The Rise of the DIY Wedding Album
Another topic that came out of the wedding album discussion with my photographer friend a few days ago was the DIY wedding album. Since she is a photographer, she really wanted to put together the wedding album herself. Thus, she looked for wedding photographers who would give her the negatives immediately after the big day and didn’t offer (or wouldn’t include) the album in their price.
During my friend’s wedding, there were a number of enthusiast and semi-professional photographers who were there with cameras in tow and taking pictures that the wedding photographers were not. In the end, many pages of photos in my friends wedding album were taken not by the professional photographers she hired, but by the guests who were just doing what they love to do. And at every wedding I go to, I continue to see more and more DSLR cameras of increasing quality snapping away.
The technology of photography is constantly forcing professional photographers to be nimble and adapt their business models in order to stay in business. Thus, with the rise of the enthusiast photographer and the continual price erosion of high quality DSLR cameras, I am wondering: are more wedding photographers seeing requests from clients for the negatives to do their own wedding album?
This seems like a natural evolution of the business trends that have been occurring. But I would love to hear from some professional wedding photographers to see if this is the case.
There is still huge value that professional wedding photographers offer in both photographing the day as well as album design. The trick for wedding photographers is to make sure their clients don’t forget this value.
July 1st, 2008 at 1:22 pm
I’m a big fan of having my clients work with me on their albums, I think it really depends on what type of photographer you are. For example, the reason that my clients opt to order albums with me is because they’re hand made, hand mounted and impeccable. At the same time, I am quite friendly with my clients and instead of becoming a vendor, they will chose to work with me based on both my artistry and personality. However, I really hesistate to recommend that my clients use their friends/families to capture their most important moments. Of course, I am a photographer and therefore would not jeapordize my profession, but at the same time, if your friends/relatives fail to capture your moments, there is nothing you can do. If your photographer fails, they have the insurance to give you a financial reparation for the loss. Of course, with a professional photographer, your chance of losing those precious moments is slim. With family/friends who are also there to have a good time, the chances are huge!
Hope this was helpful!
http://www.JenHuangPhotography.com
September 20th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
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