A friend sent this to me and I think it hits the nail on the head.

Being a good photographer is an expensive investment. Sure, you can find cheap wedding photographers out there, but they’re cheap because they’ve possible cut corners on equipment, and insurance. Or they’re just plain stupid (you hired cheap and stupid?) So let’s take a look at what goes into a photographer’s overhead that adds up to the final cost of your wedding photographer.

1. Labor costs. This one is pretty standard across all industries. A photographer’s work doesn’t end when your wedding does. After the 5-10 hours they’ve put in working (on a Saturday, no less) at your nuptials, the photographer spends hours and hours editing your images so you get a wide array of perfect photographs by which to remember your day. Its not uncommon to work a full 3-4 days editing a wedding. Their time is even more valuable when you factor in the limited number of weekends in a year there are for a photographer to work.

2. Staff salaries. If you book a photographer that comes with assistants or second photographers, your cost is going to be higher. In return for getting more images from various places on your day, your photographer is going to have the pay those assistants.

3. Equipment.The pieces of equipment a photographer carries around is not your typical point-and-shoot. High-end lenses and bodies average around £1500 each. Photographers also carry back-up equipment in case their primary equipment fails, which adds to the cost of the wedding photography prices. In case your photographer is living in the Jurassic period and hasn’t switched over to digital (there are a few out there, somewhere), you also have to factor in the cost of film. Good wedding photographers easily can bring over £10,000 worth of equipment to shoot your wedding. Add in the prices of computers and editing programs like photoshop ( you did buy it right?) and costs begin to skyrocket. Luckily, its not always necessary in the UK to own a car so let’s not go there.

4. Insurance. Because cameras and equipment cost so much, photographers are smart to insure them. Just in case your drunk (who your mom insisted on inviting) cousin Jimmy decides he wants to spray champagne all over the wedding photographer’s equipment for a joke.

5. Web site. In this day and age, a photographer has to market himself with a very high-tech, professional Web site, which can cost a lot to design and maintain if the photographer doesn’t have web design skills. Its not unreasonable to spend over £5000 a year on website updates, and online marketing such as the sponsored links on Google.

6. Advertising. In that same vein, photographers also have to spend money on other types of advertising such as ads in the newspaper, business cards and brochures.

7. Photo extras. If you knew how much albums cost you’d have a heart attack. Albums are extraordinarily expensive and are often added into the wedding photography prices. Don’t forget the time it takes to design them as well.

8. Education. The more educated a photographer is, the better techniques and specializations will be used while shooting a wedding. As everything else, that education comes at a cost through instructors, college degrees, extra classes and seminars, etc. Intangibles such as expertise aren’t easy to measure monetarily, although we try!

So while you may be asking, “why does photographer X cost so much more than photographer Y?” the answer might be simple: Photographer X has spent more money developing his or her business into a full-fledged photography service, which ends up costing more money than an inexperienced photographer who moonlights part time on the weekend.

….Or those Porsche’s we drive up to your wedding in just don’t pay for themselves now do they?

Originally written by Wedding photographer Randolph Quan

Today I was backing up my hard drives ( which is a weekly chore) when I came across the originals from this Trash session from late last year seen here. I rarely keep originals as once a selection has been made I can delete the original set (usually 3GB+) to free up space, but in this case I had kept the entire set, blinks and all, so just before I ditched them, I did a fresh cull of the images excluding the original selection for the couple. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had a totally differentset to choose from. Let this be a lesson to any photographers out there, that seeing a set of photographs with fresh eyes can be just the ticket to rejuvenate your portfolio.

On Saturday we were over on Bridlington south beach for a Pre Wedding shoot. Gina and will also brought their 2 boys along which turned out to be a great addition to the entire set of photographs. We ended up spending about 40 minutes on the beach ending up with a little sun burn.

