Professional Guest Photographer

Photo by: Brett with Birdsong Photography (with permission)

 I was wandering along my Facebook stream, and I happened upon this... it's a view I've seen more times than I can count and it makes me sad.

It makes me sad for a few reasons; 1. This means that the Professional Photographer is missing a potential once in a lifetime image, that the bride and the groom are paying them to capture. And 2. This means that the guest(s) are really not "in the moment" they are too busy glued to their digital device to enjoy the actual moment and create a memory, rather than a less than stellar photo.

Here's the deal, this image sparked a really nice conversation amongst Professional Photographers, and I wanted to share this with you, mostly because I love ya'll so much. And becasue knowing your special day is coming up, you may want to ask Aunt Martha to P-U-T-T-H-E-C-A-M-E-R-A-D-O-W-N.

Your photographer is paid really good money to take amazing pictures of you on your wedding day and can miss something vital that cannot be redone, or reinacted, or restagged.

Brett (the photographer) also has a clause in his contract that states: "...you, the bride/groom, understand that well-meaning guests with cameras are responsible for missed shots." It totally bites that a photographer has to have something like that in their contract.

Some of the photographers weighed in:

"I missed a 'kiss' shot once because someone with on-camera-flash double flashed my nicer, softer, bounced flash. *sigh*." (said Photographer Megan)

"I missed the brides and grooms exit, with sparklers and everything, because of the grooms dad!" (said Photographer Michelle)

"...linebacker bridesmaid a couple of years ago that body-slammed me so she could get the bouquet toss with her iPhone..which I missed because of said body-slamming..." (said Photographer Brett)

I remember a couple of years ago Off Beat Bride did a post on An Unplugged Wedding. This is something to definitely consider.

What are your thoughts?