Now I Understand

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K

Kirby Ball

Guest
Why so many of you are not too fond of photographers.

This last Saturday we provided music for a reception and had to work around another photography service. And I do mean work around....

The wedding itself was held on the 20th floor of the hotel and the reception was in the main ballroom on the first floor.

Guests started trickling in the door for the reception about 5:00 pm which was about 30 minutes before we were told that they would be arriving. Of course we are ready and fire up the background music for the cocktail hour.

Bride, Groom and the wedding party show up about 6:30 so Coreen goes out in the lobby to get everyone lined up. She lets the photographers know what's going on and their response is...."we don't ever photograph the entrance"...Ok, so we move on and get everyone introduced and things are moving along as planned.

The photographers are in and out of the room but not taking any pics..Hmmmmmmmm. Dinner is announced about 7:00 and they park their butts down at the table for a plated dinner.

After dinner is over, we find out that they told the bride that their time was up and that if she wanted the rest of the photographs taken that they would have to be paid for another hour. She's not too happy and gets her Dad who forks over the cash for the extra hour.

Come to find out that the photographers knew that they didn't have all the poses done as one of the Grandma's was afraid of heights and wouldn't go up to the 20th floor.

We offered to call the needed people out to the very nice lobby where they could have taken the necessary photos as there are nice leather couches, marble columns, huge plants and it would have made for some nice pics.

The photographers decide that they are going to shoot the remaining shots on the dance floor. The backdrop was the bridal party tables with empty glasses, plates, etc. still sitting there. Real nice...:sqconfused: Big exit sign over their heads.......:sqlaugh:

We were told by the photographers that they would only be 10 minutes..Hah! Talk about 40 minutes and some change before they finished up and we were able to get things started again.:sqmad:

I had to laugh as they'd get a group together and shoot 1 image! You know as well as I do that when you have a group of people getting their pics taken, someone is going to have their eyes closed, looking off the wrong way, etc. You have to take multiple shots to increase your chance of getting that one image where everyone is the way you want them to look in the pic.

After they left we made sure that we took tons of photos for the B&G and will give them to them as a good-will gesture.
 
Don't you just hate it when they want to use the dance floor?

Two weeks ago I had the Electric Boogie going to a full floor and the photographer wants me to cut the song so that he can take photographs on the dance floor. I said no and told him the guests obviously want to dance. He ran to the groom and the groom came up to me. I suggested the lobby and he thought that was a good idea. That's where it happened.

I have two stacks of cards for each vendor type; one I recommend and one that I have reservations about; I got his card and it went on the second stack.
 
I think it goes for all vendors. Some are extremely good at what they do. Some simply are not very good.
 
I worked with one on Saturday that I would prefer not to work with again. He was young and arrogant and stayed the entire night. And, he had to have ambient lighting, so instead of having a nice dark dance floor we had one that was illimunated by the large chandelier above it. He left the room for some shots for about 15 minutes, so I dropped the room lights, but when he came back he insisted the lights be brought back up. I jokingly told him he was killing my dance atmosphere, but he said 'the photos are what is important'......Ugh! Oh well, just another reason I choose to cater to the teen clients.
 
I guess you get what you paid for................................................ NOT!
 
Yeah... there are some real pieces of work out there selling wedding photography services.

The one SNAFU I'll probably always remember was the photog who asked me to tell the guests to be seated after the recessional so he could get his pictures.

I told him no way. I ain't gonna key the mic and tell people to sit down after the B&G walk down the aisle.

Well, he took it upon himself and did just that. No sooner than the recessional was done he trotted up the aisle and started telling people to be seated. :eek:

The minister was standing a few feet away from me... he looked at me with a shocked expression and shook his head. When he gave the mic back, he said something about cheap photographers. :D
 
they certainly do have blinders on

I have done Dj for over 30 years
done photography for 12
and done Videography for 11 years
also driven limos for 5x

but after all said and done I always go
back to Djing as its better fun and I enjoy it more...
 
Aren't We?????

The MCs of the reception?? Master of Ceremonies. We do not just intros the wedding part, the first dance, etc. But we control the room. except for the venue we are 2nd in command. We are the bosses of the photographer, videogrpher, etc..

If they want to take the Bride and Groom out for pics, do not assume it's ok! Ask us and we will let you know if it's ok! And we will let you know how long for...

Yes, No????
 
It may just be our market... but DJ companies don't often call the shots at a wedding reception. We're a vendor like everyone else. We have a job to do, same as the rest. Around here, if ya start telling other vendors how to run their businesses you'll be blackballed PDQ.

Under normal circumstances (if I can remember such a time) pro photographers have the B&G and wedding party first. They've got to get their work done before anything else happens to distract from it. Dinner, cocktails... everything else waits. Most photogs will hang around long enough to get shots and video of the first dances but after that, they'll leave. Their job is done. Then it's up to us.

Just our experience. :)
 
I see ourselves as more of a "facilitator" than a boss. We're there to do the best job we can for our clients and still play nice with the other vendors.

In my humble opinion these photographers dropped the ball by not being on top of the missed poses and not having a workable plan to get those shots taken care of their client. Poor planning on their part and their half-a$$3d solution was not the optimal choice.

We did what we were supposed to and thank goodness that we had a hard partying crowd that bounced back after the over long delay.
 
AlbanyAMS said:
We are the bosses of the photographer, videogrpher, etc..
Click to expand...

I would say no. As an MC I see us as a facilitator. Last night the photographer was looking to me with the "what's next" and "do I have time for" questions but I never considered myself his boss. I consider it more of a team effort.

One of the questions that popped up last night was "do I have enough time to grab a bite?" I know that photographers put in many more hours than we do with most weddings (true Kirby?) and don't get much time to grab a bite to eat. Even if there was not enough time my answer still would have been "yes, we have enough time" and I would have given him at least 15 minutes.
 
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