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What do you consider "meddling" to be, and in what way, do guests impede the hired photographer from doing his job?
If a guest brings an envelope full of money for the Bride and Groom, why are you calling the dinner free?
This is a real problem at weddings. First, the guests taking pictures with iPads, cell phones, etc... get in the way of the paid photographer. Some are quite brazen, the guest will stand in the isle taking pictures while the paid photographer is trying to capture the same moment.
Another issue is if the guest has a camera with flash, the light from the flash can interfere with the light for which the professional photographer has already metered his/her camera. If the two flashes fire at the same time, then the picture will be completely blown out.
If the bride and groom have paid thousands for a photographer and the pictures s/he will provide, shouldn't the bride and groom get professional pictures they covet?
This is a real problem at weddings. First, the guests taking pictures with iPads, cell phones, etc... get in the way of the paid photographer. Some are quite brazen, the guest will stand in the isle taking pictures while the paid photographer is trying to capture the same moment.
Another issue is if the guest has a camera with flash, the light from the flash can interfere with the light for which the professional photographer has already metered his/her camera. If the two flashes fire at the same time, then the picture will be completely blown out.
If the bride and groom have paid thousands for a photographer and the pictures s/he will provide, shouldn't the bride and groom get professional pictures they covet?
^^^^^
That is why its a problem.
I occasionally 2nd shoot for a friend, and she asks that everyone turns their cameras off during the ceremony. She offers plenty of time for everyone to take their shots, but not while she is working. She is paid to do a job, the wedding photographer is a "service" provider that was hired just like they hired the catering. You don't go around picking at the food before everyone else do you? and just like your spouse doesn't lean over your dentist when he works on you, same courtesy should be had for the couple getting married and their photographer. This event does not happen every weekend for them, it costs them a lot of money, and the photos are actually the only thing they get to keep afterwards. Food gets eaten, cake gets eaten, and they don't take the venue home either.
The digital age has turned many into wannabe photographers/videographers, snapping photos/videos, trying to be the first one to get them. This is a serious problem at concerts as well, floor seating used to be the seats to get. Now you can't see the show for everyone having their arms outstretched to video the event. It seems this is how people prove they were there, rather than enjoying the experience.
The digital age has turned many into wannabe photographers/videographers, snapping photos/videos, trying to be the first one to get them. This is a serious problem at concerts as well, floor seating used to be the seats to get. Now you can't see the show for everyone having their arms outstretched to video the event. It seems this is how people prove they were there, rather than enjoying the experience.
Yeah, exactly!
...and what's worst is that not only they miss the event, but after posting somewhere nobody looks at it! So its a waste of time, experience & bandwidth.
Who has time to scroll for a month to get back to some video posted two months ago?
Hopefully people will start realizing how much they are really missing out on.
Although this has been a problem for us way before the digital age, it has increased. I had to add a few things to my wedding contract.
1. I am to be the only professional photographer there wit exception to videographers. This is to battle the Uncle Bobs and MWACS that show up with their consumer grade DSLR.
2. No photography is allowed by guests during the ceremony or the formals. No cameras, no phones, no iWhatevers. If someone does and we miss a shot we will not be held responsible.
When I first started we would let it go and sometimes we still do. But, if something goes wrong we have covered it in the contract. If the bride and groom don't like it, they are free to go someplace else for their wedding photography.
I don't normally try to limit guests from shooting except when I'm setting up the shots -- "formals". With those I put my foot down. I have it in the contract that there will be no other photography during that time, and if there is I'll walk and keep the fees. At one time I had a sandwich board that I took to weddings stating that, but I've since just left it up to the bride and groom to enforce it.
The problem is that if you allow Uncle Harry to shoot over your shoulder, you can't ask Aunt Harriet not to, so pretty soon you've got a half dozen guests wanting to get their shot. Sometimes, when we have plenty of time, I'll tell the B&G that I'll allow guests to shoot between my shots if they like, but more than often they'll say no, that they have enough trouble just smiling for me and they'd rather get it done and relax.
