We all have that one friend, you know the friend I'm talking about....the one with that fancy new camera she got for Christmas! The friend that says "Nah don't waste all that money on paying a photographer to take a bunch of pictures at your wedding, I will do it for free!" It's a fabulous idea, let the friend come, take a million pictures, save you all that money and you can put it towards more cake!!!! Then comes the big day, she is floating around taking picture after picture, you are amazed at how many pictures she's getting; it is just wonderful you are going to have so many great memories! Fast forward to a week later and she knocks on the door with 517 discs and a big ole smile on her face...
You sit down at the computer, crack your knuckles, and get ready to shed some tears over the wonderful images you are sure to see. One picture, two picture, three, four, twenty...all out of focus, over exposed, under exposed, why is the grooms head cut off in most of them, why didn't she tell the bride she had a big ole smudge of frosting on her cheek from the cake in all the formal shots, who the heck is the weird old guy in the background photobombing most of the pictures and for the love of everything Holy why in the world are there so many pictures of the friends daughter?!? Sound scary...sound like something that happened to someone you know?
Photographers spend thousands of hours, thousands of dollars, thousands of practice shots on getting our profession down to a science. No photographer knows everything and run away fast from any that say they do. We are ever evolving, ever growing and honing our craft. You get what you pay for and lessons like the one from above is a prime example of why. I don't know everything and I'm far from the best photographer you will ever find. Browse through tons of photographers in your area. Talk to them, match up their tastes in photography with the images you have in your mind, match your photographers personality with your own. Remember folks, any camera can take a picture, it's your photographer that CREATES the image!