6. The enviroment can change swiftly when photographing a wedding, so, for example, will Uncle Bob know that he has approximately 5 seconds to leave a dark church or ceremony room, into daylight, which needs the camera settings to be changed from Manual to AV, whilst keeping an eye on the shutter speed which should not fall below 1/125 of a second, and bringing the ISO down from around 2000 to 400, all whilst walking backwards, turning off the flash, and keeping the focus and composition beautiful throughout?
7. When capturing the group photos, I’m not convinced that Uncle Bob will work as efficiently as I do, starting with the largest family groups and working my way down to a handful of people, so that everybody can enjoy themselves and the newlyweds are not stood around for hours, with aching faces from having to “smile” so much!
8. With the romantic couples photos, Uncle Bob might feel like he has to take you away from your guests for a long time, in order to find the perfect shot, whereas I know exactly what I am looking for, and how to make that happen, really quickly and easily. Uncle Bob might not notice a hand in the wrong place, or an unflattering double chin which can be eradicated by simply changing position, and you may even end up with some of those awful 80’s wedding photos of fake, frozen smiles and full on kissing…yuck!
9. Unless Uncle Bob is a pro wedding photographer, he won’t be used to liaising with the other suppliers and the venue to make the day flow beautifully. For example, when I am shooting at Sandhole Oak Barn, I time the final group to shot to coincide with the guests sitting down for the wedding breakfast as the shot is usually taken outside the front door. This is only a small thing, but it really does make the day flow better, and works well for me, the venue, the caterers, and most importantly, yourselves and your guests.
10. Finally, I am more than happy to let Uncle Bob take as many photographs as he likes – I’m sure some of them will be lovely, as will the odd one captured on a guest’s iphone etc, but some jobs really do need to be left to the professionals; and wedding photography is definitely one of them! 😉
(Any Uncle Bobs that appear in this blog are purely fictional and any similarity to any of your family members is purely coincidental and not intended to cause offence).