Free Wedding Photographer - is anyone getting married?

I run haflaentertainment.com and if shooting nonwedding stuff would be at all useful, you could shoot some shows/publicity photos/etc?

Also, if you have the spare time, how ridiculously fun would it be to stage a fake wedding with all your friends and take photos at it? no one would ever know it wasn't real...

Another idea for getting your services in front of people planning weddings is to get cards printed and send them to church secretaries and dress/tux shops, banquet rental places, etc. with a note that while you're an accomplished photographer you're working on branching out into commercial wedding photography and will work at cost (CD-ROMs, data sticks, prints if they want them) until December 2009. Or some other date. You might also offer your services as a house photographer to wedding chapels in Nashville at cost - gas and materials.

Good for you for giving it a go! Good luck!

Thanks for the tips, they are great ideas.

I wanted to have some wedding photos first, to then approach such people, but thanks for the ideas. Definitely something that I would like to do.

One of my boyfriend's friends is looking for a wedding photographer, I could pass your details on. What kit do you have, if you don't mind me asking? Looking at your portfolio you don't seem to be getting much depth of field (or have many detail shots, which is a bit unusual for a wedding photographer).

I recently shot my first wedding, it was a great experience but one hell of a tricky one (only having one chance at crucial shots was tense, and it's a good eight hours of non-stop go if you count before the ceremony shots and some of the reception). I felt lucky to have an experienced photog guiding me. If you don't have a lot of experience with weddings I really, really recommend that you go in as a second for your first few for your own sanity, and extensively study experienced wedding photographers and their shot lists/flash setups on Flickr (if you aren't already, you probably are). Even experienced photogs find it hard to shoot weddings on their own, and it's probably the most unforgiving environment an amateur can work in. Even if you are doing it for no money, people still have certain 'expectations' about their wedding photographer brought on by seeing too many glossed-up, flash-heavy professional shots.

Anyway, if you are after photography opportunities you should make sure that you are signed up to the various photo societies in Oxford as a lot of portfolio opportunities come through them (including weddings), plus useful lessons and discussions with other photographers. When you do start work on a wedding, feel free to get in touch with me and I'm happy to give you my tips on how to keep things running smoothly based on my own recent experiences!

Hope that helped, and apologies if I am ranting on about things you already know here!

Thanks for the reply. Is your friend in the UK? I see your profile says Australia.

In terms of camera kit, I use Canon. My main camera is an EOS 450D and I have some nice canon lenses that are image stabilised and great in low light (I'm at work at the moment and can't remeber the numbers off hand). I also have an EOS 400D as a back up.

In terms of the images I have on my portfolio, they are pretty old and not a great example of the work I do. For example, the Central Asia gallery was taken on a compact camera, because I was on an overland trip via Turkmenistan, when bringing pro camera kit would have been a problem. (I'd read a lot of travel blogs about compact cameras being slightly problematic, and journalists weren't allowed into the country so I settled on bringing the 'anti cam' as I call it)

I think I went to Asia about 5 years ago and took those photos. Also, I was going for standard stock photography so they are not particularly exciting, I agree.

I really want to update my website and get some fresh images on there.

Also, that's why I want to work for free to build a wedding portfolio, because I know I could take some beautiful photos. I just need the chance.

I've been looking at a lot of wedding portfolios, seeing the shots that work well and the ones that don't. I'm quite candid/documentary in style.

And yes, signing up to some photography communities sounds like a great idea. I just want to take some shots first.

I graduated last year with a first in photography and spent a lot of time focusing on retouching, so I'm pretty good in photoshop. I know what you mean about people expecting glossed-up, magazine style images, but that's ok because I feel I can do it.

Over the three years I was at Uni, I photographed a lot of people and events - particularly people who didn't normally like their photo being taken, but they were all completely happy and quite surprised by the results. So I know I could do a great job.

Is it possible to email your friend at all? When and where are they getting married?

Anyay, thanks for the message.

(Oops, LJ didn't like the tags first time around.)

Howdy again,

Yes, I live in the UK now, I am Aussie born and bred, but I came over to Oxford to live/work a couple of years ago. :) As you can probably tell, my LJ is an old journal I rarely use so it is a bit out of date!

That's great, sounds like you have a lot to offer, although I really think that you should include relevant bits like being an experienced photography student grad who is good with retouching/event work and willing to take wedding pics for free for a limited time in order to build up a particular portfolio (and blah blah blah) in your marketing. I'm sure you will get a good response that way. I also think it's really important that you update your portfolio to include your best pics to give yourself the best chance of impressing potential clients.

Anyhoo, I don't know if my bf's friend has found a photographer yet as he was looking a couple of weeks ago now, here was his notice to the photo society:

-----

Michael Blome is looking for a photographer for his wedding. He has asked anyone interested to forward him photographs you have taken previously.

Contact: Michael.Blome (at) univ.ox.ac.uk

He writes:
I'm looking for someone to take photos at our wedding. It doesn't
have to be a professional--someone talented, enthusiastic and
possibly even experienced would be just fine.

-----

Another request for a wedding photographer has just come through on the OU Photo list as below:

------

We are getting married in Oxford at the end of August and our
photographer has let us down. We would really like a photographer,
but can't afford some of the rates that they charge.

We were wondering if there was anyone in your club who might be
interested in doing the photography. We would be able to pay up to a
certain level, and would want to meet with the person and see some of
their photos to know their style.

If anyone is interested they should feel free to contact me.

Thank you very much
Andrew

Contact:Andrew Gosling: ajg (at) astro.ox.ac.uk

-----

Hope that helps you out!

By the way, if you are ever looking for a second to come along and help out for free, I'm happy to do so if I'm available. I love doing weddings and getting more experience with photography. :) You can see some of my stuff here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36546684@N04/

I have access to a D90 as well, but I use my D40 a lot for personal snaps.

Good luck with it all!

Hi there,

I am so sorry for not replying earlier. I didn't get a reply in my inbox from livejournal so I didn't realise that you replied :(

Since your last comments I have been going through my website, making a big effort to sort out my portfolio. I still have a the 'travel' and 'people' section to put back and maybe some additional bits and pieces.

Photography Portfolio

Thanks for all the useful advice.

By the way, what is the forum that you found the above posts? I will definitely reply. I hope I am not too late.

Thanks again, I will go and have a look at your photography...

I'd happily ask you, but we're not getting married for 2 years (just got engaged, so still excited). There's a chance it'll move to 1 year - june 2010 - but that'll still probably be too late to be any good to you. Good luck, though.

Aww congrats on getting engaged :)

I posted in a few other forums, and now I have a summer of Weddings lined up, to photograph, so I'm really excited. (My first is this Saturday)

I'm also taking bookings for next year (as I hope to be doing photography full time by then) so if you do find yourself looking for a wedding photographer in the future, feel free to talk to me. If it's local, I could do it for a really good price (although it wont be free). Over the next few months, I'm putting together an online portfolio, so perhaps I can drop you a link, when I have some work up.

Anyway, enjoy being engaged :)