NB, Unlike many Portrait photographers I do tend to make a ‘rod for my own back’ as there isn’t any (professional) photographers that would choose to shoot middle of the afternoon on a bright sunny day on a busy beach, but I like to keep myself sharp, this is the most difficult time of day to take good photographs but if you are a wedding photographer you have to shoot throughout the day in lots of tricky lighting situations and still nail the exposures, that’s why I’m a fan of just picking up the camera and working any time of day. :)

Last night I was out at the local nature spot of ‘Danes dyke’ shooting the pre- Wedding photographs for Anne-Marie and Duncan, who are due to get married in August this year. Fantastic evening, first time this year I have shot at ’golden hour’ to catch those last warm (even though Anne-Marie was cold :) rays of sun.  The couple were very easy going which made for a super relaxed set of really cool photographs, looking forward to their big day.

I have been neglecting my blog duties, but never fear as we are ramping up for our new season there will be lots more on here.

We don’t normally do T-shirts, but when our long time rock buddies ‘Alice in Thunderland’ asked if we could produce something from the photographs and artwork we had done for their album, I jumped at the chance to sink our teeth into a design, I came up with a few different samples before myself and Kala ( the bands vocalist and all round fantastic graphic artist) settled on a huge impact logo design. We enlisted the guys (and gals) at Awesome Merch who turned out some amazing screen printing, in loads of different sizes to suit all.  We got the t-shirts yesterday and enlisted the help of my little girl and wife for some quick product shots….Metallllllllllllll.

See us this Saturday at the Sledmere house wedding open day. We are proud to be showcasing our photography as the only invited photographer at this fantastic stately home.

Below is an excerpt from the Malton and Pickering Mercury about the day:

 SLEDMERE House is one of the most beautiful settings imaginable for your wedding day. With acres of rolling parkland, beautiful, romantic gardens and breathtaking rooms full of history and charm, it is undeniably an ideal venue for your wedding day.You have to see it to believe it and Saturday March 27 is the perfect time to do so, as Sledmere House is hosting a Weddings Open Day. Located at the House, local companies which contribute towards making those special days perfect will be gathered to talk to wedding couples and their families about their big day.They include Florida Marquees, Reflections Beauty Salon, The Convenience Company, Gallerino Studio and Cake Creations. The dining room will be set up as it would be for a wedding breakfast and the library will be set up for a ceremony so visitors can see how Sledmere House could look on the special day.

I’ve been really busy at the minute (sorry blog for not keeping up:) Monday I was shooting a new slot machine for ‘Carnaby Gaming’ advertising for the upcoming show in London. It was all a bit manic but we had help from Polish model Monika, who added a bit of glamour to the shoot. Monika ended up staying for a few hours after the shoot had wrapped, so we shot a few extra frames more.

On Friday it snowed and snowed in Bridlington (and the rest of the UK …I know) Chelsey came over for a portfolio update shoot while the snow was here. We made use of her small collection of Russian hats. The shoot went really well in the short time we had before we froze :) although this worked to my advantage with the steam emanating on some of the shots.

Hi Guys, I’m back again and in full swing after the holidays. We have got loads of new things planned for the coming weeks so be sure to keep up to date with the blog, meanwhile I was out on Saturday shooting Sewerby hall with all the snow and got some shots of all the people using the perfect slopes of the gardens for sledging.

On Sunday morning ( I know…what was I thinking) I was out at the North Yorkshire village of Brompton by Sawdon, just down the road from West Ayton, for the Trash the dress session with Jamie and Debbie. As usual the weather was going to be the deciding factor on this shoot, being the end of November I can only assume it’s not going to be warm, but as long as it didn’t chuck it down with rain, the shoot would go ahead. The couple needed a little persuasion to come out in the bitterly cold morning, once out though Debbie ‘worked it’ with Jamie standing by with a warm coat between shots. The whole shoot went well…until we got to the stream pictures, I managed to drop a ‘pocket wizard’ flash transceiver into the fast moving water :( Luckily my trusty assistant (my wife) jumped in after it, as I didn’t bring my wellies (well that was my excuse:)

I got a nice surprise this morning when copies of Litebook magazine came through the post. Litebook is an industry magazine produced by Bowens international, the company that makes some of the most versatile lighting equipment in the world. Gallerino studio uses 95% Bowens kit for the studio and location work seen in this blog. I’m really happy with the article in the ‘Your space’ section, with no less than 4 pages dedicated to my work :). Copies will be available as an addition to most professional photography magazines, alternatively an online copy can be seen here:

http://www.bowens.co.uk/litebook/