Another Craigslist Tragedy in the Making…

LINK TO ORIGINAL AD

WANTED : A wedding photographer willing to take photos for free (we’re broke college kids) and collaborate with the bride to let her edit them. Dual credit will be given in the event the photos are used for a portfolio.

The wedding will be very small (less than 10 people) and will take place on December 10th, 2011 at 11:30 a.m.

If there is an interest in having a complete range of photos (getting ready to the ceremony, to some more posed photography after the ceremony) please let me know.

The photographer needs to have experience with a camera (aperture, shutter speed, etc) and taking quality photos, but not necessarily wedding photography.

Wow. Just wow. Did you notice that the wedding takes place TODAY? This ad was placed on December 4th. That means SIX days before their wedding, this couple decides to try and do something about their wedding photography.

I was alerted to this ridicuous request by a top-secret informant who felt it only fitting to try and educate this couple, although it will probably fall on dear ears.

Here is the email that was sent by the photographer to the couple. I will update later if a response is received.

I’m going to assume you’re young college students and not really thinking things through. I understand you’re broke, but still want to get married. That’s great. Praises to you.

But honestly…. the one single thing (besides your rings and marriage license) that you will have from your wedding in a year, in ten years, in fifty years, will be your wedding photographs. And you want someone to do them for free? Are you asking for someone to DJ for free? Cater for free? The state to donate your marriage license? Since you’re getting married on a Saturday, that alone is going to cost you $45. How about the rings? The dress? Flowers? Not only that, but you’re asking for hours and hours of coverage.

Do you not have respect for someone’s time to understand that they will spend the entire day on their feet, hauling around several pieces of equipment, dealing with the stress of keeping track of which photos have been taken, which ones haven’t, and listening to people tell them how to do their job the entire day. Yet, the only compensation you’re offering is “dual credit in the event the images are used for a portfolio.” Oh, and maybe something to eat at the reception. I’m going to guess that when you spend an entire day doing a job for someone else, you like to have some cash to go in your pocket. Something that helps to pay your bills at the end of the week. To add insult to injury, you’re asking for someone who has experience and can take quality images. Your photographer, even if they don’t have wedding experience, will have had to have some training in order to have that experience and to take those quality images. Again, you are showing a lot of disrespect by not offering to compensate them for their time.

One last thing to consider…. you don’t care if they have had wedding experience or not. I can tell you right now that taking photos at a wedding is an entire different world, no make that an entire different universe, from taking photos of kids or dogs or flowers or even “creative” self-portraits. Again… your wedding photos will be what you have to look back on about one of the most important days of your life. And you want to risk it by not even caring if the person has experience taking wedding photos.

You might as well buy a $50 digital point and shoot and give it to your neighbor’s kid. At least then you’ll have some “creative angles” to go with the out of focus, poorly exposed, badly cropped images you will likely get. I’m sure that you can just fix it photoshop later since you’re expecting to edit them anyway.

Good luck.