These days when everyone can afford professional level camera equipment, it makes sense to have more eyes capturing the special day. We don’t want to miss any moments on a once in a lifetime occasion, and the day goes by so fast it’s easy to miss or forget all the fun. Wedding venues are typically ginormous with groups gathered from one end to the next, reception hall, cocktail bar, and outdoor. The bride and groom can only be one place at a time through out the whole day. It really makes the couple happy when they look back at the photos to see what else happened knowing that their guests are having fun.
If you’ve been to any weddings these days, you’ll likely see at least two hired photographers working together – not to mention the possibility of another team of videographers. So when planning your wedding, it only makes sense to also have two photographers knowing how much is going on the whole day. It’s a popular request to book a wedding photographer that is either a team or can hire a second shooter.
Is there a difference between a couple, a team, or a second shooter you may ask? Absolutely! Knowing the difference is crucial to getting what you want within your expectations for the results. Just having more cameras doesn’t all produce the same results, and we will discuss the differences.
Ever since I started wedding photography in 2003, I’ve shot most of my early weddings solo with great success. While it slowly became more common place to have another photographer over the years, I also hired an additional photographer to help me cover more of the day. I will admit, having this “second shooter” in the beginning was a little more of a hassle than shooting solo – but it was mostly at the request of either the wedding couple, or the other photographer.
You read it right. I’ve had my share of aspiring photographers who want to learn more and experience with wedding photography, thus asking me to take them on as a second shooter. They wanted to shoot the wedding without the stress of being the main photographer. Stress you say? Correct! (Depending who you talk to). The inexperienced photographer will always talk about the stress of not getting the chance to mess up such an important day because you cannot redo a wedding day. The reason a majority of the wedding photographers that quit the business is mostly because of this stress that they cannot handle. After 20 years of weddings, I can honestly say it’s fun because we anticipate anything and everything that happens and we’re just here to capture everyone having a good time.
At the end of the day, helping an amateur photographer just means more time and effort spent training the person, and then having to sort through their photos which are mostly useless for me. There are times when I know I don’t even want to make copies of it and let them do whatever they want with it. This leads to what I define as a second shooter.
Two angles from the same intimate moment
Second Shooter
A second shooter usually means any photographer that is available for hire as the secondary photographer to the main photographer you hire for your wedding day. You hire Photographer A as your exclusive wedding photographer for the day and you request a second photographer for more coverage. Photographer A looks through his or her contacts or online for any other photographer with a wide range of experience levels to be a secondary (Photographer B). You really don’t know Photographer B’s skill level and will never meet them until your wedding day. You also don’t know how much B is truly contributing to the day because they may take a few hundred usable photos, twenty, or none at all. You only know what Photographer A delivers to you as the final product and you’ll just have to trust that the extra cost was worth it.
If you’re interviewing your main photographer and ask who their second is, and they have to pause and say they’ll find someone – you’re better of skipping that request from the start. That just means the photographer needs to find out who’s available that day willing to be a secondary assistant photographer. More is not always better.
Photography Studios
You might as well group a studio with multiple photographers in the same category as a bunch of second shooters. While the main photographer might be the same person you interview with, you’ll never know who the second or third photographers are. Yes, you might get a great deal on two or more photographers for your huge wedding day. They consist of a handful of low wage workers who know how to operate the camera, and they will snap as many photos as possible during the day to look busy and make the team look very professional. However, they’ve never met you, nor do they care about your actual day – they just want to get the paycheck at the end of the day and dump all the photos to the main photographer. You can also be sure that if a studio hires cheap secondary photographers, they also outsource all of their raw photos to another country to batch edit and get it out to you as soon as possible. Studios can easily pump out 100-200 cookie-cutter weddings a year, no sweat. No attention to detail either.
Associate Photographer
These are slightly better than second shooters as the pool of photographers are narrower and “usually” more skilled. The main photographer will list that they have other associate photographers they can hire as secondary. It’s a small list of professional photographers (or at least good enough) they can hire if they are available for the day. While their skill level is good enough for the main photographer, you still have never met them until your wedding day. You also cannot guarantee they’ve contributed fairly to the day, nor will you feel totally comfortable around them for the first time. Associate photographers are normally a safe bet, if you absolutely love and trust your main photographer. The small group of associates usually means they’ve worked together enough to learn what the main photographer desires and match their artistic vision. The communication is easy, they care about helping each other’s business succeed, and they usually care about the wedding couple too even if it’s not their own client. Associate photographers run their own wedding photography business too, they are just willing to help each other out as secondaries.
One anecdotal story I’ve heard. A couple hired Photographer A as their main, with an associate secondary. Photographer A decided to send Photographer B to do their engagement session. It turned out poorly because the couple felt awkward around B’s personality or lack of direction. The negative feeling also poured over to the final results of the engagement photos. If the engagement session doesn’t turn out well, can you imagine how worried you would feel for your wedding day if you don’t even know how well the main photographer works with you? We honestly think that’s a terrible thing to do to a couple.
See the whole picture with two angles
Photography Couple
If I may, choosing a photography couple is the ultimate choice for a wedding day. A couple does not necessarily mean a married couple, it can be any two photographers that work solely with each other under one company name.
Olya and I started our wedding photography business as a couple in 2015, even though we were already working together since we first met in 2011. Once we became “I Wanna Marry”, we were married and very experienced as a wife and husband photography couple. What defines us over the other categories of photographers is that we’re both working seamlessly as one entity due to our communication and skill delegation that we’ve built and honed over the years. Just like any relationship, work or personal, it takes time to develop and hone communication skills in a constructive way. We’ve also learned to efficiently and delicately pair both of our individual strength and weaknesses with each other so that we make us as a couple incredibly strong as one team.
Unlike most second photographers who shoot redundant photos because they also want the same shots for their own portfolio, we work as one to make the most out of two or more cameras. If we’re both photographing the same scene (bridal portraits for instance), we’re using two very different lens to get vastly different angles, focal length, and mood. We also feed off each other and the couple to continuously provide direction and feedback to the couple so they are at their most comfortable mood when they are with us.
Never miss a moment
Besides capturing the best of two or more angles, we also both provide white glove service to our couples. We both prioritize the happiness of the couple during their day, and we both equally try our best to do anything beyond just photography to make their day easier. It’s like having two additional bridal assistance.
There is an absolute peace of mind when you hire a couple photographer, you will have the two actual photographers you’ve met and worked with at the engagement session for your wedding day. I cannot overstate how important it is to know who is responsible for such important memories, and for someone to have gotten to know you as a wedding couple on a personal level be in charge of the story telling. When you book I Wanna Marry, it will always be Olya and Tony showing up at your wedding, not some associate or random photographer. You’ve hung out with us during your engagement session, you are excited to see us again, we will be there on your special day.
I hope you now have a better understanding on the differences between the types of photographers you will encounter during your search for a wedding photographer. It only takes the first meeting with us as a couple to feel comfortable that we care about your day and both share the same excitement and passion for our job as wedding photographers. We’ve had over 8 years as an official couple photographer, and we’re only growing stronger every year. There are practically no situations we haven’t been in that we cannot solve or remedy and produce the most stunning and cherishable memory for our lovely couples, just look at our blogs!
Yours truly, Olya and Tony
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