But during the ceremony and reception, I just expect guests to stay out of my way as much as possible. That usually works, but I've certainly had guests step out in the isle in front of me or between me and the couple when they're cutting the cake. I shoot them, so if I don't get a good shot the couple knows who is responsible for it.
The worst case I've had was when I shot my step-daughter's wedding. She couldn't afford a photographer so I did it for free. The groom's parents knew I wasn't a "hired" photographer so figured I had no rights that they didn't have. One of them was jumping in front of me for everything.
And then there was the wedding DJ that I used to run into at a lot of weddings. She had a little digital P&S that she carried with her during the reception and was constantly in front of me. I finally started asking the couple, when it was time to sign a contract, who their DJ was going to be. I'd tell them if it was "Jane Doe", that they'd have to find another photographer.
The sad part is, these wanna-bee photographers could, if they wanted to, provide a nice package of prints for the couple by staying out of the photographer's space and shooting the guests. I did that once for a niece. Knowing most of the guests and hanging with them, I was able to provide her with a completely different perspective -- candids of all the guests. She told me, about a decade after her wedding, that they still had the photo album that I'd given them on their coffee table, and that she loved it because it showed all their friends and relatives having a good time while they were off getting their pictures taken. Guests CAN provide nice pictures and not be in the way, but if they insist on trying to get the same photos as the official photographer, they'll end up with crappy pictures AND be in the way.
Quoting from the article:
"The best weddings are often the ones that celebratethe couples' personalities. It shows in the details -- from Broadway show tune processionals and choreographed dances to "Star Wars"-inspired cake toppers..."
Later in the article, a wedding where amateur photography was forbidden is described as so much "better", because the guests could concentrate better on catching the "inside jokes written into the ceremony".
I'm sorry, but weddings are not comedy routines. They do not exist to portray your "personality". They are not supposed to be cute, or funny, or entertaining. I'm as far from Catholic as you can get, but am totally in awe of the deceased Pontiff's reminder to his subjects, that weddings are sacraments, not pageants.
Frankly, a lot of today's weddings have gone beyond being merely tacky/scummy/trashy/low-class/gaudy/sleazy - beyond sacrilegious/irreverent/profane - and now lead me to wonder whether those involved are not just plain SUBHUMAN.
Yes, it is horrible that people have no better standards of behavior than to get out of their pews (or out of line, or wherever they are supposed to be at that moment), and ruin the atmosphere of a supposedly sacred moment, by inserting their pushy selves into that moment, by snapping pictures.
I mean, even I, the child of a drug-addicted prostitute, growing up in a shack with three generations of backwoods hookers, knew, by age five, that there were moments (like Weddings and other churchey times...) when you were supposed to sit still and be quiet. (or my toches were going to be dragged outside, for a whuppin' they'd be feeling for the rest of the day)
How is it that middle-aged (and presumably middle-class) people have still somehow not caught on to that 'Sit Still and Be Quiet' concept? An extension of that concept is not making other people's moments about you, by snapping pictures or otherwise being obnoxious.
But I've gotta say, that anyone whose wedding "script" includes "inside jokes", or Pop songs off the radio, is so far beyond social redemption, they really shouldn't mind Uncle Eddie's or aunt Chantal's fat butts out in the aisle, or under the bride's armpit, or over the Minister's shoulder, jostling for the "best shot". Frankly, if you are going to have a tacky wedding, then you need to expect tacky behavior from your guests.
Last edited by GrandviewGloria; 07-14-2013 at 10:19 PM..
1. I am to be the only professional photographer there wit exception to videographers. This is to battle the Uncle Bobs and MWACS that show up with their consumer grade DSLR.
So my slow kit glass won't do the job like that fancy 70-whatever f2.somethin you got there?
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What do you consider "meddling" to be, and in what way, do guests impede the hired photographer from doing his job? 
