Why is a wedding photographer like an iceberg?

Nothing to do with crashing into large inanimate objects I promise! and some of us don't float too well either. Because there is a lot more under the surface than what you might initially see at first.

How long do you think a wedding photographer spends looking after you and your images before during and after your wedding?

10 hours? 12 hours?...

Would it surprise you if I told you that I averaged 33 hours? Yep, 33 hours, almost a full working week for most folks (if you take lunch and tea breaks off that is ;))

So where does all that time go? Good question, glad you asked....

Ok so excluding the 50 hours of wedding fayres, excluding the sample album design that you saw, because we have to do all that anyway right?

From the start when we meet.

Two hours in getting to and meeting you for the booking appointment.

Two hours checking your venues, timings etc. Yes I have found a venue with the lawn dug up, one with painters and decorators in and one where Christmas came a lot earlier than the couple thought! All had to be sorted.

Another three hours in your final planning meeting and rehearsals. I always attend rehearsals. Not only does it allow me to see a walkthrough but it catches issues early and allows me to work round them with your clergy and it can often be something very simple that can be fixed there and then like someone standing in the way!

Then there is your wedding day. Up bright and early the crackle of anticipation at bridal preps is tangible. Good job I prepared all that equipment then! Yes, the day before I check all the equipment and charge all the batteries. Two cameras, six batteries, six lenses, two sets of batteries IN the twoflashguns and two sets of spares a video light too. I have two cameras simply because I'd be a tad redundant if one failed! All cleaned and charged packed away ready for the morning. All the detailed notes read over again, walked through in my mind and copied as a running order to take with me on the day as well as lists of all the group shots.

At the end of your day (10-12 hours of it ) I'm still smiling. Honestly, I love my job and it truly IS an honour to be permitted to be part of it. I would not change that for the world. I get home, tired, emotionally exhausted, sweaty and rather than shower and crash with a glass of wine, I'm straight into my office. Those images are, at this moment in time, priceless. They don't exist anywhere else and they cannot be recreated. That look you gave your father walking into church? It's gone now.

Having made sure we have adequate backups in place I can now go and shower before my poor beloved hoses me down in the garden! I know it's a charming thought.

Now I have a folder full of images what comes next, well I get the coffee on because the next 8 hours is devoted to white balance, cropping and polishing your images. Yes, 8 hours. Every single image that you receive has been through this process. I don't hand out unprocessed images! There are very good technical reasons for this but mainly that I shoot on the "wrong" white balance in camera and the images are all very orange to the unsuspecting viewer. I do this not because I don't know what white balance to shoot on but because it gives me a stable white balance all day long. If I let the camera choose it makes tiny changes shot to shot that make my life a lot harder at this point and it would take even longer! So 8 hours and a lot of coffee later I resize them all for viewing on the web and upload them to my website for you to see when you get back from honeymoon.

So while you are chilling on a beach I'm in front of two high resolution screens making sure they are processed for you coming back all nice and relaxed.

Then we get onto the album design stage. You have picked out your favourites and I now have a separate folder that I have copied all those into. Import them into the album design software and it takes about 4 hours to get them all into a cohesive design.

Now when I talk about album design what I don't mean is arranging images on a page so they fit ;)

What I mean is coming up with a design that tells the story, that illustrates your wedding day, that you will be happy to look at in ten years time. So I'm looking at the colours. Do the red/yellow/orange of your bridesmaids dresses sit well with an image of the groom before the ceremony that is predominantly green? ermmmm no! They really need to be kept apart on separate pages. When you look at a double page spread of an open album it should all work together. I don't mix B&W and colour for that very reason, the B&W has no impact among colour mages. So it takes a bit of time to plan it and then work it through the design software.

Load the design into the web gallery for you to see and then if anything needs changing repeat until happy bride and groom :)

Extra albums? extra prints? Thank you cards?....there went another couple of hours ordering, putting prints in mounts and heading off to the post office....

And last but not least, the album delivery. The completion of the job but hopefully not of our relationship, I love to keep in touch and I'm always happy to hear from my couples :)

In total that little lot comes to about 33 hours. Not the figure you had in mind?

So when someone asks "why is wedding photography expensive?" My answer is that it reassuringly expensive when you know what is involved, the backups of equipment involved and the time and energy that go into your wedding photography. And don't forget the smiles, they come free.