Sunday 4 November 2007

Change or die

We went to a wedding this weekend, hence blog gap. Anyway it prompted a thought. Wedding photographers have a very old fashioned view of the world and they must change.

Most have switched to the digital technology, which must save them time and money and provide more opportunity to provide 'good' pictures, but they seem to be stuck with the old pricing model.

There's the agreed price for the basic package for the photographer to turn up, do his job and then provide proofs, from which a pre-agreed number will be chosen. More can be ordered but at an expensive rate per picture. I don't believe that many people opt for the extra pictures which means that result of a lot of time and energy, to compose and shoot images, is lost.

One of the reasons that not that many people will opt for the extras is that all of the guests will have their own digital cameras, many providing excellent quality, and these are all readily shared with the bride, groom and other guests. Why pay a fee when they are available for free?

I believe that, in addition to the basic package, photographers would do well to offer a disc of all the unprinted images for an additional fee. It gives them an opportunity to earn more money and it means that pictures that would have been stored and never seen, would actually have an audience.

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