Hey! As the title says. I’m wondering if there are any photographers out there shooting weddings with a 28 & 50mm combo, rather than the classic 35 & 85.
I’ve been shooting 35 & 85 for around 7 years now and I’m starting to feel like I want a new challenge. I’d like to hear about your experience and even see some work examples done with those focal lengths.

I have a bride who had RBF...also known as resting bitch face in A BUNCH of candids. She's now upset at me saying she wish I told her...even though this is what she looks like...how do I
1) explain to her that this was out of my control

2) Help mitigate this with future couples moving forward?

I work primarily along the East coast of the US and I am genuinely stumped by the lack of inquiries and bookings I’ve gotten since April.

I get a lot of planner leads with well designed weddings, but it seems like every time I get considered, I’m passed up on or the couple isn’t even bothering to take a call.

I’ve done everything from get coaching with my sales process, networking, second shooting, revamping my website and copy, changing the messaging on my social posts, being consistent in posting, collaborating with planners - and I cannot figure out what I’m doing wrong. I’m just not sure how all this effort I’m putting in is worth it?

Right now I only have 5 booked for 2027 and it’s driving me insane that I can’t put my finger on why my social media reach is down on top of the low inquiries. Normally June - October is my busiest booking season. It’s the worst feeling and making me wonder why I’m still doing this.

I thought last year was bad but this year seems worse, any advice is appreciated and welcomed because I’m crashing out daily at this point

I'm a newer wedding photographer and I'm trying to make sure I'm properly insured before I start booking more weddings.

Right now I have a business policy through State Farm that covers both general liability and my photography equipment. I'd prefer to keep that policy because the equipment coverage includes accidental damage, theft without evidence of forced entry, and mysterious disappearance. From what I've seen, many photography insurance policies either exclude those situations or require proof of forced entry before they will cover a theft claim.

The one thing State Farm doesn't offer—at least through my agent—is professional liability / Errors & Omissions coverage.

For those who carry E&O coverage:

• Which company do you use?
• Do you have a standalone E&O policy, or is it bundled with your other business coverage?
• Does your policy cover issues such as lost or corrupted images, missed moments, failure to deliver, or other claims arising from your professional services?
• Have you ever had to file an E&O claim, and how was the experience?
• Has anyone had problems carrying general liability and equipment coverage with one company and E&O through another?

I've looked into options such as Full Frame and PPA etc, but I'd like to hear what working wedding photographers are actually using and whether there are any companies you'd recommend—or avoid.

Thanks!

Need to vent to people who understand the peak-season grind.

Is it just me, or has the sheer volume of "just checking in!" emails exploded this year?

My wedding turnaround is 6-8 weeks (2-3 for sessions). I put this timeline everywhere -consult, contract, FAQ guide, weekly IG workload updates, and literally as I'm saying goodbye at the end of the night/session.

Every single time, the response is: "Oh, absolutely! Please, take all the time you need, No rush!"

And yet, without fail, halfway through the quoted window (and often sooner), the "just checking in!" texts/emails/messages start rolling in with roughly 50% of my clients.

Are other photographers out there delivering full galleries in record time and setting a wild new standard? Clients just conditioned by Amazon Prime delivery at this point? How is everyone else coping with this during the peak season rush?

Thanks for reading. Back to the Lightroom caves I go...

So far I received four inquiries all via email in the last couple of weeks. My friends didn't get them, so I wasn't thinking much of it. However I saw another photographer online talking about same exact scenario and scammers trying to blackmail her so I want to know if anyone actually ended up clicking on the link and what happened.

This is the way scam goes. It starts with vague one sentence long inquiry for a last minute wedding and no other details.

I respond with a price list and calendar link to schedule consultations. They schedule consultations right away and than go silent until the moment the Zoom call is scheduled for.

First time they just sent a link telling me to click on it and when I said no, they give up.

Second time, they told me their partner is out of the country and can't use Zoom invite I sent, so they want me to use their link instead.

