The bride walks along the path to her wedding at Timberline Lodge on
Mt. Hood. At an elvation of 6,000 feet it is almost always sunny in the
summertime.
Bring suntan lotion.

The groom gives a "thumbs-up" after the vows.

Capturing the spontaneity of the couple means being prepared — which allowed me to "grab" this image as the couple walked back from their Oregon coast beachfront wedding at the Inn at Otter Crest last summer.

A wedding is a combination of both posed and "grab" shots.

Wedding Bubbles in the air. Capturing the whole wedding is the goal. And getting humorous or unusual photographs is something I am always striving for. I am always open to suggestions from the bride and groom as to what pictures they want and I then work to accomplish that goal.

Here, I waited till two bubbles worked to my advantage from a hillside and snapped away as they floated into the correct position.

Of course there are always some posed pictures.

 

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Wedding photographic checklist
Wedding Day Event Flow
Wedding day "Emergency Supplies"
Wedding day suggestions on making life easier for yourself, your guests and other helpful ideas
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Sample images from weddings

Flat Rate Wedding Fee

Joanna and Husband. For a large extensive wedding over multiple days of photographing it is best to go with my flat rate photographic fee of $850.00 . In addition to the flat fee, for every roll of film that I shoot during a wedding I charge $50.00 per roll of color negatives (36 exposure roll). With each roll you get a set of 4x6 prints and the images on a CD.

Unlike other professional wedding photographers I do not own or rent a studio. This allows me to do something quite different: I give the negatives to the couple. I do not have to support a studio, assistants, and other expenses to maintain a studio / outside office so I can charge less.

I only do one wedding a week. Thus I am available throughout the whole week for you. When you hire me I arrive when you want me there and leave when you state that I can. I work with your schedule, not mine.

An outdoor wedding in the Oregon spring rain. A photographer
must be prepared to operate in all types of weather.

Traditional Wedding Photography Services Provided When Using The Flat Fee

• Scout over location before rehearsal / wedding
• Meet with pastor / minister to find out any special photo restrictions as needed.
• Listen and follow as to what you want photographically at your wedding.
• Attend the Bachelor and Bachelorette party
• Attend all rehearsals.
• Attend wedding
• Shoot anywhere from 3 to 15 rolls of film - normally color negative Kodak Portra 160. I can shoot slides or black and white - whatever is desired.
• Process the film and meet again to give you the film and prints.
• Get paid at that point

Hourly Rate for Weddings

The Groom and his wife play around on the golf course.

Some weddings are too short in duration which makes it inappropriate for the flat fee schedule. If you expect all the wedding functions to last less than 8 hours it is best to use the hourly rate schedule. Weddings at the Mormon Temple, Sellwood church, wedding chapels and other venues are best covered by the hourly rate.

The hourly rate is $95.00 an hour (two hour minimum) plus an hourly travel fee of $25.00 an hour. The per roll fee of $50.00 for each roll of 35mm film also applies.

I can always attend and photograph any of the functions that occur for a wedding. You can pick and choose what is to be attended and recorded on film and then the charges are based on the actual hours I spend traveling and in attendance for each function.

You are paying me to be there for my expertise to take photos. The total quantity of images that I take is based on the wedding checklist. If only one image is taken of each item in the checklist then it would take 3 rolls of film - 1 frame per item. This, however, is unrealistic since people blink, someone moves, or lots of pictures of various family groupings, friends, individuals etc are desired then the image and roll count goes up. Since I have no way to know exactly how many pictures that a person wants, I split out the expertise - my time - vs. the quantity of film taken. If I spent 5 hours at an event but take only three rolls I still spent my time being available to take those images. Spending 5 hours there and I take 10 rolls of film I still spent same amount of time but the expenses went up due to more film being used and there is no fair way to average that out in a combined rate. The $50.00 per roll covers alls cost relating to taking the pictures. The average roll count for a wedding is 5 (180 pictures).

