I choose you Photographer
I´m so excited! We have a photographer now! I kinda really had difficulties figuring out what to decide with the wedding photographer. I knew right away, that we will want a documentary photographer, so we will have not only great wedding potrets, but also quality pictures of the wedding ceremony and party. The problem was price. So expensive! Or, yes, you can find cheaper ones, like the cheapest documentary for 6-7 hours with potrets was 500 euros in Jyväskylä. Thing is, I have just finished studies of media-assistant, which include studies and practice of photographing. Also I studied only photographing and video for 4 months before my school.
My point is, I can see the difference of bad, good and great photos –in my opinion. I look for the signs of under or over lightning, movement blurring, bad cropping (arms or legs cutting from a wrong spot so it looks amputated) and I look for personality.
I had found one photographer over a month ago, Henri Luoma, but he was one of the higher prices. So, I did sent questions about prices and what is included in it. But I said, I would still have to think about it. I could just see 1 000 and over euros running from our budget just for some pictures. Is that really ok? Why not just get really pretty potrets from a professional and enjoy the random photos guests would take? Or a friend or friend of a friend, who has done photographing for a hobby or so? It would save money, and at least some photos should be good, even great –right?
I for once am sure I wouldn´t trust just our quests to take the pictures of a day, that takes so much planning and has so much feelings put in to it. First of all, I want our guests to enjoy the party with us, not from behind the cameras and phones. Secondly I don´t think there is many who actually can take descent pictures, so the ending result would most likely be too dark blurry images of an memorable day.
Then there is question of someone who does photographing for a hobby or like some old classmate etc. That is possible and most likely budget friendly. It also gives the freedom for guests to enjoy the day with us.
This is where I have been second doubting myself for a long time. Is it so important to have a professional to take the pictures and pay double the price then a friend or friend of a friend might do it?
Why a professional photographer?
Reason is in the end so simple. I love photos. I respect the talent to take good pictures with a personal touch. Like having some more different camera angles and keeping up with the action. Seeing the details in a moment and creating an image showing the atmosphere of the day and location.
Wedding is one day. It is start of a life together with my other half. I want to enjoy the day over and over again, and photos are one of the best ways to do it. Also I enjoy making photo albums and looking good in pictures. I feel, the only safe choice is to choose a professional. I trust my day to be memorized in to pictures by an artist. So, I did some more inquiries to some photographers I found from the internet –the ones I felt reached my standards. And some of my favorites photos have been on this blog along the way. I linked the photos, so if you like, go check out.
Our photographer is Juha Kauppinen. You can check his webpage from this link or by clicking one of the following images.
Why I choose Juha Kauppinen was one part long google searching and other part of lackness of getting an answer from my first favorite. I found him thru a webpage called Valokuvaajat.fi and fell in love with his pictures right away. I went to his webpage and found out, that he lives somewhere in Lapland and I was about to let him go. Since I knew it is a long distance to travel from, so it would mean travel cost are higher. Also he had amazing sport photos and images of artists, so I was thinking this is definitely not a cheap one. Still, I couldn´t help thinking that it doesn´t hurt to ask. So, I asked him and to make it hopefully more interesting of a job description for him, I mentioned, that I am in a wheelchair. He was the only photographer I mentioned that.
Side note: Why have I not advertised to photographers about the fact that I am in a wheelchair? I figured, that it might be considered more difficult and challenging so they might ask more money from the job. I don´t know if it would be thru or not, but I didn´t really feel a great interest on telling that in the price inquiry.
And we all know the end of the story. He made us an offer I couldn´t turn down. I did receive just a few dyes ago finally an answer from my original favorite, Henri Luoma. And for a day I was really in between. At this point I tought I just had a better feeling about this Juha Kauppinen and he did give slightly better offer for our budget.
I would like to tell more about this photographer, but the text is already getting so long. So I shall leave more for later. After all, how many topics can there be about wedding planning anyway? I plan to write every week at least once, so that is a lot of post to come up.
Thanks for all you passionate enough to read all this text! And comments are a nice surprise always!
