Oh dear, when someone writes a letter like the one this anonymous photographer published yesterday on Hindsight Bride, you know the end of the world is about to start! I went on Twitter yesterday and saw comments that I struggled to understand, about ‘normal weddings’, ‘vintage weddings’, ‘segregating the wedding industry’ and so on and so forth. It wasn’t until this morning, when I took some time to investigate the matter and I saw Annabel’s response on her fabulous Love My Dress blog that I got my head around what those Twitter comments were referring to.
For a moment I nearly sympathised with that photographer. But then, reading Annabel’s point of view, and thinking about my experience as a newbie wedding blogger, I’ve realised that the issue lies more on marketing strategies than on how good or bad photography is or how many details a wedding shoot is showcasing.
♥ A blog exists to inspire couples, brides or individuals that love all things pretty. FACT.
♥ Details are key to inspire our readers. FACT.
If a wedding is a collection of portrait photography, then you need to understand that as beautiful, romantic and sweet the photography or the individuals are, it might not be that inspiring to look at pictures of a couple hugging, kissing or smiling at each other. A bride or a couple reads a blog to get ideas for their wedding, not to get an idea of how to pose in front of the camera (although, that might help too!). If a couple asks you to take traditional photos of their own wedding and simply require portraits and posing images rather than images of details, then you may have to accept the fact that this specific wedding may not be suitable for publication on a blog.
Now, when we talk about details, we are not all necessarily referring to vintage details. Some bloggers like vintage, some don’t.
As far as I’m concerned, my wedding was pretty minimal, nevertheless breathtaking to many (or so I’ve been told). But when I featured my wedding on Linen and Silk, I had a very small selection of images I could share, not because there were no details in my wedding, but because the photography was poor quality. And you know what excuse the photographer gave me to justify the fact that he’s cut people’s feet on lots of pictures, he took no second shots of all those images where the guests had closed eyes and he managed to photograph himself in the mirror? “There were no inspiring or striking details in my wedding”. That clearly wasn’t true, but the point is – to be featured on a blog you need a combination of two things: good quality photography & details – vintage or non-, it doesn’t matter. Different people like different styles. I like minimal, urban weddings. Vintage is not for me and I guess is not for the readers I attract either.
Just to give you an idea, these are various reasons why I will not feature a wedding shoot on my blog. If:
♥ The photography isn’t good quality, and with good quality I mean PROFESSIONAL. Just because one has a big camera with incredible lens doesn’t make one a good photographer. And just because someone knows how to use Photoshop it doesn’t mean that their professionally retouched photographs are good either.
♥ The type of photography is totally irrelevant to my readers. Recently I was approached by a Swiss photographer whose site portrays images of weddings on the mountains. Beautiful photography, but the questions I have to ask myself are: How is this going to inspire or enrich my couples? Is there anything in this shoot that can be taken on board by my readers and recreated if they want to?
♥ The photographer approaches me either showing that they haven’t even looked at my submission page or in a very casual manner. I don’t think of myself too highly, but the least you can do is show that you WANT to be featured on my blog because you like the environment where your images will sit. I am not forcing you to approach me. But if you do, the least you can do is have a nice pleasant manner about yourself.
♥ A photographer cannot be bothered to provide further details on the wedding, such as the name of other suppliers. These are key information that help the readers who may want to get married in the same location or who like that specific wedding design, but also help the other suppliers get a bit of exposure. I like to share the love, so why not?
I agree. Details are often what make weddings compelling to publish. Without details you need something else. You need content. You need substance. A Practical Wedding comes to mind. Meg will publish weddings with DIY point-and-shoot photography, where guests take mediocre snapshots. Her engagement is amazing because the focus is on the wedding stories told by the couple. The pictures are extra and somewhat superfluous. Another example is the Offbeat Bride. Many of the real weddings are shot by amateur or guest photographers. They’re often not great, but the weddings are so out of the box that that blog also has a high degree of reader engagement. So you don’t necessarily need amazing picture to have a successful blog that resonates with readers, but in the absence of great photography and lots of details, you better have something else to offer–something substantial. Otherwise, your right, the weddings get boring fast.
Thanks so much for sharing you thought on this!
Thank you for your comment Christie. It’s one of those delicate topics that is hard to discuss without upsetting people who work in the industry. As you say, though, weddings that are featured on wedding blogs need to be a combination of beautiful photography (most ideal), pretty details or/and an interesting story, something the reader can identify with. But we certainly can’t be blamed for brides feeling insecure about their wedding (and I would actually challenge the photographer who wrote this as I genuinely don’t think that this is a widespread symptom). Thank you again for sharing your thoughts!