Other Services Provided

For those couples who travel to Portland Oregon, get married and then return home, I will process the film and send the film and prints to you after the processing is complete. Shipping charge is $15.00 if shipped USPS (insured, USA states) or $15.00 plus what ever the cost of FedEx, UPS, Emery or other delivery service you want me to use.

A $150.00 deposit reserves me for your wedding.

Budgeting

The flat fee that I charge for a full service wedding is $850.00 but you should budget at least $1,200 for overall photography work for your wedding. This allows for the average 8 rolls of film taken plus money that you will spend getting your wedding album, reprints and enlargements done - remember I do not keep the negatives so you have to do your own reprints and enlargements.

The amount of money to budget my hourly rate is much more varied but it has been as low as $350, but it averages $600. The average number of rolls used at a 4 hour wedding is 5.

Here is a wedding photographic checklist to give you an idea of some of the pictures that could be taken and help in planning how much time to reserve to allow those pictures to be taken.

Why I give the film to the Bride and Groom

There are numerous reasons I do not retain the film:

• Giving you the film allows you to create all the reprints of pictures that you want and at the pace that you want.
• I do not have to store the film for years before throwing it away.
• I do not have to do the custom printing.
• It saves time for both you and me.

Win Win Situation

I find this method of wedding photography easier for me, no need to track every frame for the custom printing, or making you count and choose the exact number of images that you get. This means that the bride and groom will be able to choose from at least 108 images (three rolls) or more taken during the wedding to create their own wedding album.

It also allows you to go to any lab to get reprints done that will be given away. If you are here from out of state then I will FedEx the processed film to you and your local lab can do the printing.

Pictures which are good but not exactly what you want to frame yourself can be given away to others who will never know. You just take the negatives to a custom lab so that those special enlargements to be made for yourselves.

The Difference

When compared to the traditional wedding photographer a big difference is that you can choose where to go to get the enlargements. You are not limited to a specific package, quantity of prints or any similar restrictions. It can be done at your own pace. The downside is that you do have to do the work yourself and be dedicated to follow through with the reprints.

A family portrait is a standard at any wedding.
I arrange all the people and ensure that no one
will end up with a blink eye in the photograph.
This was taken at the reflecting pool at the
Portland LDS Temple.

It is very easy to create your own wedding album. They can be purchased online or at photo stores (see my Wedding Sources page for some) and then you insert your own pictures into it. A traditional wedding photographer does all this "back end" print and photo arrangement work for you. This is why you pay at least $1,800 or more to have a traditional "Brick and Mortar" wedding photographer photograph and assemble a 20 image wedding album - they create the wedding album, the enlargements, custom printing and other items - and you are paying them to do all that work for you from the very beginning. If you want more prints then you pay for every print that you want since they own the copyright to the film. This summarizes the trade-off between the traditional wedding photographer business model and mine.

Equipment that I use

The Old Church (built 1882) Downtown Portland I use three Nikon film cameras when I take pictures of a wedding (I have four, one is a spare). For lighting I use Vivitar 283s and 285s, four Vivitar 2800s are slave units, and then an additional 6 slave mini-flashes to fill in shadows plus Nikon and Metz flashes that are on my cameras.

These flashes, both on and off camera, enable me to have sufficient lighting throughout the room to avoid harsh "on flash" lighting effects (and I use flash umbrellas (reflectors) as needed). This allowed me to illuminate the church completely during a wedding to avoid harsh shadows behind people. This picture of "The Old Church" in downtown Portland was done using my slaved flashes placed around the room.

I will also set up and do individual or group portraits of the wedding party.

I use Kodak Portra Professional color negative film - the industry standard. I will also, as I have done in the past, photograph the wedding using Black & White film if you wish.

It is your wedding and I will do what I can to suit your photographic desires.

"I know a knight in shining armor who could use a little polish."
— A quote from a TV show.

Interested? Send a a wedding question by e-mail using this form.