Vendor Interview
Photographers
Interview Transcript
What makes a professional photographer?
Jennifer Neves
A professional photographer should show up on the day of the wedding, prepared they should be ready to go.
James Anthony
It boils down to experience. When you're doing it as long as I have in other professionals, you have seen it all.
Stephanie Berenson
A professional photographer has two jobs - one to make you look good and two to make you feel good. And the third job is to make sure that the photos come out exactly how you want them to.
Sabrina Scolari
So being a professional photographer means that you have years and years of experience and school education and on-field education
How does a professional photographer communicate with their clients?
James Anthony
A professional photographer should be able to communicate with their clients with every little detail possible.
Sabrina Scolari
Open and honest about the services, open and honest about the pricing information.
Jennifer Neves
I firmly believe that if I am transparent and my clients are transparent with me, then the end product will be exactly what they expect.
Stephanie Berenson
It's very important that you feel very comfortable going into the session and have everything be very transparent through the whole process.
How do you keep things running smoothly?
James Anthony
A professional photographer keeps things running smoothly with the ability to take charge.
Sabrina Scolari
So it is important to go get together with the client before the wedding, write out the timeline.
Jennifer Neves
A professional photographer should show up with a bulletproof timeline. That includes who needs to be where and at what time.
Stephanie Berenson
By following the timelines, making sure everyone's prepared and really just following through all of our promises.
How important is it for a photographer to work well with other vendors?
Stephanie Berenson
It's very important for professional photographers to have a relationship with all of the other vendors because we are the vendors of your day and we are the ones that will make sure that everything runs smoothly.
James Anthony
It is very important for a photographer to be able to work with other vendors. If you’re experienced and you’ve been doing this for a long time like myself, you know most of the people. You know the players in the game, you know the guys and girls that are on top of their game, and you know where they’re going to be and they know where you’re going to be.
Jennifer Neves
As professionals, we should work together in order to make the bride and groom’s day go as smoothly as possible.
Sabrina Scolari
We are a team and we work together to make your day a memorable one.
What kind of equipment should a professional photographer have?
Sabrina Scolari
Being a professional photographer means that your heart and soul has to be in there and also your equipment has to be up to date, true to the highest standards possible because the day of the wedding, you need to make sure everything runs flawlessly.
Jennifer Neves
A professional photographer should also have backup equipment. Should one of their pieces of equipment fail, they need to be able to pull up another piece of equipment out of their bag and continue on their day.
James Anthony
It’s electronics. It changes all the time. No different than iPhones and computers, it becomes outdated almost within a couple of years. So if you’re a pro, you should be changing your equipment every 2 to 3 years minimum so you have the best equipment possible on the wedding day.
How should a well-polished photographer dress on the event day?
Stephanie Berenson
A professional photographer should show up being ready to rock and roll but also be very professional-looking.
Jennifer Neves
They should not be showing up with clothing that does not seem to fit the day.
James Anthony
You know pants, not jeans. You should have on a professional-looking shirt. If you have a logo shirt, I think that looks fantastic.
Sabrina Scolari
It is most important to blend in and not to stand out during a wedding celebration.
Jennifer Neves
In the wedding professional photographer world, it’s just like anything else. You do get what you pay for.
James Anthony
A pro will have an error with their camera or something and get through it instantly. They won’t panic, they won't move onto something else. They’ll fix it, no one will even know what happened and you’re ready to keep going.
Stephanie Berenson
I think that when hiring a professional photographer you have to keep in mind that you’re not only hiring somebody to document your day but you’re also hiring an artist.
Sabrina Scolari
Studying the subject, studying lighting, studying the environment, scope out venues and locations just to be familiar with the lighting, the landscape of it. So when we have you, the bride, there for us we know exactly where to go, where the best lighting is in order to bring you the best results.
