judge the responses - are they professional? are they timley? - if they are not timley - is the excuse reasonable (on a plane between x&Y is reasonable). Wait another week and send the photographers all a question or two.. you will soon find out which ones you like dealing with. Narrow it down to a couple, get on the phone to them - do they engage with you, are they friendly. Are they telling you what they want, or are you telling them what they want? Do you feel like you could trust and be with this person, on the most special day of your life (and possibly a few days arround that day). Unfortunatally photographers range from brilliant to crappy, arrogant to eminently personable, blend in the background to primadonna, bossy to laid back Look at the contracts. are you happy? Destination wedding photography has some special things to consider 1. expenses 2. proofing at a distance 3. getting your product 4. contractual differences between countries (e.g. my contracts are subject to british law, not US law) 5. paying at a distance 6. logistics, and possibly hiring equipement locally 7. being a long way away from any suppliers (meaning that the photographer absoloutley needs everything he is going to use on him/her, and if anything goes wrong, he still only has the equipement infront of him) 8. travel time eats away at "in the office time" which means the process is SLOWER hope that helps Richard

Photographing a wedding for the first time is damm stressful. If he feels it isnt, you have the wrong young man. Technically it is a very very demanding dicipline - you need to expose everything perfectly, in wildly changing conditions (dim church vs full sun outside). To top that you usually have a bride in a white dress next to a groom in a dark suit. This makes the latitude for error in exposure tiny. Most consumer cameras deal with this awfully. A professional will be shooting with a camera with a wide dynamic range, and shooting the shot in a way to minimise these issues. Most non-professionals do not anticipate the problem, and end up either blowing the dress, or under exposing the suit or (usually) both First time wedding photographers allways underestimate how much they need to be in control of lighting, and amuters or semi-pro's just dont have the right type of gear generally, and if they do, they generally havent been under the presure of using it to get every shot nailed first time everytime So your young chap will be currently used to taking his time and shooting a load of shots off and picking a good one out of the bunch.. This is cool, this is how most people work. Wedding photography is so fast paced at times that you are litterally thinking about the settings for the next shot while you are taking the curent one. Only experience and confidence lets you work like this If you still decide to go down this route, the suggest to the lad he tags allong with a pro for a few weddings first. He will learn loads, the pro will be pleased to have a free second shooter / bag carrier / assistant The next thing to consider is what happens afterwards. A pro will have (very very expensive) software to edit and balace the images with. Photoshop/lightroom/niose reduction/focus software is still required even when the photographer is not making drastic artistic edits. Matching the colour and tonal range between shots, sharpening specifically for web, and then print, tweaking the RAW conversion, removing spots and blemishes are all things that the pro just does, but actually spends hours on. It is unlikley the young chap has suitable software for this My one further bit of advice is a technical one and then a obvious one. Make sure he shoots in RAW format. Its more work afterwards, but if he does screw up the exposure a bit, you have some lattitude in the post processing to recover the image. Secondly - make sure he has a backup of everything. A camera body of mine "died" 10 miniutes before a wedding 3 weeks ago (it was 2 months old with just 1000 frames on the counter). I had a lens give up auto focussing earlier this year in the middle of the ceremony... it does happen, so makesure he is prepared for it. Secondly, whatever he thinks he needs in batteries and memory cards - multiply by 4. I can drain a set of 5 rechargable batteries in my flashgun in 45 mins! I hope that helps, and whatever you decide, good luck and have fun Richard King

We personally cant stand long lists. They tie you down, and you miss the really great emotional shots. Trust your photographer to get all the day captured. If you give him a list at all, make it a "asolouteley must have" list. Also who is "uncle george"... I havent a clue. Prime a senor reliable family member to assist the photographer, and help coordiante and track down the people on the list If you want emotion, life, candidness and a story of your day dont give your photographer a long list, or the day will litterally be people scrabbling arround finging "uncle george" for the next shot on the list Richard King

We are getting married in August, and our photographer will be staying all day

If it helps, we try to get the proofs done, and online before the happy couple return from honeymoon. Clearly this is slowed down a bit if we have traveled to the destination with them. So in reality that is about 1-2 weeks of time back in our office Dependant on what we are doing for them next - albums can take about 6-8 weeks once designed, fineart print box sets about a month, hand printed black and white - six weeks If the couple is having a storybook type album, the design process might take a month while the provisional album proof bounces back and forth betwen us and the bride If we are providing an oil or acrylic painting, they can litterally take months and months So in sumarry, depends what you are ordering, depends on the quantity and size sometimes too. However the "proofs" usually take 1 or 2 weeks Richard King

This is a cool forum. Us Brits have slightly different traditions, so feel free to ask away.. We are really pleased - you all seem so friendly Thanks :-)

a professional will be using acid free archival paper, your local store will be using whatever. in 20 years time the professional images will be vibrant and like the day they were printed. th echeap ones will be faded and discolloured. look at the pics your mom took when you were a kid

This is a really great question. Often at destination wedidngs the brides it too much sun before there wedding, and lobster looking is not cool. W e recommens a good sunscreen, but also, try getting a bit tanned at home before you leave. Ladies: White strap marks are really easy to get and really hard to hide, so invest in a bikini top that has no straps up top if possible

Look at Paridisio de Orr in Gardalavaca in Cuba. We were privaliged to shoot a wedding there last year, and bay far it is one of the best hotels in the world Also, hire a car and get out of the tourist area, you will find the real Cuba which is amazing Richard

There is an easy answer to this one. There is a restriction at the destination venue, limiting numbers!

Hi everyone It is Richard and Elizabeth We get married in Retford in the UK on August the 30th this year.. We honeymoon in Antigua http://www.cocobayresort.com/ Liz is a wedding planner, I am a wedding photographer. Suffice to say we are having a month off from all that! (phew) WWe met about 7 years ago online, and we now live together and are really happy. We cant wait to get married and enjoy life as husband and wife Best wishes with everyones wedding plans Richard & Elizabeth x