Wedding Photographer reccomendations in / around North Sydney

[Ventureoverland]

Hi All, hope this is in the right place. Mods please feel free to move if appropriate.

Well we have finally decided to get married!! Some would say its long overdue but thats another story! Weve decided that the day will be sometime between 'now' and 'then', but in any event before I turn 40 next May.

Were both English, living in North Sydney. The wedding will not be in Church or a Registry office but will be simple, small and somewhere special to us; probably McMahons Point / Waverton area. We'd also like to have a small reception (probably about 50 people) somewhere. We would naturally want photo's of both events and Im guessing probably some candid's either side of the main event and reception.

Now, with regards to choosing a photographer....

I have heard many horror stories about people either getting ripped off or not being happy with the results so, keen to avoid that prospect I thought Id ask the experts here for recommendations. I presume it makes sense to get someone 'local' to minimise travel costs etc. So far the only (apparently) well respected outift I know of would be gm photograhics in Mosman, but there must be several other organisations or individuals that are local to me (perhaps members here??) that people would be happy to recommend???

I have read the thread ("What to look for in a wedding photographer") on here about how important it is to choose a photographer that we are happy to be around and can develop a relationship with but we are not even at that stage yet! I guess thats stage 2.

Any advice, pointers, thoughts and experiences would be very much appreciated as neither of us have done this before!

Thanks
Jon (& Ellie)

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[reaction]

There is no need to be 'local' to minimise travel costs etc. Photogs will travel within Sydney metro. Don't limit yourself. I had a guy who tried to say central coast was in Sydney but yeah...

Just google for sydney, and look thru portfolios. Look for full day portfolios, to know whether you'll get good coverage for everything that happens. A lot of pros will show 2 pics from each wedding, then throw in a couple of model shoots as if it were a wedding. Looks great, if you only wanted 2 good pics and didn't care about the rest of your day!

Work out your budget. Is it a budget for the shoot only and you have to buy prints, or you want to buy jpgs? Or you want everything included for a fixed price? Watch out for 1 vs 2 togs. 2 togs means they're charging half what you're paying. Do you want togs who will do your wedding on the back of 2 others that weekend, or one who shoots one per month? Their charge will generally give you a clue which one they are (ie if they charge $1000 then clearly they can't pay their rent unless they shoot 2/wk) But some higher priced ones do shoot every day and farm out P/P work.

Our mistake was having our budget $x, then our friend's tog fit the cost but with 2 togs.To that point I hadn't been happy with anyone's port under $2x cost, so I was sick of looking and just settled. We weren't happy with the photos nor the P/P (or lack thereof). In the end they performed as well as a $x/2 tog, but we didn't want a $x/2 tog, the original goal was a $x tog.

You can't judge a tog by their cost. There are always exceptions, but it's usually the overpriced tog rather than the other way around, esp for full timers. That is to say there are full timers that at the same price, one shoots like someone that just got their DSLR a month ago while the other shoots like a 10yr veteran.

Watch out for collages. I had an AIPP tog who shot for high profile events, including senators etc. He was booked for our (non wedding) event. 100% of his pics were under/overexposed, shake blurred, motion blurred, misfocused (pick 2). Looking back at his 'portfolio' I noticed all the event/indoor typs pics were the tiny tiny ones in the collage, and what's more there were NO humans in any of those. His only human shots were in well lit situations.

[fillum]

Commiserations Congratulations on the impending nuptuals...

AIPP has a search facility (http://www.aipp.com.au/AIPP/What_We_Offer/Search_for_a_Pro/AIPP/Apps/FindAPro.aspx) which might be helpful. (Haven't used it myself, no affiliation, yada yada...)


Cheers.

[Rattus79]

We used Matthew Evans Photography - Matt is awesome and does awesome work. Could not have been happier with the 2000 odd photos he provided for us.

He's Cairns based but if you ask him nice enough ...

Http://Matthewevansphotography.com.au

http://www.matthewevansphotography.com.au/mission-beach-wedding-photography-paronella-park-castaways-morgan-greg-wedding/

He's only gotten better since then. Shoots only primes and runs from shot to shot. I had 4 or 5 randoms ask me who he was during the day so they could check his work out.

