The Truth About Wedding Photography

(The Issue of a Website)

by Sean David Wright

Shopping for any kind of service online can be a tricky business; not only are there often so many options that it makes your head spin but you also have the question of reliability—how do you know the service provider you are interested in contacting is legitimate?

Here’s a helpful tip about shopping on Craigslist or any other online classifieds site for a wedding photographer: Make sure he or she has a website. In this day and age a photographer without a website is one of the most suspicious things I can think of and yet there are so many photographers putting ads on Craigslist, Backpage or Kijiji who don’t have a website! They want you to e-mail them at a Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail or other such e-mail account, or call them on the telephone to ask for their prices and to discuss their packages. Then they want you to take time out of your day to come meet them so they can show you their portfolio in person.

A website is a crucial business tool in this era—especially for a photographer. You, as the prospective client, should be able to sit in the comfort of your own home, direct your browser to a photographer’s website and view their online portfolio of images, read details about their different packages and, most importantly, see their prices. That type of information is what will help you determine whether or not a particular photographer is the right choice for you--without being forced to take the trouble to call or meet them! And what happens when you call them or meet them? They will be in full salesperson mode whereby they will lay it on thick and pressure you to make a decision right then. With all the stress and aggravation involved in planning a wedding do you really need that?

Quite simply, if you see an online ad placed by a photographer who hasn’t taken the time and expense to create a website you need to wonder about his or her business sense—and how that will be reflected when it comes time to serve you at your wedding.

I’m all for face-to-face meetings; in fact, I encourage my prospective clients to request one with me so I can sit down with them, answer any questions they have and show them my album of samples. But the fact that I can first direct them to my website where they can see galleries of examples not only of my wedding photography but my artistic photography as well means that those prospective clients can arm themselves with information about me and my work BEFORE taking the trouble to meet with me during their busy days. And when they do meet me I don't have to  pressure them or push really hard to sell them on my services because those prospective clients would have already visited my website and learned a lot about my work.