Photography Info & Reviews.

Comment from SE
Time December 24, 2008 at 1:50 am

Good Grief - starting at $2000??! That’s a little much! Where I live, the packages start at arounc $1000 - $1200.

Do you have any friends or a family member who takes good photos? If so, you could hire that person to take your pictures. Also, if you have a university or college nearby, you could contact their art/photography department and see if they have a photographer-in-training who could do it. That will be far less expensive than a professional with a studio - and probably just as good.

Comment from d
Time December 26, 2008 at 12:41 pm

i am not sure of where you live but try looking on craig’s list for a photographer in your area. often these photographers are just getting started and offer cheaper packages than everyone else.
also, look for a package that does not give you an album or anything. look for a photographer that will just give you all of your prints on a high resolution cd. this way you can pick out which ones you like and put them in an album yourself or design a coffeetable book on snapfish or something at a very low cost.

Comment from Jenny J
Time December 28, 2008 at 9:37 pm

Email Me, If you live in my area. I am a photographer and may be able to help you out. Jenny

Comment from Jeff M
Time December 31, 2008 at 11:39 am

Congratulations on the wedding! One thing you can do is check the old fashioned yellow pages and see if there are any part time photographers. These are the folks that are great photographers but have jobs too. They will most likely be cheaper and probably process their photos the same way as the expensive folks but just don’t have the overhead. Check their portfolio. They don’t have to be expensive to be good.

Comment from rae
Time January 1, 2009 at 8:09 am

Is there a college nearby. Call the photography class instructor and ask them if they have students that would be willing to do it for a small fee. Maybe they can put it on a disc for you and you can print the pic yourself. Check out craigslist.com. They have a lot of people trying to sell there service there.

Comment from nytengayle13
Time January 4, 2009 at 7:49 pm

i haven’t talked to her yet, but i found one that does it for $25.00 an hour and she gives us the CD with all of the photos on it so we get to print what we want and that’s it! no expensive packages, we don’t have to go through her to order the prints which costs a lot of money. you can ask friends and relatives to take the pics, put disposable cameras on the tables for guests to take pics at the reception. good luck on your hunt!

Comment from Future Mrs A
Time January 7, 2009 at 8:57 pm

I went on theknot.com and found a great photographer. It’s a nationwide company, so there’s bound to be someone near you. Go to acandidimage.com. I picked a fantastic package with them that was only $1600 and it has great benefits to it.

Comment from pspoptart
Time January 10, 2009 at 5:13 pm

First thing…..DO NOT HIRE A PHOTOGRAPHER UNLESS ALL OF YOUR NEGATIVES AND/OR HIGH RESOLUTION PRINTS ARE INCLUDED! This is not negotiable. If you need to know why email me and I’ll give you a more detailed explanation but the end result is you will be out a ton of money. Think of it this way….would you pay for a custom gown then return it to the shop after you were through?

Now, on how to save.

1. Start by cutting out time. I mean, do you really need professional pictures of you putting on your makeup beforehand? I think any of your friends/family could do that just as well. Do you need all 5 hours of the reception photographed? Other than the big moments all the pics of sue dancing with joe, then joe with mary, now mary with sue….etc start to look the same. Schedule your majors like the first dance at the beginning of the reception then let the photographer go home. In some cases people actually get more comfortable without worrying that embarassing dance moves will be forever captured on film….

2. Look for talented amatures. Post an ad on craigslist, check out graduate students at the local art college. Check them out the same way you would a pro. Get a contract, ask to see their portfolios, etc. Once you find them you can do like we did if you are still worried. Part of our deal with our student was he would take our engagement pics of us and the party. If we liked the work he was hired and we loved it!

3. Ask for a discount or to tailor the package. The worst they can say is no. Seems simple but cutting out things like digital effects on your pics saves. You can also try to play them against each other like a car dealership. Stroke their egos. Well “so and so was offering the same package for 1500 but we really enjoy your work, can you match that?” then call up So and So and do the same.

Comment from melouofs
Time January 11, 2009 at 9:25 pm

How about contacting a local college with a photography program?

Comment from Mel Mel
Time January 15, 2009 at 8:55 am

try asking a relative to take the pictures with a digital camara. thats what i did with my wedding and the pictures turned out wonderful! i was so happy with them. You could suggest that to a relative as a wedding presant. it is inexpensive and it is more personal. jsut use a digital camara and you could put on a cd. then go to walgreens.com and print thm off after the wedding. it is alot easier.
oh and walgreens cost about 15 cents per pic.

Comment from Amanda Y
Time January 16, 2009 at 12:50 am

Shop around some more. The guy that took ours had another business. And his photography studio was in the same building. Therefore, we didn’t have to pay nearly as much as those where they only did photography and we were essentially helping to pay the bills for their building. We ended up paying around $80 for everything. If we wanted extra pictures, then we had more cost.

Comment from Shannon
Time January 17, 2009 at 7:48 pm

Definitly go to CRAIGSLIST.com…

I found many aspiring photographers for under 700.00— Some are trying to build their portfolios or start their own businesses— And there pictures look great too!

I’m getting married 7-5-08 and I hired a photog that is going to shoot all the pics–then simply burn them on a CD for me—-and then I’m going to print them myself using shutterfly.com–for like 19 cents a picture!!! You can even make those fancy photobooks with your pics for like 28.00 each!!!

Good luck to you!

Comment from typicalcagirl
Time January 18, 2009 at 1:28 pm

Starting at $2000 without prints is horrible.

I have two photographer’s, and 2 video-graphers for $3000 all day. It also comes with 200 print outs 5×7 our book and two parents books, and we get all our photos on a disk.

We are also getting a 20min short version of our wedding day on a disk and all our footage on another disk. We have all rights to our photos so we can copy and print them out as we like!

If you are in So- Cal there name is Celebration Photography. This is one of there many great deals.

Comment from SeptBride23
Time January 21, 2009 at 12:16 am

Lil ol Me is a fabulous wedding planner on these boards. She has connections with a lot of photographers. Here is some info on her.