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MDKauffmann Photography is a St. Louis Wedding Photographer serving the Metro-East area with custom photography. Visit our website for more information or Email me right now
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
St. Louis Baby Photographer - Look out Ladies!
St. Louis women are in trouble as this little guy grows up. He is the
strong, silent type (for now) - but oh what a charmer. The expressions
he gives while we are photographing him are a tell that he is definitely having fun being a ham for the camera. I am definitely looking forward to photographing this baby as he grows up and continues to charm.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
How Not To Hire A Photographer - from Wedding Photography 411 by Ryan Phillips
How Not To Hire A Photographer:
We normally don’t allow guest writers but this was submitted to us and we just couldn’t resist because this is rampant in our industry and as consumers you should be aware of what you say to a professional photographer. The photographer will of course remain anonymous. All photographers have received this in one form or another so I think it’s important to share with consumers..
I would start by reading the email below…. while this is extreme…Photographers get emails like this every week. I am all for people trying to get the best rate for something but think about the quality of work you are going to get when you whittle someone down to pennies. In addition, what type of relationship you are building and how much is the photographer going to dislike shooting you. At the end of the day most photographers don’t make a whole lot of money, in fact the national average is $24,000 a year. Here is another post along these same lines that I thought I would share as well…
So without further a do here is the short list of nots (read the email below first)
The Real 411: Now this may seem like an angry wedding photographer but the fact is that he is a very nice and a very reasonable guy but gets heated when he gets these types of letters. Our job at WP411 is to educate you on how to get the most out of your wedding photography. Starting off a relationship with your photographer like this is not a good thing. Don’t forget, this person will likely shoot your pregnancy, your babies, your family photos and most major milestones in your life. Treat them like a friend and you will be paid back in spades. Bargain them down to pennies and even if they take the job they will not deliver you their “A-Game.” Just because they love their job doesn’t mean they should do it for cheap. Reward them for their passion and they will blow your mind with the images you receive. When it is all said and done the only thing you have left from your wedding will be their images. What is that worth to you?
-RP
Email From Perspective Client
Wedding Location: Backyard
Heard about you: Web search
Message: Hello,
I enjoyed your pictures on your site a lot. I thought they were very artistic. We are getting married next month and were looking for one photographer (only) to shoot only our \”getting ready\” shots, ceremony location details, ceremony and shots with bridal party, bride/groom and family/friends shots after the wedding. We do not wish to have professional photos of our reception. We only need about 4 hours of wedding day coverage in one location. We would like to book separately a portrait shoot with us in our wedding clothes in a cool outside locale for about 1.5 hours on a different day, and we could work around your schedule (even mid-week).
We are hoping to get all of the digital images, and preferably the RAW images. My fiance is a Digital Media Designer and color corrects film & photos professionally, and I am a graphic designer and photographer. We would enjoy editing our own photos…but I understand if you want to edit them before giving them to us. We just thought it might save time on your part and cost on our part. Either way, we definitely want all of the high resolution photos.
The total time we would need is 5 hours on two days, ceremony and portrait day. Looks like if you broke down your starting package of $3,800 for 2 photographers for 7 hours, the hourly rate per photographer is about $272. Would you accept $1500 plus tax for 5.5 hours coverage from one photographer? We aren\’t having a typical wedding and therefore don\’t require a typical wedding package. And we don’t need any “extras.” We’re hoping you can work with us.
Please let me know what we might be able to work out. Thanks.
We normally don’t allow guest writers but this was submitted to us and we just couldn’t resist because this is rampant in our industry and as consumers you should be aware of what you say to a professional photographer. The photographer will of course remain anonymous. All photographers have received this in one form or another so I think it’s important to share with consumers..
I would start by reading the email below…. while this is extreme…Photographers get emails like this every week. I am all for people trying to get the best rate for something but think about the quality of work you are going to get when you whittle someone down to pennies. In addition, what type of relationship you are building and how much is the photographer going to dislike shooting you. At the end of the day most photographers don’t make a whole lot of money, in fact the national average is $24,000 a year. Here is another post along these same lines that I thought I would share as well…
So without further a do here is the short list of nots (read the email below first)
- Do not try to break your shoot out into different times of day and think the dead space in the middle doesn’t have to be paid for. If I am out of my studio I should be paid, otherwise I am losing money.
- Do not try to think that taking up just a few hours on a few different days just equates to the same thing as hours in a row.
- Do not tell the photographer how artistic their work is and then try to pay nothing for it. You called them because you want good work.
- Do not think you can get the same style as your photographer by doing the work yourself. We use more than $10,000 of computers and software to get the job done. That is what you are paying for. You called US because you love our work.