Edit: Congrats to you.
Commiserations to the groom. (don't worry mate, you got the rest of your life to pay for the bill) :D

[virgal_tracy]

Most, if not all photographers will travel within Sydney Metro for the same cost.

The AIPP is a good start for a search. Have a look at websites regardless of where they re to get a feel for what sort of coverage that you want. Photojournalism, traditional, a mix and then look for locals that do that sort. Don't ask someone if they can do a copy of anothers style as that doesn't work.

Know what you want in terms of product. Do you want an album? Do you want all of the JPGS? If you want the jpgs what will you do with them? Are you likely to ever use them or are you just getting them because everyone says you should?

Pick a studio based on who will be doing the shooting. Some studios have multiple shooters and therefore you may not be sure who will be the photographer. If this is the case make sure to ask for copies of images that the particular photographer has taken.

As reaction said, be sure to see images from the whole day not just the select few that make the photographer look good. Ask questions about worse case scenarios such as sickness. Photographers / studios with networks will ensure that you are covered.

I photograph for a studio based in Penrith but we provide services all over the metro area and further afield.

Natural Light Photography (http://www.nlphotography.com.au/)

I can also recommend Eclektic (http://eclektic.com.au/main.php#portfolio/weddings/)

elkiephotography (http://www.elkiephotography.com.au/)

and possibly my favourite photographer using off camera lights on your wedding day Vibrant Photography (http://www.vibrantphotography.com.au/)

I hope some of these help.

[JM Tran]

2000 photos submitted by 1 photographer from the wedding day? Wow!

[Rattus79]

He worked VERY HARD

[kiwi]

He was crazy, 500 is reasonable

[reaction]

2000 photos submitted by 1 photographer from the wedding day? Wow!

Yeah, I got 2.5k from mine. I didn't want 2.5k, there were basically 6 of each 'shot', and if you threw away all the unusables and trimmed each 'angle' to 2-3 variations, you'd get 500 or so.

More is not better. More is just lazy, instead of them doing the culling now it's your job to cull. I guess you can tell I wasn't happy. I'm still not finished processing the pics from our wedding.

Watch out for the multiple shooters. My friend's wedding, the shooter wasn't the one whose work they saw, they paid top $ and got poor results. Personally I'd go for individuals because I know each tog is different. The multiple shooters wedding shops seem to be for laymen who think togs are off the shelf components you can mix and match. Of course if they hire out PS guys then maybe you can just about mix and match anyone with a camera into a story...

Watch out for charges for touching up. Some places charge per photo. Anyone who doesn't shoot with butter smeared on their lens will capture your blemishes and frankly they look way worse in a pic than in real life. Probably explains all the B&W and super high key shots everywhere.

[JM Tran]

Some very good advice from Reaction here, and this is from me speaking as an experienced wedding photographer:)

[SirLozalot]

Congrats on pending wedding!

Long time married and cannot recommend a tog name however I have always felt the best approach is what you are doing now - word of mouth feedback. For my wedding I sought out friends or colleagues who recently got married and asked them about their tog experience. I found people are quick to give thumbs up or down about not just quality of pictures but tog's professionalism on the day + any hidden costs as well.

[Ventureoverland]

Thanks for all the replies guys, much aapreciated.

Time to start googling and speaking to people I guess.

R
J

[nimrodisease]

I would very highly recommend Ben Adams - http://benadamsweddings.com/

He is located in Newcastle but he travels.

He photographed my wedding and reception (along with his assistant), and we ended up with about 2000 photos on a disc - ALL of which were of great quality.

[ktoopi]

I have a friend who has been a pro photographer for more than 20 years maybe even longer. She takes amazing photos and has been in many many magazines. Her name is Valerie Martin check out her website. She is Northern Beaches based so North Sydney would be no problem. She started as a photojournalist and is capable of many styles. Definitely worth a look. Congrats by the way:)

[pmack]

So when you get a disk of 2000 images, i presume that's just all unedited shots (perhaps with a batch autoadjust or other filter), with maybe the real crappy ones removed?
Not really a good way to advertise yourself as a photographer to give out poor images.
Can't remember the quote i heard, but it's something along the lines of how to show yourself as a good photographer, never show your duds. We obviously all take duds, but if you keep them to yourself and just show your very best, people think you are magic with the camera - but you always now best ;)