Wedding photography - you’re paying for my camera fetish

The true cost

Actually you aren’t, not at all.  I don’t have one, talk of equipment bores the pants off me.  

I know, I know, there’s plenty of articles on the internet written by people breaking down the cost of equipment, the price of running a wedding photography business, apparently it costs a fortune - but that really isn’t your problem.  

What you’re paying for, what you should be paying for is what a photographer gives you...their pictures, your pictures.  

I’m pretty sure the Leonardo da Vinci painting “Salvator Mundi” that sold recently for $450 million wasn’t painted with a million pound paintbrush at the time.  Nope you’re paying for the artist not the ‘stuff’ used

Anyone justifying their price based on how much money they choose to spend on running their business is a bit of a lemon in my opinion.

It’s the people creating, that’s where the value is.

 

Equipment used

When I first started photographing weddings I must have owned every bit of kit known to man, I used to carry it round in two big bags at a wedding - I couldn’t have been any more obvious if I tried, the only thing missing was a hi-vis vest with a flashing neon PHOTOGRAPHER lettering ! 

That’s perfectly fine for some people but jees - try saying you’re low key and unobtrusive clattering around like the buckaroo mule full of cameras and other paraphernalia. 

I’m a bit more grown up now, I got sick of being a walking contradiction (and missing things because I didn’t blend in, or was forever faffing about with my gear) 

Now I use one small camera and one small lens.  A backup lens and a backup camera hidden away in a bag somewhere and that’s it.  My total kit cost is far less than a lot of people spend on a single lens.  A lot of wedding guests have bigger cameras than me.  Oh I blend in alright, and that’s the idea.

By all accounts I’m not even a professional, I clearly have no idea what I’m doing and I shouldn’t be photographing weddings (someone actually told me this on a photography group). Meh, it’s not what you’ve got it’s how you use it.

Top left - main camera :  Fujifilm xpro2 & 18mm lens  

Top right - backup / portrait lens:  Jupiter 8 50mm Russian lens from 1937  (cost me ÂŁ20 at a car boot sale) 

Bottom - backup camera: Ricoh GR  

50p for size comparison  

So there you go, small, light and stealthy - easy 🤘