Oops - A lesson for budding wedding photographers perhaps

A lesson for budding wedding photographers perhaps: link

More a lesson for brides and bridegrooms to be...

Don't entrust anything important to morons.

I learned an important lesson on the very first wedding I photographed....

....It was back in the film days (around 30 years ago) and 2 people I knew asked me if I would take the official photos of their big day. I was very careful and methodical, taking way more shots than I should need from every angle conceivable, keeping my nerves under control the whole way. After the formalities were over they invited me to evening the reception where I finished off the last film (6 x 36 exposures that day) and then joining in the celebrations with a few drinks.

The next morning I went to package up the films for processing, only to find No Films in the camera bag. I literally ran round to the reception venue to find the owners sweeping everything off the tables into bin bags - the table I had been sat at hadn't been cleared yet, and the feeling of relief to see those 6 black canisters with grey tops sitting amongst the ballons, glasses and spent party poppers, is remembered to this day.

And guess what, of all the weddings I photographed since that day I never had an alcoholic drink at one of them

As Chris says "Don't entrust anything important to morons."

Don't entrust your wedding photography to 'budding professionals' It beggars belief that he thought his wallet was the safest place says one who has just lost his wallet.

More to the point, isn't the first thing you'd do is back-up the images, either at the reception or immediately on arrival back at the office/home?

I do this as a matter of course, and I never do anything as important as a wedding; it's just part of my work-flow.

Yes, it's the leaving it there for a week that made me think he was a moron.

Any one of us can make an honest mistake, no matter how apparently unbelievable. But the not bothering for as long as a week, for something as important as someone's wedding, just beggars belief.

Why did he take the memory card out of the camera in the first place???

Perhaps he was planning to drop it off at the developers?

So they didn't pay him, yet expect professional service? It's a shame and he's a douchebag for being so careless with his friend's pictures they had asked him to take, but they are the ones who took a gamble on their wedding photos.

They did take a gamble, for sure.

But I don't think it follows at all that if you're not paid, you shouldn't be expected to give a professional service.

If they really were doing him a favour by letting him do their wedding, then effectively they were paying, and if he's a budding pro, he should be professional whether or not it's actual money he's getting.

They've sure paid now.

The other thing is... *one* memory card?????????

Just one?? How many pictures did he take for goodness sake?

I suppose you can get a lot of JPGs on a biggish card. But the pattern is starting to fit, isn't it.