- Do not think that the work stops when the shooting stops. It is just beginning. It could take us 20+ hours of production time! Breaking my price down into an hourly rate and then reducing the hours of shooting and taking away a photographer means nothing to me! I spend twice as long producing the job!
- Do not offer “it’s a party, you will have sooo much fun at our wedding and can have a drink at the end” as an excuse for trying not to pay what we are worth. I am a professional wedding photographer and am at weddings every weekend while my family is at home without me.
- Do not think the day of the week matters to me. Shooting on a Wednesday is the same as shooting on a Saturday, I still have to do all the production work.
- Do not state that your wedding is”not typical” all weddings are not typical these days. As Professional photographers we have to know how to shoot every type of wedding, that is what you are paying for. I am not going to say “Hey, their wedding isn’t typical…maybe I should just shoot it for 75% off since it’s not typical!”
- Do not think your math is correct on my hourly rate, the reality is at $272.00 an hour with 5.5. hours of shooting, 2 hours of travel time, 2 hours of prep time and 20 hours of production is actually $8,024 dollars. The full package is a fucking bargain!
- Lastly, add in phone time dealing with clients, meetings times, retouching times, album design and changes, engagement shoot, lab price increases, ordering times, DVD burn times, download times, back up times, back up storage costs plus the $400 dollars a month to run all my computers and RAID systems…hell when I think about it I should probably go flip burgers, I’ll make more money….
The Real 411: Now this may seem like an angry wedding photographer but the fact is that he is a very nice and a very reasonable guy but gets heated when he gets these types of letters. Our job at WP411 is to educate you on how to get the most out of your wedding photography. Starting off a relationship with your photographer like this is not a good thing. Don’t forget, this person will likely shoot your pregnancy, your babies, your family photos and most major milestones in your life. Treat them like a friend and you will be paid back in spades. Bargain them down to pennies and even if they take the job they will not deliver you their “A-Game.” Just because they love their job doesn’t mean they should do it for cheap. Reward them for their passion and they will blow your mind with the images you receive. When it is all said and done the only thing you have left from your wedding will be their images. What is that worth to you?
-RP
Email From Perspective Client
Wedding Location: Backyard
Heard about you: Web search
Message: Hello,
I enjoyed your pictures on your site a lot. I thought they were very artistic. We are getting married next month and were looking for one photographer (only) to shoot only our \”getting ready\” shots, ceremony location details, ceremony and shots with bridal party, bride/groom and family/friends shots after the wedding. We do not wish to have professional photos of our reception. We only need about 4 hours of wedding day coverage in one location. We would like to book separately a portrait shoot with us in our wedding clothes in a cool outside locale for about 1.5 hours on a different day, and we could work around your schedule (even mid-week).
We are hoping to get all of the digital images, and preferably the RAW images. My fiance is a Digital Media Designer and color corrects film & photos professionally, and I am a graphic designer and photographer. We would enjoy editing our own photos…but I understand if you want to edit them before giving them to us. We just thought it might save time on your part and cost on our part. Either way, we definitely want all of the high resolution photos.
The total time we would need is 5 hours on two days, ceremony and portrait day. Looks like if you broke down your starting package of $3,800 for 2 photographers for 7 hours, the hourly rate per photographer is about $272. Would you accept $1500 plus tax for 5.5 hours coverage from one photographer? We aren\’t having a typical wedding and therefore don\’t require a typical wedding package. And we don’t need any “extras.” We’re hoping you can work with us.
Please let me know what we might be able to work out. Thanks.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
So You Want To Hire a Wedding Photographer - St. Louis Wedding Photographer
I saw an article the other day about things to consider when hiring a wedding photographer.
The first thing that struck me is that English was not the author's primary language (there were too many awkward phrases). The other thing that I noticed was that the author had no clue how to hire a wedding photographer in America.
That author's primary piece of advice was to make sure that you talked to the photographer to make sure that you would get the proper number of photos made that day. Not in and of itself bad advice, but "number of photos" is an ambiguous request. Your wedding photographer's job is to document the day; to tell the story of your beautiful occasion and to present you - the bride - with an album or prints to treasure for a lifetime. Some events may require 400 photos to effectively document, others 800. A trained monkey can take a number of photos, it doesn't mean they will effectively tell the story.
So the duty of a wedding photographer is to document the day. It sounds easy enough, but how can you be sure that the person you are hiring can do that? The bottom line is that you can't - but there are things you can look for that will give you clues.
The most important thing about choosing a wedding photographer is their style. At the end of the day, you can shop for photographers in any price range and with any amount of included prints or albums. However, none of these factors matter if the photographer's style does not match yours. Do they use a traditional or contemporary style? Are they "photojournalist only" photographers that try to capture all of the important events and groups of the occasion without any formal posing, or do they take time to arrange the important groups of people so that the grouping and all the people in it look their best? Are they "natural light" photographers or are they able to effectively use flash to enhance photos in cavernous churches and dark reception halls?
