Meg and Eric were married at St. Elizabeth’s Catholic Church near my home territory of Waldo. Within five minutes of shooting Meg and her bridesmaids getting ready in the basement of the church I knew her wedding was going to be terrific. Meg kept a gracious ease and confidence in her manner that was infectious for everyone.

I have never met a groom who smiles as much as Eric did, it’s little wonder these two found one another.

Weddings are wonderful events, but they also all have their stress points and glitches, but I never saw a crack in their relaxed optimism.

Tags: Add new tag, Crosstown Station, Kansas City wedding photography, KC photographer, Waldo

Larry and Karen asked me to shoot an engagement session and to construct a customized guestbook they can take with them to their wedding in Indonesia in July.

These two were a lot of fun. Larry wanted to involve local landmarks in their shoot so we looked for locations that held some local history.

We happened on a park bench in Loose Park. Larry promptly buttoned his collar and sat “Forrest Gump” style on the park bench next to Karen. Karen promptly lost it and giggled uncontrollably as Larry continued to give his best Forrest Gump.

It’s so awesome to capture a couple’s personalities in their photos rather than just produce the same old formulas!

Tags: Add new tag, Kansas City wedding photography, Loose Park, Portrait photographer

Article by Chris Cummins, chief photographer/owner Glow Imagery.

The wedding is set, you found a talented photographer whose work you love. It’s a big day for you and you want awesome pictures but aside from looking gorgeous what is your part in creating great pictures?

After all, it’s not every weekend you plod around in a wedding dress and tux every weekend with a photographer in tow. How do you help your photographer achieve their best? Here are 10 do’s and don’ts when working with your wedding photographer

1. Do have fun
   Great wedding pictures reveal something special about the people in the photos. As a couple, the feelings you have for one another are unique and should shine through in your shots. When people have fun and are spontaneous great pictures easily happen.
2. Do feed your photographer
   Photographers are normal people too… they get hungry. Allow ten or 15 minutes for the photographer to eat at your reception. It is an extra expense to feed another guest but that’s preferable to calling an ambulance because your photographer passed out!
3. Do share your ideas
   Express your wants and needs with your photographer and bounce ideas with them. You are a participant in the creative process of photography so your ideas should be welcomed. How do you share your ideas without micromanaging? Share a few ideas but keep it relatively open ended for his or her talent to shine through. Collaboration is important, so don’t be afraid to share your ideas about locations, backgrounds and some poses you’d like to try.
4. Do consult about your schedule
   A good photographer can get the shots you want without endless hours of posed groups. Work with your photographer before the wedding to set aside the necessary time to do your groups. Be sure to include travel time and a little extra time for inevitable surprises and delays. Most photographers should have a shot list of the most popular groupings you can review prior to the wedding to see what you would like to do.
5. Do communicate
   Were you planning a sendoff after your ceremony? Uncle Mike who just received a liver transplant made it to your wedding! Don’t you think he and his wife deserve a picture with the couple? Tell your photographer! Your shooter will have a lot going on while working your wedding. They are trying to accomplish their work on schedule, do it well and make something creative you’ll adore for years. Make plain for them your expectations, needs and desires prior to your wedding, during and after as well. This helps them anticipate shots, meet and surpass your expectations.
6. Don’t be late
   A wedding photographer is responsible for getting the photography you want within the the time you set aside to do the pictures. If you are late, all bets are off. In the event your are late, a good photographer will try to help but it isn’t their responsibility to be your wedding coordinator and keep your entire wedding experience on schedule. If you run into a hitch and you know you are going to be late, immediately talk with your photographer about how to adjust your photography schedule to recover some of the time. It may mean you have to curtail some of the posed groups, do away with a third location or do some of the formal groupings at the reception. Communicate, be on your toes and be flexible.
7. Don’t micro-manage
   While it’s tempting to share your enthusiasm for wonderful pictures in the form of extensive shot requests and examples you have seen in magazines and on the internet, curtail your ideas to the few you love the most and share those with your photographer. Great photographers will not be able to capture every image you can think of, but they can deliver images you never dreamed of.
8. Don’t chase fads
   Photography, like most things, is vulnerable to trends and styles. What may be today’s cool thing often becomes tomorrow’s parachute pants. Photoshop tricks, trendy poses and dress trashing sessions date quickly but great pictures are timeless. Great pictures reveal how people feel about one another, expressions and what it was like to be there at a past time and place. They are done with with superb craftsmanship, good lighting and composition. These kind of pictures never go out of style.
9. Don’t procrastinate
   Be timely with everything. Try to get your picture selections in for the album sooner rather than later. This allows your photographer the maximum time to do their best. Let the photographer know if there will be any problems with payment, a change in schedule or any other obstacle. They are there to help. If you foresee a challenge that could impact your photographer before during or after the wedding, be proactive and let them know sooner rather than later.
   

