As the New Jersey Portrait Photographer, I am always grateful when any of my clients or friends refer me on Facebook in any local group to a person who is looking for a photographer. Trust me, not that many people remember you after they are done with you. Maybe its because we didn’t really stabilize the relationship but I do have plenty of people that remember my name. I am glad they remember me and I only think positive about these people. What I noticed though when people refer their photographer, many of them have no idea that not all photographers are equal, let me explain.
One young lady was looking for a wedding photographer, she didn’t really specify a lot only that she was looking for a wedding photographer. In her Facebook comments, I noticed plenty of people started to refer the photographers that they knew. Usually, it’s either they are their clients or friends. I was intrigued to look around and do a little more of the search because nowadays we have many photographers in my area and this is a great way to find out your competition. After five clicks on the different photographer, it really started bothering me, people were placing newborn photographers and family photographers, it was obvious that people don’t realize that a newborn photographer probably never shot a wedding.
Do people think that all photographers can do everything? So on the recent post of a similar question, I posted a question to the person. What type of photographer they are looking for ( she didn’t specify) so people won’t give her 50 names of all different photographers. In return, people started questioning my comment. So I had to explain my self and I would like to explain myself here as well.
Just because I am a photographer, it doesn’t mean I do it all! I compare photographers to lawyers. In law there are many branches, it can be criminal, real estate, bankruptcy, divorce, corporate and etc. If you are getting the divorce with your significant other, would you hire a criminal lawyer? Probably not! Why not? Because he doesn’t practice law in divorce courts. Sure, there are some lawyers that do a little of everything but wouldn’t you rather hire someone who practices just in divorce? This lawyer is probably better because he/she continuously deals with divorce laws all the time.
Same thing with photographers, there are portrait photographers that are dealing with people. There are also nature photographers and product photographers and commercial photographers and wedding photographers and newborn photographers and seniors photographers and maternity photographers and boudoir photographers. You see where I am going with this? Wedding photographers have their own check list that they are going through while photographing the wedding. They have their own poses and structures when it comes to what to shoot. If you have a specific thing that you would like to photograph, then look for those types of photographers. Newborn photographer learned how to pose a baby and has their own poses. You give a baby to a wedding photographer, he won’t know what to do with it. The Same thing can go to any of the photographers that I just listed. Practice makes it better and also photographers investing money on education for a specified field. We do know how to use the cameras. A camera is just a tool, there is more to it than that.
What I do is portraits it includes: maternity, family, and senior. I do events and small weddings. I do weddings that big wedding photographers don’t want to deal with because it’s not worth their time. They like to photograph you over 8-12 hours and do big production photos. I hope I cleared it enough for everyone and gave a little education on how photographers work. If you are pregnant or have a family you would like to photographs. I will gladly meet up with you.