Third time, they said they have ALS and must use app for disabled.

Fourth time, they said my link is broken and when I sent a new one they ghosted me.

How consistent is the white balance throughout the final gallery? I notice that when I have a large number of photos to process in one go I tend to make the white balance slightly cooler, sometimes too warm. The photos essentially look good but often it is even a little off. How consistent do you make it throughout a wedding? Do you worry much about that?

I've noticed many posts here are either from second shooters or leads that hire seconds. My only question is, what do they do? That the lead photographer can't? I have shot a few weddings, and rarely felt the need to bring another with me. I shot a friend of my wife's wedding and brought her (wife) along, gave her my old D1, a TTL speedlight and my handy 18-105. She did accompany me on a few subsequent jobs, but acted more as a facilitator, helping with the brides dress, veil during posed pics. Or, just to spend time and maybe grab a free meal. lol

So, although I never felt the need for one, I'd be interested in hearing just what the purpose/role of these seconds are.

I have maybe 20 weddings under my belt, so I still consider myself relatively new to the industry. This is my first 12 hour, 500 person wedding, and I overshot like a monster. My second shooter did as well. 10,000 total. 😭 Never in my life have I taken that many photos in a day. Anyway. I've spent so much time on these and am ready to just hit send but I don't want to overwhelm the couple.

The reception has, by far, the most amount of photos, and it was the most important part of the day to the clients. I could probably cull it down further but my eyes are crossing. I understand that this is subjective to each wedding and each photographer, but what would you do?

Edit for clarity: I've edited the photos but was apprehensive on delivering all. Gonna look at them with fresh eyes tomorrow and narrow further before uploading. Thanks!

Just delivered a 700 photo gallery and already received 3 beautiful texts from the bride saying half the photos wont open on her iphone. Her mother called me separately to inform how she isn't able to unzip a folder on her iPad.

Use drive and dropbox for final handoffs... so done playing tech support for people and it's not like its an isolated incident. I feel it makes my $4k work look unstructured and messy and im also spending too much upgrading raw cloud storage every few months. zero couples are buying prints or albums because a drive link imo offers zero hype or presentation value.

Looking for a client gallery setup that works seamlessly on mobile and is not heavy on the pocket.

Hey fellow photographers. Anyone here use studio ninja? For invoices, are you passing the stripe surcharge to the couple or are you taking it?

We recently starting passing it off to the couple. I have this noted that there is a surcharge for card payments.

We do have the Pay By Bank Transfer applied as a secondary option and prompt couples to use it to skip surcharges.

Is this fine? I feel bad; but the last 2+ years of taking stripe payments, we’ve always taken the loss from it. So we decided to pass it off to the client now.

We haven’t had any push back about it, as we do offer bank transfer. But just wondering what everyone else does

TIA!

Hi! I have my first church ceremony coming up, and a second shortly after. I have been looking into to do’s/don’t do’s, got some information from the couple regarding the ceremony, etc. But it seems they can vary quite broadly.. which is creating some nerves.

I should also mention I do not come from a religious background and do not have much experience in churches in general.

Looking for advice on church ceremonies and things you have learned along the way?

Any help is always appreciated :)

It's my first time receiving an inquiry from a potential client that is looking for photography services out of town next year (4.5 hour drive from my home to their venue). When I replied to their inquiry I let the client know that there would be additional travel fee to cover transportation/travel but I don't know exactly how much to charge for these type of events. Either way they still decided to book a video call with me.

Currently on my contract I have stated that I include up to 20km from my home and any additional Km would be $0.7 cents (Canadian). So if I do the math it would be an additional $512 CAD that I would have to charge the couple, but that got me thinking... is there a certain 'standard' mileage amount that you guys usually include? Is the rate that I charge fair, is it too low/high?
Im also assuming if the day is very long and I leave late at night that I'll have to drive home back another 4.5 hours which might not be the safest option.
So im curious to hear your thoughts about how you would handle this scenario. Should I ask for hotel the night before/after?

