Recently a member of our team shadowed a Professional Photographer during a wedding Photo Shoot.  As we insure a number of photographers trying to become paid professionals, we thought it would be a good idea to get first-hand experience of the issues and risks faced by these new Photographers. We are going to assume you know how to use your equipment and have had discussions about how to get the best shots and what type of shots you need to get. You may not, however, have experienced some of the pitfalls along the way.

  • Last minute.com is not a good idea, so allow plenty of time. Develop routines for checking all equipment needed is ship shape and Bristol Fashion, charged up and ready to go, including back-up equipment. That includes memory cards.
  • Check for any travel problems. Our team member set off intending to be at the venue two hours before the wedding. Stuck in a traffic jam for three hours meant he was one hour late…….Fortunately the Photographer was on time.
  • Rather than praying for a nice sunny day, there has to be a plan B. On the day of this particular wedding, the weather wasn’t too good, so it’s important to be prepared for all types of weather conditions (especially in Britain). Brollies can come in handy for instance.
  • Have a back-up plan on the day. Apart from more than one camera and lens, you can never have enough memory cards and batteries.
  • Always survey the venue for both the wedding ceremony and the reception before the day of the shoot. On this day the Photographer had surveyed the Church but not the reception venue. Although it did stop raining, the reception venue had no undercover outdoor places to take the shots and indoors resembled the black hole of Calcutta.
  • Develop strategies and routines to keep everyone together for the pre-planned shots. Deploying help from a responsible family member or wedding guest to act as Shepherd is very helpful as are ways to extract smiles from bored and tired youngsters.

Obviously no amount of planning and preparation can totally remove the risks you face and that is why insurance is the ultimate back-up plan.

Contact us for advice on the range of insurance protection we can provide www.infocusinsurance.co.uk