1. I never take a booking fee and my deposits are non-refundable.
2. Smoke/drink/dress/ – Well, when offered wine, it’s an insult to say no, however, I don’t really drink anyway, so that’s a tough one. The way you dress could be artistic and stylish, you’ve got the old school mentality.
3. DVD – I’m not even going to argue. It’s the new age. Good luck fighting this for too long. Give out the DVD only at hire prices. That’s how I make my money.
4. I’m impatient sometimes. Aren’t we all, but I love my job. Never is too strong.
5. Actually, you should probably carry two spare cameras.
6. If there’s a good moment, I’m going to capture it. I don’t think they mind. Again, never is too strong.
7. You shouldn’t lie I thought was one of the real commandments.
8. Opinion. Everybody does something different.
9. I agree. All my payments are turned in by 30 days before wedding.
10. Wrong. Many of us are doing slideshows at weddings to show off what we took that day. Yes, respect is just plain knowledge. Again, this is the new age, so these commandments are old school thinking.

Someone whom I highly respect asked me that same question. It’s hard for me to slave for 30-40 hours for the average wedding and in the end just give them a disc. Even if they were paying me $20K a wedding. I want them to have something tangible. But is that what our clients want? I ask my photographer friends that are under the age of 30 how many of them have photos on their wall within the past 5 years that are not professionally captured. Even in this forum I would say very few. Our clients have tons of photos on FB and other places and are really just one massive crash or virus of having 5 years of memories being wiped out.

Is the CD a deal breaker? Is it able to compromise? I offer it after 1 year as a gift. If they haven’t bought more within the first year, then they are very much unlikely to do so 5 years from now.

But that’s not my disagreement. Full disclosure, I have never photographed a Catholic wedding. But when you say do not photograph the Consecration, well I have seen photos OF the Consecration. Similar to certain times of a Jewish wedding that are private, are must haves to photograph. While a camera should not be an AK47 during this time, I believe a few select photographs are required.

Leighton