For my 1995 wedding, the wedding pro wanted something like $2000. Well,
we're talking about a wedding comprising about 15 total people, counting
the bride, groom, and their families. That was too rich for my blood.
Not being aware that my request might be a big deal, I also asked whether I
could have, or buy, the negatives, He said, "After 3 years, you can buy
them from me for $150.00." His thinking, correctly I suppose, was that few
couples would be patient enough to wait three years to make reprints.
Well, on to Plan B: I approached an aspiring young photographer--age
17--and asked her to photograph the wedding for expenses plus $150. We
would get a good rate, and she would get some experience for her portfolio.
She was delighted by the offer but informed us, with regret, that she had
an academic test to take that Sunday morning.
On to Plan C: A friend told us of a woman who worked at a mall-based
portrait studio who freelanced. The woman agreed to shoot our wedding for
$250 plus expenses; I can't recall who came up with the $250, but the "plus
expenses" was definitely my suggestion. "May I have the prints on Photo
CD?" I asked. Certainly, she replied. (Picture CD had not yet been
invented.)
When she delivered the contact prints, she lent us the negatives so that we
could order as many reprints as we liked, at any size we liked, bypassing
her completely. The only constraint was that we would have to use a local
lab so the negs couldn't get lost in the mail. We used a Kodak lab. The job
took three months, because we ordered many of the frames in several sizes,
and one of those sizes was 8 by 12, apparently an unusual request. Each
size required a new "run" through the system.
When the prints finally came back, we showed them to our photographer and
returned the negatives.
As a "tip" of sorts, I presented her with a video, taken by a friend of
ours, that documented the photographer's entire outdoor portrait shoot of
the bride, groom, and family. She was delighted, explaining that she had
never been privileged to see herself at work. She planned to use our video
to show others that she could work well with people. Tanya, you might
consider doing the same.
I was not out to deny anyone a living. I didn't begrudge the fee asked by
the "real" wedding pro; I just couldn't afford him, and the small ceremony
didn't warrant it.
Our photographer used a 35mm SLR. I had led her to understand that flash
would be unacceptable, so she came prepared to shoot in available light.
But when the rabbi corrected me, "Of course, she can use flash," I quickly
informed her, and she came with 200-speed film and an auxiliary flash
mounted on a bracket. My only disappointment was that she did not use an
auxiliary battery to quick-charge her flash, and hence she missed one or
two nice shots while waiting for her flash to charge.
"Tanya Mayer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
O M G, now THAT is an insult to ANY photographer. To date, I have been
considering (because they have all been paying for their own
film/processing) my keeping the negs as my form of "payment" as I think
that
they are my most necessary learning tool.
Paul Franklin Stregevsky
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