S U B T L E V O X Photography by Travis Jon Allison

Questions To Ask Your Wedding Photographer

Because the people that photograph weddings are as different from each other as all of the guests at your wedding, it is important to go into your call or meeting with them with a list of questions. It is in finding out the answers to these questions that you will get a feeling of what your photographer is really like.

I am the sort of person who believes in using all of the resources available to me and in giving credit where credit is due. Roel Dixon-Mahatoo is a local (Stratford, Ontario) photographer whose work I really respect. He has written out a great blog post about questions that you should ask your photographer called The 3 Most Important Things. I quote it verbatim because I believe that he hit the nail on the head:

Someone recently asked me what I believe are the 3 most important things when looking for a wedding photographer. And since they asked, here they are:

#1 – PERSONALITY

Do not underestimate this one.

Many couples I have spoken to have told me this is the number one reason they hired their photographer. Why? You will spend anywhere from 6 to 16 hours with this person – they will see you when you are most vulnerable, be exposed to your family and friends – and they will be an integral part of your wedding day.

Ask yourself:

* Can I actually spend my whole wedding day with this person?

* Are they both friendly and professional at the same time?

* Does the photographer listen to me?

* How does the photographer deal with difficult and stressful wedding day situations?

* Is this someone I could actually call a “friend” one day?

The assumption here is that the photographer(s) you are interviewing are technically and artistically competent.

#2 – DO YOU LIKE LOVE THEIR WORK?

You do not need to like your photographer’s work – you must love it!

You will spend an extraordinary amount of time, energy and money putting together your wedding. Don’t you deserve to have your wedding day captured the way you want?

#3 – PRICE

OK – let’s face it – not everyone has an unlimited budget for their wedding. Determine how much you want to spend on wedding photography (and related items such as prints, albums, etc.) and stick to your budget. If you *love* a photographer because of their work or personality (or hopefully, both) and they are a stretch financially, cut back on something else and hire that photographer. Really. You’ll be grateful you did after your wedding day as wedding photography is one of the few tangible things you will purchase to remember your day. Realistically, one needs to spend about 15% of their entire wedding day budget on photography.

You can check out Roel’s work at http://roelphoto.com/. He is another photographer worth considering. You can also check out Roel’s ‘Looking For A Wedding Photographer’ blog post for some other things to consider: http://roelphoto.com/blog/2007/12/looking-for-a-wedding-photographer.html.

Personally, I think another good question to ask your potential wedding photographer is “Who would you recommend?” Any photographer who is connected to other great picture-takers and who researches what is current in their industry should have a list of at least a half-dozen or so local photographers that he or she would consider using for his or her own wedding.

Best of luck searching for the right photographer. Please email (travis [at] subtlevox.com) or call me if you have any other questions.

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