5 Things to Consider When Choosing a Wedding Photographer

One of the biggest mistake that Ugandans make while planning for their weddings is putting less thought on photography and videography. But how do you forget to plan for your most precious memories, a wedding is a one time event of your lifetime, every activity during this day is very important, its key that someone covers for you those moments so you can watch through them in the next days, weeks, months and years to come.

While you choose who is going to cover your wedding, there are a number of of key things you need to note before hiring. Note: not everyone who holds a camera is a photographer, in our field we call some of them “CAMERA MEN”. When you go to meet that person you are hiring, have these 10 point in mind you will thank me later.

1. Office/work station.

In most cases photographers choose to set up their work stations at home that includes me, so if a photographer has no “muzigo” on the street, he/she has to prove that he/she has a work station, this is good for you to follow up in case of anything. I have met people who have told me a photographer disappeared with their work, I can’t imagine how painful that is but perhaps its your fault that you gave your money to someone you totally didn’t know.

2. Equipment

For you to hire a photographer, make sure you confirm if he has at least one camera of his own, in most cases photographers hire second and third cameras to cover weddings, but if a photographer doesn’t own even a single camera, its dangerous for you because if he ever fails to get a machine for hiring then you are doomed, because it means not even one camera will come to your wedding. Its good for a photographer to have a personal computer, it means your work is going be safe, mostly photographers lose clients’ work because they save work in other people’s computers.

3. Experience

Its good to know how long someone has been a photographer, this is like recruiting so somehow in your conversation, make it a little bit of an interview, its not necessarily one because your speaking to an expert who has to advise you too that is why it doesn’t have to be question and answer. A new person in the field is always bound to make lots of mistakes, you would not like to have this during your important day. Let a photographer show you some of the work he/she has been doing before choosing to hire him/her.

4. Track Record

Its good to do a track record before hiring someone, is he the type that doesn’t deliver work on time, he is the type that is not reliable, speak to a few people who might be knowing him, and also have a deeper conversation with him just to build a bit of working relationship, it may be a short time scale but it helps you to know the kind of person you are dealing with. Usually I prefer to sit with my clients on a cup of coffee on our first meeting, we chat normally about the event, I advise her where necessary, at the end of the meeting you somehow know who you are dealing with.

5. Price

Please go for a photographer you can afford, I have learned that most photographers set their prices according to how they work, what they put in and the kind of gadgets they use, you will not expect someone who has a 24 millions camera to come cover your wedding at 1.5million. When you see a photographer’s price tag, it should convince you enough to know if you can afford him or not. The mistake comes when you try so hard to convince him to reduce, he needs money, he might agree to work for you but you are likely to get sub standard work because the money paid is not enough to facilitate production.

Bonus | Attitude While I was discussing with a client, who actually was not very happy with me because I had delayed to deliver his work due to certain unavoidable reason, which I hardly do, he told me the one big reason he would hire me or recommend me for another job was my good attitude, and I learned that anyone else who is looking for a photographer, please consider his attitude, is he friendly, is he proud or he is humble, does he listen, otherwise you might end up with someone who will embarrass you before your guests.