I’ve been looking at a few adverts for second shooters recently. There are a lot out there too but one in particular caught my eye this morning.
The advertiser was looking for 4 or 5 wedding photographers to cover his bookings for next year. These aren’t for second shooters or assistants though. Oh no – he is looking for lead photographers. Interesting business model:
- book the brides for the season
- figure out how many weddings you need to cover
- hire a few wannabes to shoot for you
Looking at his prices though I can understand why it is this way: at only £250 per wedding with images supplied on DVD you’d need to shoot a lot of weddings over the year. Particularly is this if you sole source of income. Thankfully this isn’t the market I am targetting.
I do wonder what the brides think, or even if they are aware. There is no guarantee of the calibre of the photographer they end up getting. Indeed, he/she isn’t necessarily on the radar at the time of booking so there is no way they can see any representative examples of work or understand the level of service they will be getting. The attraction is the price. If you’re on a tight budget even £250 can seem a lot.
This exercise has made me realise one of my selling points: the bride is guaranteed to get me on the day and the images I show her will be my own work, taken with my own equipment. So what she sees is very indicative of what she will be getting. If she doesn’t like my work, she won’t book me. If I feel we won’t be able to work together on the day, I won’t book her. I’m focussing on the service I offer and at this stage a happy bride is my most important goal.
Best regards,
Gavin
