Things to ask before hiring a Wedding Photographer!

Hiring a photographer is going to translate into so much more than someone showing up for your wedding day and taking photos. Here are some little know, yet IMPORTANT questions to ask your photographer before hiring them!

Here is what WE do when backing up our photos:

-We shoot on cameras that exclusively have two dual card slots (and with two photographers, every moment is sure to be covered by both of us!)

-We have 2 backup hard drives…..FOR our hard drive that we upload the wedding to. One is our designated offsite hard drive in case of a house fire, and the other is a backup hard drive that is readily available incase of our initial hard drive failing.

-We backup the Adobe Lightroom Catalog we edit all our photos in. This allows us to save our edits.

how do you like to Schedule a WEdding day?

Having the answer to this is incredibly key in understanding what to expect from your wedding photographer. Now, make no mistake, your photographer should NOT be your wedding planner…but seeing a general timeline for photography can give you a great idea if your photographer will be including all the important moments you want to include in your finished set of images.

What are your start and end times?

How long do you need for each set of pictures? (I.e. getting ready, family etc)

What images come standard throughout the day? What is the best way to make special requests?

What affect will weather have on our images and how they are edited?

A common thing many couples don’t think about is just how much of an impact weather makes on the finished product. While weather is something you have NO control over, you can absolutely prepare yourself by knowing what to expect with your finished gallery if the weather doesn’t go the way you are hoping.

This can be done by asking your wedding photographer if they are experienced shooting in all sorts of weather, what sort of gear protection they have and also if you can see examples of their work in poor weather.

Being from Oregon, we seem to have a lot more Rainy day/Stormy Weddings than sunny! (We joke that people will label us the “rainy day photographers” ☺️

What is the posing process like? What can we expect when it’s just the two of us in front of the camera?

If you decide to opt out of an engagement session, this is going to be a KEY question to ask in understanding and visualizing what the experience is going to be like for you on the day of your wedding. Chances are pretty good that your significant other isn’t a photo taker or may not be comfortable with having their photo taken, so knowing how your photographer plans to alleviate that is one of the most important questions you can ask.

What you will need to look for when getting the response to that question is exactly HOW they will make you feel comfortable, and not a vague reassurance “don’t worry you will feel SO comfortable, I make everyone feel relaxed”. HOW do they make you feel relaxed? What tactics do they use and is that something that resonates with the vibes you want between you two?

I can’t tell you how many people tell us how their friend’s photographer simply hid in the bushes while they kissed or had the phrase “go over there and look like you are in love!” thrown at them. A photographer’s primary job is to make you look and feel natural AF and if they can’t explain how they intend on making that happen, that is a big red flag.

We take your time seriously, that is why we wanted to provide you with all the upfront information you need about US.