The Importance of Knowing your Photographer | Eric Bakken, Denver Wedding and Portrait Photographer

A recent post by a founding member of Bella Pictures, as well as an email from my sister-in-law got me thinking about knowing your photographer. I’ve always been aware of the relationship I have with a bride and groom, and if you think about it, photographers are unlike any other wedding vendor. No one else other than perhaps your maid of honor and best man will be around you as much as your photographer…not your caterer, your florist, your coordinator, your officiant, or your DJ. We stick to you like glue from the moment we arrive to the time you have a glorious send-off into the night. If you aren’t comfortable around your photographer, he or she shouldn’t be invited to your wedding. Period.

First, some background. Bella Pictures and Studio Blue are a nation-wide wedding photography agency. They work with couples and find photographers to shoot your wedding. The photographer shows up the day of the wedding, creates the images, then ships the images to Bella/Blue for editing and creating albums. If you have questions about your pictures, you talk to Bella, and you may never see or talk to your photographer again. Importantly, you can’t meet with your photographer before your wedding using one of these other companies.

Here’s a post from a Studio Blue webpage, which is part of Bella Pictures, describing why you never meet your photographer before the wedding:

When you go to a fabulous restaurant you don’t ask to meet the chef, do you? In all seriousness, we do the in-person screening for you, which allows us to keep our prices affordable. You will review your photographer’s portfolio and talk with them on the phone, so you will know exactly what to expect. Rather than running around to meetings, we allow our photographers to focus on what they do best, which is beautifully capturing the unique, emotional story of your wedding day. Source: www.studioblue.com/faq

Sadly, this is a fallacy, a clever piece of marketing copy. No, you don’t meet the chef, but in weddings, the photographer isn’t hiding out in the kitchen, and a chef can create their art completely separate from you. I can’t create my art without a relationship with you. Without a connection of friendship and trust, my pictures become lifeless and without that spark that I love to capture.

Knowing your photographer, whether it is me, or someone else, and feeling like you WANT them around you your entire wedding day is SO IMPORTANT!

Here’s what Monica, my sister in law wrote to me today. I had Monica’s friend Jenny at October 2008, and let Jenny know that I would be honored to come to New York and capture her wedding this summer.

jenny, who got married in june, was really unhappy with her photog and has said several times, “mon, i wish i had just gone with eric!!” i think people (on the east coast, especially) get sucked into something they think they are “supposed” to have for their weddings. they also mistake cost for quality, which is such crap! they spent $6,000 on theirs, and that was on the cheaper end of people they interviewed. the nyc-based “photojournalistic” photographers they liked were even more expensive.

I don’t include this to say, told-you-so. I write it to urge you to invite your photographer to your wedding, just like you invite friends and family. I sit down with all my clients, and with many couples, we meet for a several-hour engagement session well before the wedding. That gives all of us a chance to get to know eachother, and feel comfortable about spending a very important day together.
As I’ve built my wedding business, I’ve been careful to stick to who I am, not what I think might be popular or fashionable. I’m 32, a father of 3 kids, live in the burbs, grow peas and lettuce and tomatoes in the garden, and enjoy Friday nights in the backyard over a glass of wine and the sound of crickets. That’s who I am. I’m not a rock-star photographer, I don’t try and copy all the fads in wedding photography, I simply and beautifully create artistic interpretations of the people, the events, the details, and the joy of your wedding day.

So my advice to brides about choosing a photographer is find someone you like. See their photos and try looking at those pictures as if you were in them. Wedding images are a key to your memories, the day is such a whirlwind, that without images that catch the things you miss or what you forget, parts of it will be lost forever.