How do you find a wedding photographer's style? Look at their work. Where do they get their photos? Prior experience.
Another of the biggest things to look for when hiring a wedding photographer is experience. Weddings are - generally speaking - a once in a lifetime event. There are no do-overs. A wedding photographer has to be on their game from the moment they arrive until the moment they leave making sure they don't miss anything. Further, there are things that happen on wedding day that the wedding photographer has to be ready for. The only way to be ready is to expect them, the only way to expect them is to have practiced; AKA: experience. Do you really want the memories of your once-in-a-lifetime occasion to be lost by a weeked-warrior who is shooting for beer money?
Even if a photographer is experienced, there is always the chance that something will go wrong, or that the results will be less than you expect. To combat this, most professional photographers offer a guarantee. Personally, I guarantee my work by 110%: I guarantee that you will be thrilled with my work, or I will do anything in my power (and some things beyond my power) to make you thrilled. I've even got an insurance policy that will pay for the complete re-staging of a wedding if necessary. If after all my efforts you aren't thrilled: I'll gladly refund 110% of your cost. There is no risk to you.
Hiring a wedding photographer can be a difficult decision, but with a little background it becomes easier to narrow the field and focus your attention toward wedding photographers who will be able to best meet your needs. If you have any further questions, please feel free to comment and I'll be happy to provide clarification or more information.
Best wishes as you plan your wedding!
The first thing that struck me is that English was not the author's primary language (there were too many awkward phrases). The other thing that I noticed was that the author had no clue how to hire a wedding photographer in America.
That author's primary piece of advice was to make sure that you talked to the photographer to make sure that you would get the proper number of photos made that day. Not in and of itself bad advice, but "number of photos" is an ambiguous request. Your wedding photographer's job is to document the day; to tell the story of your beautiful occasion and to present you - the bride - with an album or prints to treasure for a lifetime. Some events may require 400 photos to effectively document, others 800. A trained monkey can take a number of photos, it doesn't mean they will effectively tell the story.
So the duty of a wedding photographer is to document the day. It sounds easy enough, but how can you be sure that the person you are hiring can do that? The bottom line is that you can't - but there are things you can look for that will give you clues.
The most important thing about choosing a wedding photographer is their style. At the end of the day, you can shop for photographers in any price range and with any amount of included prints or albums. However, none of these factors matter if the photographer's style does not match yours. Do they use a traditional or contemporary style? Are they "photojournalist only" photographers that try to capture all of the important events and groups of the occasion without any formal posing, or do they take time to arrange the important groups of people so that the grouping and all the people in it look their best? Are they "natural light" photographers or are they able to effectively use flash to enhance photos in cavernous churches and dark reception halls?
How do you find a wedding photographer's style? Look at their work. Where do they get their photos? Prior experience.
Another of the biggest things to look for when hiring a wedding photographer is experience. Weddings are - generally speaking - a once in a lifetime event. There are no do-overs. A wedding photographer has to be on their game from the moment they arrive until the moment they leave making sure they don't miss anything. Further, there are things that happen on wedding day that the wedding photographer has to be ready for. The only way to be ready is to expect them, the only way to expect them is to have practiced; AKA: experience. Do you really want the memories of your once-in-a-lifetime occasion to be lost by a weeked-warrior who is shooting for beer money?
Even if a photographer is experienced, there is always the chance that something will go wrong, or that the results will be less than you expect. To combat this, most professional photographers offer a guarantee. Personally, I guarantee my work by 110%: I guarantee that you will be thrilled with my work, or I will do anything in my power (and some things beyond my power) to make you thrilled. I've even got an insurance policy that will pay for the complete re-staging of a wedding if necessary. If after all my efforts you aren't thrilled: I'll gladly refund 110% of your cost. There is no risk to you.
Hiring a wedding photographer can be a difficult decision, but with a little background it becomes easier to narrow the field and focus your attention toward wedding photographers who will be able to best meet your needs. If you have any further questions, please feel free to comment and I'll be happy to provide clarification or more information.
Best wishes as you plan your wedding!
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Lebanon, Illinois Cutest Kiddo
Coldwell-Banker's Newest Lebanon, IL Agents
Thursday, January 5, 2012
One of St. Louis' Newest Residents
I had the privilege of photographing one of St. Louis' newest residents for one of our dear client's this week. He is an absolute doll - I'll be photographing him every month through his first year in St. Louis, just like we did for his brother. He is very loved by his parents and I am looking forward to watching him grow up.
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