10. Don’t stress
    Weddings are complicated projects with many moving parts that can go wrong. Take a deep breath, take many deep breaths. Focus on the positive and delegate the little details. It’s entirely possible to have a blast at your wedding and make great pictures. It is not possible if you are in a near panic most of the day. Tense photos just aren’t as good. Tense memories are worse.

Follow these tips and you’ll be on your way to an enjoyable wedding day and years of enjoyable pictures.

Tags: Add new tag, Kansas City wedding photography, wedding help, wedding planning, wedding tips

Article by Chris Cummins, chief photographer/owner Glow Imagery.

The ceremony and reception venues are booked. You have an idea of the style of dress you want, colors and who will be your maid of honor and best man. The excitement is building! Next up is photography. You know you’re going to want wonderful pictures of your big day. But a cursory glance at wedding photographers and their prices can be an exercise in sticker shock. Photography without a doubt is expensive. But why? They’re just pictures for pete’s sake!

Here are eight reasons good wedding photographers are so expensive:

1. They are qualified

   When considering photographers and their fees it helps to remember you are not paying for merely a photographer’s time on your wedding day. You are paying for the ten, 15, or 20 years of experience which is required to create wonderful images in the handful of hours they will shoot pictures during your wedding day.

   Like most professions, becoming a consistent quality professional photographer requires years of hard work. Many photographers attended college in photography, cut their teeth working for years as assistants or as newspaper staff photographers. They also spent countless nights surfing online forums talking about the latest and newest ways to improve their work. They are always networking, attending seminars and reading countless books just to keep up to date.

   By paying more than you might have expected for a qualified, experienced photographer you are granting yourselves the extra reassurance you will enjoy your wedding memories for years to come.

2. Important one-time events require serious responsibility

   This is a once-in-a-lifetime event that is a culmination of months or years of work. There is no chance for a reshoot, not with so many important people in your lives coming from so many far away places to be with you and your future spouse for this one day.

   What happens if your photographer drops their camera? What happens if one of their camera disks is corrupted? What happens if your photographer breaks their ankle two days before your wedding?

   With each wedding, a truly professional wedding photographer has to be prepared for the risks of covering a one-chance event. That means keeping multiple disks on hand, image recovery software, multiple good quality cameras and a list of contacts that can fill in for them in the event they can’t shoot. The contingencies are numerous. Such preparedness can be costly and time consuming to maintain, hence the higher fees for clients.




3. Seasonal nature of work

   Photographers can only reasonably expect to have one wedding per week. These almost always take place on a Saturday. For many markets, including the market my business serves here in Kansas City, the winter months are not a popular time to hold a wedding. Weather can be very unpleasant and downright hazardous. Hence photographers outside of the Sun Belt can expect to be busy only six to eight months of the year.

   A photographer is having a very solid year if they have 20 to 25 weddings. In order to provide you and future clients an excellent service, photographers have to protect their business’ margins for the entire year with those 20 to 25 weddings.

