One of the most important memories in life is your wedding. How do you find a photographer when anyone with a camera and business card can call themselves a wedding photographer?
The saying "you get what you pay for" is not true in wedding photography. You can end up paying elite prices for less-than-elite photography. I've reviewed "portfolios" (I use the term loosely) of people with minimal skills and who proudly show me their business cards. There in beautiful script are the words "Wedding photography." Yikes.
The cost for wedding photography? Expect to pay $2,000 to $3,000 for solid professional work at a traditional wedding. Unfortunately, those who are skilled and those who aren't that skilled can charge similar fees. Does that sound like a lot of $$$ for a day's work? Nope. For a start, it's several days’ work. For that price, expect two photographers on your wedding day. A professional photographer will be shooting in RAW (not in the raw!) format. That way, they're working with digital "negatives" with massive amounts of information in each file. The processing of the digital files is intense and time consuming, adding several days of work by two professionals onto the actual wedding day.
If someone asks me how they can get away with cheap photography at their wedding, I tell them to hand out a bunch of disposable cameras and have everyone take photos. Or have everyone snap away with their cell phones. I'm not kidding; if you don't want to budget for professional photography, go the playful route. I've seen that work well, better than paying big bucks for a photographer who doesn't even specialize in weddings.
As for cell phones at the ceremony, have someone announce loudly and clearly that everyone is to put away their phones and tablets. Enforce this with a vengeance. Your photographer would appreciate it if you put up billboards and flashing signs announcing this. Nothing can ruin great wedding photos faster than a bunch of amateurs getting in the way of the person you're paying to cover your day.
What should you look for in a wedding photographer? You need a professional who can handle any kind of lighting situation. I am one of those people who loves working with ambient light (most of the time). However, I also have a strong working knowledge of professional lighting. Your photographer should be working with as little extra light as possible, but as much as necessary. I've seen so many wedding photos that could have been drastically improved if the photographer had a thorough working knowledge of both ambient and professional lighting.
You also want someone with good PR skills. The human touch is crucial on a couple's wedding day.
Recently, I've gone looking for wedding photographers to whom I can refer clients. People see my work in The Street Ballerinas Performance Art Project and ask me to photograph their wedding. Not my thing. I've done weddings in the past, but I don't do them now. Period. Ever. It's been several years since I've done one. When I did weddings I went for the quirky. Outdoors. The Old Mill in Toronto. A farm field. But nowadays I'm not in that groove, and you want someone who is doing this regularly. My specialties are the worlds of low light and action. My skills are finely tuned to dance, theatre, concert, fashion and street photography and my time is filled to the brim with that work, writing, and teaching at St. Lawrence College. Each type of photography demands different skill sets and has its own pace and timing. Shooting a wedding requires a different approach than shooting ballet.
When people don't understand why I won't do their wedding (particularly awkward if it's a friend), I use the analogy that you wouldn't ask a skilled neurosurgeon to perform your heart surgery. Nor, hopefully, would you ask your cardiologist to perform your kidney transplant. I'm sure that each could probably pull it off, but wouldn't you rather work with the person who specializes in whichever procedure you need and works consistently in that area? Same with photography.
For the ultimate wedding coverage at a traditional wedding, ideally you'll work with a team of two photographers. A single photographer cannot capture everything. A working pair will do a much better job.
Many wedding photographers work as the prime shooter (sorry, it's what we call ourselves) and hire a secondary photog to work with them. Imagine if you could hire a team that functions as such on a daily basis.
There are very few around. In Kingston, you've got Steven and Katie Koopman.
Reviewing the Koopmans’ work, they're a formidable team.
Steven and Katie Koopman are good photographers in part because they're good storytellers. Combine that with solid technical knowledge and you're on the path to superb wedding photography.
Steve's interest in photography took off in the mid-1990s. That was good timing. It meant he had to learn during the days of film, when a photographer had to thoroughly understand the relationship of shutter speed, aperture and ISO. You couldn't take a few thousand digital photos hoping that one might possibly look good. Each shot had to count.
"I wanted a creative outlet, personally," he said. "I never really took an art course. I wanted something artistic but still technical. I got into it in the film days. I was always an outdoor enthusiast, so enjoyed shooting from the canoe and doing it purely for my own enjoyment."
Lives change. Steven and Katie had children. Katie suggested that Steve should be doing his photography as a business. The husband half of the discussion disagreed.
"As per usual, she won," he said. That came with a smile, so I think he's rather pleased about the decision and its outcome.
Almost two decades after the initial entry into the world of images, and since getting serious about it in 2005, the Koopman pair has now shot somewhere between 300 and 400 weddings locally and outside the Kingston region. They've also branched out into portraiture and corporate work.
Some of their destination wedding work has included locations in the Dominican Republic and Florida. Next year, they've got a wedding to cover in Ireland. They're accompanying a Kingston couple (the groom is originally from Ireland) across the Atlantic to do the photography for their wedding.
Steve Koopman offers solid advice for anyone looking for a wedding photographer.
"The photographer's portfolio is so important," he said. "And not just five or ten photos, but snippets from the whole day. I like to show clients 75 to 100 photos to really tell the story of the day. People can see if the style matches what they are looking for."
Another recommendation from Koopman: speak with a photographer's past clients.
On their website, Katie notes: "Weddings are glamorous and dramatic. The funny thing is that Steven and I are very unassuming and relatively low key people. We have two beautiful, witty girl children, and two very comical black mutts. Last year we purchased the house, a half hour north of Kingston—a home that has been a real gift to us due to its solitude and the atmosphere we have created for ourselves. A small piece of a big world, we enjoy photographing its beauty."
Some wedding photographers get into it for the money or out of necessity. Not this pair. Again, Katie notes:
"But we love weddings. We met at a wedding, catered weddings while we dated, got married, and, well, here we are. Having a career in wedding photography, I can honestly say that I have found my professional purpose. I do not take what we offer as a service for granted. I love what I do."
Steven and Katie Koopman take an innovative approach to weddings. You'll get the classic portrait photos. You know, bride, groom, bridesmaids, groomsmen, mothers, fathers, aunts and uncles, all posed nicely. Everyone says they want spontaneous, but most want those posed photos, too. Mind you, what people will adore when they look back on them are the images that capture candid moments and tell the real love story of the day.
"We've actually had clients come to us after the fact," said Steven Koopman. "The photographer who shot their wedding did not do a good job, and they regret
their wedding photographs, so they ask us to shoot their anniversary. In many photo shoots, if something messes up, you can re-shoot it. But with weddings, you get one chance and one chance only. You have to get it right."
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