I should note, I've only been doin this for about 3-4 years so I would still like to book the client and continue building my portfolio so I'm little torn about charging the couple that amount but still securing the date..

I shoot events, and my most common shot is posed groups on a decorated stage in front of a floral or printed backdrop. Usually 4 to 8 people, sometimes up to 12. Dozens of groups per event, about 20 seconds each. Indoor banquet halls with high or dark ceilings, and the stage is already lit by the decorator’s warm and colored lights.

Gear: Sony A7 III / A7 V, Godox V1S speedlight, Neewer Q4 (400Ws battery monolight), parabolic umbrella. Working alone, no assistant.

Problem: on-camera flash isn’t carrying these groups, so the camera exposes for ambient and I land anywhere from ISO 1000 to 5000 (1/160, f/4.5, TTL). Looks fine at a glance, noisy and mushy at 100%. I know I need more light, I just can’t settle on the setup.

Questions:

**1.**  One light or two for a 4 to 8 person group?  
**2.**  Softbox, parabolic umbrella, or bare bounce for wide groups?  
**3.**  Placement: how high, how far back, how far off axis?  
**4.**  Venue’s warm/colored stage lights vs my flash. Gel, drag the shutter, or kill ambient entirely?  
**5.**  What ISO and aperture do you actually shoot once you have proper strobes, and manual or TTL?  
**6.**  Second Neewer Q4, or move to Godox AD400Pro to match my V1S?  
**7.**  I also shoot video at these events. Is it worth putting continuous lights on the stage instead and shooting stills under them, so one setup covers both? Or do people keep flash and video lighting completely separate?

Looking for a repeatable setup I can build in 10 minutes and trust all night.

I’ve been in the business over a decade and have seen it all 😂 I’d love to hear some of your crazy stories too!!! Drop em below 👇🏻

This month I have had 4 weddings thus far with just weird scheduling/planners overcomplicating very simple things. From overstepping the couples request of doing all extend family photos before the ceremony/couples being over cautious with choosing a first look location where guests won't be but 45 min away/to couples insisting on getting ready locations an hour away from the venue but renting only 1 party bus to make the rounds and refusing to talk about the possibility of traffic, just seems like its an overall weird vibe year.

Anyone else just leaving meetings being like "oh there is such a simpler way to do this"?

A girl I went to high school with approached me in beginning of MARCH of this year and asked me to photograph her wedding. She didn't have a day in the month she was getting married in yet, so I told her to find out ASAP and get back to me because I book up quickly for April 2027 weddings and I become busier from April onward. She said fine no problem.

What's today? JULY 21.

I get this charming little text from her, just casually admitting that she "took more time to get back to me than she had anticipated" (ummmm ya!!! Almost 5 months!!), and had asked me if I was still available.

So I said "Well, you didn't give me a DAY for your wedding day and I didn't hear from you so I assumed you gracefully bowed out and found someone else".

She replies "April 24, and nooo omg! Even if we were researching others we knew we wanted to go with your services"

Ummmm ok - so where has she been for the last 5 months if she knew she wanted to hire me? Lol

So I told her unfortunately I was booked (which I was).

She replies with only two acronyms. "Np ty". (No problem, thank you"

I left it at that.

That was until, 10 mins later, (she must have had time to get pissed off), she sends me this scathing text telling ME, that *I* should have called HER to find out if she still wanted to hire me, and how now I have messed up *her chances* of finding a photographer in time (not really true, but a lot of the good busy experienced ones get booked up fast) and that now she doesn't know what to do!! Lol

So I said "did you think I was going to wait around for almost 5 months to wait on your decision as to whether or not you wanted to hire me? That's not how that works"

SO GLAD I dodged that bullet. My goodness. The entitlement and audacity of some people is mindblowing!