4. A single wedding represents a major time commitment

   Your wedding is more than a commitment by your photographer for working the day of the wedding. They will pour many hours into the planning, editing, processing, presentation and shipping of the pictures, not to mention albums and other photography products included in their quoted packages. Your wedding will easily require 80 hours of your photographer’s time if not more.

5. Tools are expensive

   A qualified photographer will be carrying $10,000 or more in equipment on their person during your wedding. The digital camera gear will usually have to be replaced every few years. That’s expensive, considering professional caliber camera bodies cost more than $2,500 to replace. The photographer must also upgrade computers and software just as frequently. Add to that burden the normal wear and tear on all equipment and the costs become eye popping.

6. Commitment to you

   As a wedding photographer I can tell you it is much more pleasant to explain prices to clients once rather than apologize for the quality of their pictures forever. Ten years from now when viewing your wedding album, you will not be concerned with how much the photographer cost but you will be concerned with the quality of their work.

   Good is almost never cheap and cheap is seldom good. A good photographer understands this and builds their business with a priority placed on a commitment to your pictures and experience first and foremost.

7. Growing the business is costly

   A wedding photographer does not receive much repeat business from our clients. If we did that would mean a lot of failed marriages! Referrals to family and friends are not uncommon but there are only so many friends and family about to be married.

   Word-of-mouth business from happy clients is important, but it rarely is sufficient to fill a photographer’s calendar. Photographers, more so than other businesses, have to invest more into marketing plans that introduce their businesses to new potential clients. Many of these advertising efforts are expensive. A page one placement on The Knot’s photographers website listing costs more than $5,000 annually. That’s not cheap.

8. Integrity

   Imagine trying to decide between two photographers for your wedding, one photographer plays by the rules and doesn’t cut corners to save a few extra bucks but they have a higher price. Another photographer has a lower price but cheats the rules and cuts corners so they can low ball the competition. Which one is more likely to have your back when you need it?
   

   For some photographers integrity is sacred. They understand the long-term success of their business is impossible without it. Integrity requires them to deliver on their promises on time and exceed expectations. Their internal business affairs are conducted with integrity also. They pay their fair share of income taxes like you do and carry adequate liability insurance. Integrity requires them to collect sales taxes and pay them to state governments in their entirety on time. Such ethical practices are not always easy to maintain and often require us to pass on some of those costs to clients.
   

   Unfortunately for some integrity is seen as an inconvenience or an impediment. While these issues may not seem relevant to your decision in photographers, a person or a business which honors all of their obligations is much more likely to honor their obligations to you.
   

   Of course, a more expensive photographer doesn’t guarantee such integrity but doing right by others is the only way for some and it usually costs more.

Wedding photography is expensive. No one can disagree. There are many reasons a photographer has to charge such rates to ensure their survival over the long haul. As you ponder your options and choices don’t lose sight of how important your memories from this day will be to you. They shouldn’t be trusted with just anyone. The photographers may cost more than you originally expected but ask yourself a question: Is it better to pay more than you expected or less than you should?

About the author: Chris Cummins is a Kansas City wedding photographer, the owner and chief photographer of Glow Imagery. You can follow Chris on Twitter and visit Glow Imagery on Facebook.

Tags: Kansas City wedding photography, Portrait photographer, wedding help, wedding planning, wedding tips

This is a repost of images I made from Meghan and Chris’ wedding June 7, 2008 at The Clubhouse on Baltimore. (Click on the image below to see the full gallery in action.)

The wedding took place at the venue’s Walnut Room. There are several excellent spaces at The Clubhouse on Baltimore which can fit any variety of weddings and events. Staff really worked hard to get all the many details right. This is a really nice location for your next big event.

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Tags: Kansas City wedding photography, The Clubhouse of Baltimore

I’ve decided to republish a popular gallery of images from my old blog featuring the wonderful Powell Gardens located east of Kansas City in U.S. Highway 50. There are few wedding venues in Kansas City that ilicit “ooohs” and “ahhhs” at the mere mention of the venue name, Powell Gardens is one of them. Check out the Gallery

Tags: Kansas City wedding photography, Powell Gardens

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