More Photographers...o.m.g.

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C

Cesar

New DJ
Jun 23, 2008
1,500
2
Southern California
What's the most number of Photographers you have seen at a Wedding Reception?

Down here i rarely see a photographer by him self so they are allways in groups of 2 or three.Arrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggg!

So tonight at the Bridal Show I am doing I notice something I haven't come across before so i thought I would share it with my fellow DJs in case any want to branch out and market something different.

A company is selling what they call a "Real Time Slide Show" there were 3 photographers. What they offer is 3 hours of service at the event, 10 digital cameras on the tables, Video Projector and Screen. What they do is upload real time pictures taken during the event to the Video projector and project it during the event.

Arrrrrrrrggggggggggggggggg now I may show up and have to deal with 5 or more photographers.
 
Cesar said:
Arrrrrrrrggggggggggggggggg now I may show up and have to deal with 5 or more photographers.
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Why is that a problem may I ask? Maybe the Photographers were think there was one too many DJs in attendance. They would much rather deal with an iPod!:)
 
I would love to answer your question with the numbering over a 100 examples I have endured during my performance as a DJ/MC at Wedding Receptions over the years but that would just tire me out reliving and retyping those stories for you. Stay tuned because I am sure in the next two weeks i will have something to share with you to answer your question.
 
Cesar, instead of complaining about this, market it.

I had an idea that I never got to implement so you can.

Virtual DJ offers a slide show as part of its capability. While songs are playing it flashes pictures from a folder you point to.

What I though about doing was getting some cheap digital cameras. I know that some of them would get "misplaced" on the tables, so a deposit would be required to replace any missing. The cameras would be placed on the guest tables and there would be several spares to replace them as they got "full".

I'd hire a helper to go around and pul cameras throughout the night and replace them with fresh ones. A second helper would download the contents of each pulled camera onto a laptop and pull selected pictures off onto a flash drive. Periodically the flash drive would be brought to the DJ to be uploaded into the VDJ folder. Voila, an instant and updating montage.

The folder on the DJ computer could then be dumped to a flash drive at the end of the night and given to the couple.

I am confident that you don't need VDJ for this. It could be done with a dedicated laptop.
 
No offense but you're late to the parade.

http://www.rickryan.com/quickpix.aspx

I had a lengthy discussion about this yesterday with a DJ who was about to spend a bunch of $$$ to gear up for doing live video feeds to a projection screen. My opinion, still shots do better than live video at an event. Live video is exciting, maybe 10 minutes. People come in front of the camera once, wave at the camera, watch themselves waving at the camera on-screen, then forget it. With stills, you catch them in moments of fun then re-play it, in front of their friend, numerous times. When their picture pops back up on-screen an hour later, they still laugh and point to the screen and tell everyone within earshot "Hey, that's me!" Believe me, I've done it both ways. Stills are magnitudes more effective than video.
 
rickryan.com said:
No offense but you're late to the parade.

http://www.rickryan.com/quickpix.aspx
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Late? Never got in it. :D

You are using people to take the photographs. My concept used the guests with a little trust that they did not keep the camera. I'm sure that there is an inexpensive digital camera on the market that could make this work. I'll leave it up to you.
 
SemiRetired DJ said:
Late? Never got in it. :D

You are using people to take the photographs. My concept used the guests with a little trust that they did not keep the camera. I'm sure that there is an inexpensive digital camera on the market that could make this work. I'll leave it up to you.
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Correction: I take my own shots and I give my camera to no one. As a side benefit it gives me an average of 100-125 shots from every event that I can use for promo, all without having the clients fuss that "the DJ spent all his time taking pictures". They dig it.
 
You could still build the promo from the shots taken by guests and have much more to choose from.

Rick, nothing wrong with your concept. I'm just thinking that you could take it to the next level by incorporating inexpensive digital cameras on the tables with two assistants. This would be an add-on service priced accordingly.
 
SemiRetired DJ said:
You could still build the promo from the shots taken by guests and have much more to choose from.

Rick, nothing wrong with your concept. I'm just thinking that you could take it to the next level by incorporating inexpensive digital cameras on the tables with two assistants. This would be an add-on service priced accordingly.
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Cheap dig cameras produce crap shots in low light and there's no way around that fact. I use a Canon DSLR with a f2.8 Tamron lense. I've already been the route of the cheap dig. It doesn't work.
 
First Rickyran congratulations on the threads you have started, It's nice to see a DJ that likes to share his experiences and stories.

I checked your threads back to Dec 2010 and couldn't find a thread on this subject. Will I find the thread posted in the 2009 threads?
 
In my experience, I don't find myself having to "deal" with photographers. I work with them. They have an important job, as do I. I find that in the vast majority of cases, when I go in with an attitude of cooperation, that most other vendors will work well with me. They discuss what they would like to have happen and I discuss what works for me. If they conflict, we work to a reasonable conclusion that works for everyone while giving the bride and groom what they want. In the extremely rare case that we can't work together professionally, then we don't work together. I do my job and don't worry about that they are doing, unless they are doing something extreme.
So, it makes no difference to me if there is one photographer there...or ten.

There was only one time that I had to have a best man intervene. The photographer, after asking me and I told him no, kept telling a packed dance floor to leave the dance floor so he could set up some group pictures. I told him to pick somewhere else, but he felt the pictures to be in the middle of the dance floor with no one else around. But that was an extremely rare incident.
 
So I have to ask at what point would you change your attitude to having to deal with Photographers instead of working with them.

So if you were doing 15 events a year and that same scenario where you had the Best Man step in happened 5 times out of the 15 would you change to having to deal with the Photographer, Or would that incident have to take place 10 times for you to change your attitude or would it have to be 15 times out of the 15 times to get you to change or would you continue to maintain your happy go lucky attitude no matter what?

So far I have dealt with 17 photographers in the first two months of this year and the stories are already building up of what they did to annoy me.
 
Cesar,
The sooner you realize that it is one person who is paying you, namely the Client and that it is one person who you have to first please namely the Client then it does not matter who else is in the Game as long as you do your job. This"I am a Team player" is a bunch of BS. You can get along with the other vendors, help someone do something but should in no way compromise what YOU have to do to perform the task for which you are paid. All this can be done without being antagonistic to others.
 
ahoustondj said:
Cesar,
The sooner you realize that it is one person who is paying you, namely the Client and that it is one person who you have to first please namely the Client then it does not matter who else is in the Game as long as you do your job. This"I am a Team player" is a bunch of BS. You can get along with the other vendors, help someone do something but should in no way compromise what YOU have to do to perform the task for which you are paid. All this can be done without being antagonistic to others.
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Agreed. Like most of the rest here, I try hard to be a team player and feel I go to pretty extraordinary lengths to stay on the same page with the rest of my co-vendors. I've had a few photogs clear the floor but only after the CLIENT came up to me to make the request. If approached directly by the photog I'd have to take Scott's lead and tell them I'll have to have the client's direction to do so. I did have a rude photog who plugged into my multi-strip without asking one time. I let him get away with it but next time you can bet I'll just unplug him and hide my outlets.
 
hey, that's five more people to make your dance floor look full.

look at it this way
can you imagine what a company has to charge the bride to pay 5 photogs?
and then FEED them, too?
and can you imagine how intimidated the guests will be, knowing that there are so many
photographers there? the first person on the dance floor must get attacked like the papparazzi on a celebrity
 
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