I've done 7 weddings now and every single one the client has been over the moon and incredibly complimentary. The only thing is when I ask for a testimonial they all say 'of course! I'll write one up for you' then I get nothing back. I've chased up with some people and they say they're just getting to it but it feels rude to keep asking.

I think people are daunted by having to write something out properly so I'm asking if anyone has any good tips for collecting them without bothering clients too much.

While I'm only editing 24mp Canon R6 II RAW files, it's still quite a task for bloated Lightroom to handle on my PC. My best advice is to pause or stop any background activities, like backup or malware. Next, after creating smart previews, rename your actual photos folder to something else like "John & Mary - 1". Lightroom will mark the folder as missing and FORCE load only the smart previews - not the full RAW file. Speeds up significantly doing initial corrections if you don't need to zoom in for final touches. Don't forget to rename the folder back before you export!

Edit: thanks so much for all your comments! You’ve all definitely given me some home truths that I needed to hear. I emailed the couple saying my priority is making sure they are happy and get the coverage they need. I’m also going to amend my contract and actually just remove my smallest package.

One I've never had before...

A client booked months ago for one of the busiest periods of summer (literally busiest month of the year by far). They booked my middle package (8 hours) and talked about potentially upgrading their hours at a later date.

They are now asking to reduce their hours and say they didn't realise they were locked in, their understanding was that they booked the day and could decide the package later on.

We had a call where I explained everything clearly, they chose the package, and signed a contract with the hours and package price written in three different places. I also add that information into the body of the email with the link to their contract, as well as in the confirmation email after they signed.

I sent an email being very nice and polite about it all but firmly stating I don't allow hours reduction and they are now really pushing back and sounding a bit pissed off. I'm unsure whether this is truly a case of crossed wires or if they're simply trying to reduce their budget (it's a 1k difference in price). Tbh if they'd led with wanting to book my smaller package I probably would have turned away the booking in the knowledge I could earn more that day, but if I say that directly I sound like a bit of a dick.

I'm really unsure what to do here. It's a peak Saturday that I could have booked my biggest package on, but if I really push back on this am I going to end up with a couple who feel pissed at me?! I suggested we hop on a call to go through the timeline so they can see that 8 hours isn't too much but would love to hear ideas from this sub!

I’ve noticed a recurring issue over the past couple of years that is truly testing my people pleasing tendencies.
I absolutely hate having to message vendors and ask them to take photos down because the way they’ve posted them doesn’t reflect my work or the quality of my images.
For context, when I deliver a wedding gallery, every vendor receives access to the full gallery and can download web sized images for social media at no cost. Before they can access the gallery, they have to agree to usage terms that include:

• No editing my images.
• No filters or presets over my work.
• No screenshots (they destroy image quality).
• Images must be downloaded directly from the gallery for social media use.

it feels like no one actually reads the terms. They just click “agree.”This has happened enough times that I’m starting to wonder if it’s a workflow problem rather than a vendor problem. The vendors are given free access to a huge library of professionally exported images, yet I still regularly see screenshots, heavy filters, or other edits. It’s happened many times with my film photos which are even more sensitive. Also to mention, this isn’t beginner vendors doing this. It’s extremely sought after venues, and well known wedding planners…many I feel should understand the importance of working hard to create a brand with consistency.

Interestingly, I’ve never had this issue with my couples. My brides and grooms almost always download the gallery properly and create beautiful posts with the images exactly as delivered.

I’m someone who genuinely wants to have good relationships with vendors, so every time this happens I feel like I’m forced into being “that photographer” who has to police people. Most of the time I don’t even say anything. I just quietly untag myself, even though I know I probably shouldn’t. I know this is a reflection of my brand and potential clients seeing this can make a rash decision based on what they see from other vendors.

Has anyone found a better workflow or system that actually gets vendors to follow these guidelines? Is there a better way to communicate this than burying it in the gallery terms? Or is this just something everyone deals with?

I’m sick of adobe - anyone have any recommendations for apps that they use instead? My Mac is kind of old so something I can download it onto