Photography - advice

Hi Tiffany! I can totally understand your hesitation What you could do is ask them more questions about your the way they work and tell them about the type of shots you want.

Check out these for example to have an idea of shots:

Photography Checklist

What's on your shot list for your photographer?

Maybe since the second one is more experienced, he could still get the shots you want.. He just has to be very organized! Whether, you work with your friend and the other friendly photographer, the important is to feel comfortable with them. What is your gut telling you?

I think having a second shooter is really important! You can get away with one for getting ready/details shots if you budget enough time before the ceremony but once the wedding starts, it flies by and there's only so much one person can capture! Having 2 shooters allows for different angles at the same time and increases your chances of catching a shot if the other misses it. Even with two photographers, after going through our wedding photos, there were still some shots missing that I would have loved but I can't imagine how many more we would have missed with only one.

If you like the first photographer's personality and like their work, then I think it's definitely better to have 2 shooters. You also have time before your wedding and I'm sure they'll be shooting weddings in between so they'll have more experience by your wedding! And since the engagement shoot is included, you will get a taste of their work that way and will be able to change some things before your wedding.

Well he's a family friend, so there is no contract yet. But I asked my friend first to see if she's interested. If she is then I will ask him, if not then I will have to figure out an agenda for 1 shooter.

That's a solid compromise. Did you check with the photographer or look at the contract? Some photographers won't work with people they don't know and even write a clause in their contact that the only professional photographers allowed for your event is them and associates they hire.

I'm going through the exact same thing!!! I would love to go with this girl from Newmarket but she's $800 over budget. And a family friend gave us an amazing discount, but same thing .....only 1 shooter. So a solution I'm looking into is asking a photographer friend who takes photos as a hobby and asked her if she wanted to be a second shooter for practice. Just waiting to hear back. So if you have any friends like that might be worth a shot. Good luck!

Oh that is a tricky one!! Hiring friends can often be very difficult as not everyone is truly able to separate the business and friendship parts of their life and it can ruin the friendship if there's any dispute. But if their work is amazing and he's an experienced single shooter... that really complicates the usually simple (imo) answer. I think I would REALLY look at their work, if there's a big difference and you love their eye and style, then go with your friend. But I would just be careful to really distance your friendship when talking business, make sure you have a contract and don't feel uncomfortable asking the questions you would any other vendor. Everyone always knows their friend wouldn't do anything to wrong them, but it happens often and sometimes but really intending to For example if they are really late getting you finished photos back because they knew you'd understand they were behind getting out other couples albums so yours gets dropped to the bottom of the list a few times. I even heard someone else use a friend photographer who took a YEAR to get their photos back to them and that was only because they had to threaten to sue... clearly ended the friendship