I've got a small DJ/photography business aside from my 9-5 I do more DJing than photography 95% of our business is weddings. It seems we always end up sitting around with the photographers if I'm not the one shooting that wedding.

This weekend I end up sitting with an older lady and her assistant that are covering a wedding we are DJing. She's got a 5d mkII and a tamron 28-75 on it also a 580EXII flash with giant flower looking diffuser on it. I'm watching her mess with it and there was a radio trigger mounted between the flash and body. The body is set to CREATIVE AUTO and she keeps messing with the little sliders on the rear LCD. Every time she takes a picture the flash doesn't fire. We are in a dark building with a tall ceiling and the sun has already set. Pretty much the only light are the red/green/blue strobes that move to the music from our DJ setup.

She keeps taking pictures and frowning when looking at the screen. I'm sitting up on the stage and can see her screen they are all pretty much black. Barely recognizable shapes of people that's about it, not even salvageable in RAW from what I'm guessing.

So I sit down and start talking to her and rather innocently ask how things are going. At this point I can see the RF trigger between the body and flash is set to off (don't know why it was mounted there to begin with). She complains that everything in the reception hall is too dark and none of her pictures aren't turning out. I ask her if the flash is going off and she responds yeah its set to "ON" see the button. I ask her if she wants me to watch while she takes a shot. Of course it doesn't go off I tell her this, and ask if it due the piece mounted between the flash and body. She says "no I only use that when I'm in the church it doesn't matter here." So I ask if she's tried to use it with the flash hooked directly to the body.

She responds by jerking on the trigger/flash setup WITHOUT unlatching it from the hot shoe. Of course it doesn't come off and after a few minutes she finally unlocks it then spends another few trying to detach the flash from the trigger. When she finally gets the flash back on the body by itself it works great. She proceeds to go around blasting flash onto everyone with that ridiculous looking diffuser that doesn't seem to do anything. No bounce or reflection just point and shoot type blasts.

I was blown away because she has a full on business doing weddings and seniors INCLUDING A STUDIO/STORE FRONT according to her business card. I'm sure she was charging upwards of 1K for these pictures. She also proceeds to tell me she has a "bigger" camera in the car. From what I gathered was a 1Ds or 1D of some variety. How the hell does she run that without Creative auto? She also had a pile of zoom and prime lenses some Canon some Tamron. How can you spend that much money and have little to no idea what your getting and how to run it?

Anyone else have similar stories?

Some people should take a beginning photography class before they start working with a camera they don't know anything about...or at least be open to suggestions from others trying to help them understand the different settings on their camera.

My best friend paid 4 grand for her wedding photos because the photographer got great reviews on the knot. I admit she was really nice and acted like she knew what she was doing and had 2 large bags full of gear so expected the photos to be amazing. But after the wedding it took her over 4 months to process them (she wrote in her contract it would be 1-3 months) and they where AWFUL! Most of her outdoor shots had super blown out highlights, really contrasty black and white crap and spot coloring all over the place. She half-ass photoshopped about 50-75 images and the rest look like they where taken on a point and shoot. The composition was terrible in almost every shot. People with trees growing out of their heads and half their bodies cut out of the frame...that kind of thing. And she must have had the iso cranked to the max in all the indoor shots because I've never seen so much noise in photos. I should have known when I saw their tripods leaned up in a corner, neither one touched a tripod for the whole reception and the pro was trying to bounce her flash off a ceiling that was way too high to catch any of the light. At this point I had whipped out my own camera and was too drunk to care what they where up to. Luckily myself and few others managed to get some decent shots of the party because the "pros" had nothin' even worth putting in their Facebook album. To add insult to injury her "assistant" turned out to be her little sister who clearly had the camera set to auto the entire time. This assistant (that ran my friend an extra grand) didn't take one single shot of the cocktail hour (no one seems to know where she went during that time) which is the only reason they wanted an assistant anyway since that was the time we where all outside getting our group shots done so they wanted to be able to see their guest enjoying themselves. I did some googling on her and it turns out she has a degree in fine art/painting and had only started her photography business last year. It's still beyond me how she got such good reviews on the knot. My guess is probably because most brides don't know that much about photography and her perky, fun personality is what got her the jobs. It seems like a lot of creative types who can't make it working with their chosen media turn to photography as a way to make ends meet. I just graduated with a degree in photography/media arts and it really pisses me off that people like that use it as their back-up career. The only good thing that came out of the whole experience was that I realized that I could shoot weddings better than this chick. So I've started shooting weddings and so far I love it. Not sure if I'd make it a full time career but I know I could never rip off someone on the most important day of their life by being a phony and I wouldn't even attempt shooting a wedding if I didn't know my camera inside and out.

Posted by Garutachi if I didn't know my camera inside and out.....

....I would not portray myself to be a professional and charge for my services

Posted by rescueme1060 ....I would not portray myself to be a professional and charge for my services

I have not charged yet. I'm building a portfolio/website. Although every couple has offered to pay me.

Lol, that wasn't directed towards you, it was meant as a continuation of the above quote in regards to the lady in the story.

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Posted by Garutachi My best friend paid 4 grand for her wedding photos because the photographer got great reviews on the knot.

WOW $4,000 did that include engagement and them staying all night along with something like a trash the dress afterwards? Hopefully it also included some KY that sounds like raping. Also they only edited 50-75 photos? I'll never understand how people get away with doing business like that especially when the work produced in _subpar. I suppose its like you said most brides don't know the difference and just like a smiling, friendly person with a camera.

Posted by Garutachi So I've started shooting weddings and so far I love it. Not sure if I'd make it a full time career but I know I could never rip off someone on the most important day of their life by being a phony and I wouldn't even attempt shooting a wedding if I didn't know my camera inside and out. I have not charged yet. I'm building a portfolio/website. Although every couple has offered to pay me.

Good for you, let your work and references speak for you. I've never advertised anywhere except for a facebook page, and word of mouth. You certainly don't get a ton of jobs doing it that way (especially not right away). But when someone picks you because of an image you've taken or because someone else was so pleased with your work that really says something about what your doing.

Anyone can have their friends drop some lines on a review website. Getting references from actual customers and having examples of actual weddings you've done is the way to go. It might not pay the bills but it is a nice side job and a rewarding break from the average 9-5 job.

Posted by Uzi- WOW $4,000 did that include engagement and them staying all night along with something like a trash the dress afterwards? Hopefully it also included some KY that sounds like raping. Also they only edited 50-75 photos? I'll never understand how people get away with doing business like that especially when the work produced in subpar. I suppose its like you said most brides don't know the difference and just like a smiling, friendly person with a camera. Good for you, let your work and references speak for you. I've never advertised anywhere except for a facebook page, and word of mouth. You certainly don't get a ton of jobs doing it that way (especially not right away). But when someone picks you because of an image you've taken or because someone else was so pleased with your work that really says something about what your doing. Anyone can have their friends drop some lines on a review website. Getting references from actual customers and having examples of actual weddings you've done is the way to go. It might not pay the bills but it is a nice side job and a rewarding break from the average 9-5 job.

Thanks. yeah I've shot 3 weddings so far and have another one in August. It is really rewarding to be such an important part of such a special time in people's lives. As for my friend the 4 grand included the whole day of shooting with the so called 2nd shooter and a disk with all the jpgs. Also, because they didn't get any shots of cocktail hour and my friend complained she got a whopping 100 dollar credit towards prints. I would have demanded the thousand bucks for the second shooter back but my friend is too sweet.