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| Hiring An Amateur – Jane’s Embarrassing Story |
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It all seems so complicated! So many decisions to make! What if I don’t hire a photographer? Isn’t it far more cost effective to just ask a friend or relative to take my wedding photographs? Let’s imagine one such scenario.
For days, Jane had been looking for a suitable photographer on the Internet. She began to feel that she had read every photographer’s website from home page to home page. She had no idea who to select. The prices seemed to vary from really cheap, to so expensive that only the Queen of England would be able to afford them.
It seemed photographers were just like tow-truck drivers: they were all in it for a buck. Half of them took pictures that made the brides look as if they stepped out of Vogue. They were all so glamorous and gorgeous that she felt like hiding away. She wondered if the photographers had hired sexy models and bridal gowns and taken them out to beautiful areas to shoot them. “Good idea,” she thought, “shoot them! Who then can I trust?” she agonized.
She remembered that her uncle had recently taken up photography as a hobby. He had bought an expensive camera and was always taking pictures of his grandchildren and his older kids. His favorite thing was to take pictures lying flat on the ground in the grass and pretending not to be seen so that he took “natural photos”. He has read about that somewhere. She thought about the great respect she had for Uncle Damien.
“Uncle Damien, how are you? “ she said, surprised that she had got hold of him so quickly.
“Hi, who is this?”
“It’s Jane, your favourite niece. Did you get my invite to the wedding?”
“Jane… Jane… oh Jane! Yes I think we did get something from you!”
“Uncle Damien, I know you’re interested in photography and I desperately need someone to do the pics for my wedding. Would you be willing to do it for me and how much would you charge?”
“Jane, I would be thrilled to do it for you! I could give it for nothing and you could regard it as your wedding present!” Uncle Damien sounded as if he was quite excited about saving a little on a wedding present. Jane suddenly remembered that Uncle Damien was famous for saving a buck and her heart skipped a beat. What is she was making a very foolish mistake, asking Uncle Damien. She tried to retreat a little.
“So…tell me, do you know a lot about photography?”
“Oh my goodness Jane, I know as much as any other person. I would do a marvelous job. Don’t worry; I would be so pleased to do this for you! What the name of the man you are marrying again?”
“His name is Johnny, Uncle Damien, don’t you remember when you came to supper and met him?”
“Yes of course, a senior moment I’m afraid little Jane. Johnny. What was his other name?”
Jane ignored that one. By this time Jane was getting little nervous and wondering if she had made an awful mistake. She remembered all the warnings she had read on the photographers’ websites and especially the one crude site that told her. “Pay peanuts and get a monkey!”
She tried to recall what she had read on some of the websites.
“Uncle Damien, do you have a good lens on your new camera?”
By this stage Uncle Damien was becoming a little irritated. Here he was offering this niece whom he hardly knew a whole photographic package, and now she was beginning to question him. The cheek of it! The arrogance of youth! Jane pressed in,
“Uncle Damien, the hall we are holding the reception in is really quite dark. Do you have professional flash equipment?”
Then she began to remember some of the comments she had read on the blogs about relatives taking the pictures. She was getting more and more nervous! She didn’t really know what this question meant but she pressed on:
“Uncle Damien, what speed is the lens on your camera? Will it handle dark areas and shadows when you have no professional flash? You weren’t thinking of using that little pop-up thing that appears on your camera when the lighting is bad? And how are you going to process the RAW digital negatives when you haven’t got Photoshop CS4?”
The damage was done. Her uncle never came to the wedding. But Jane found an experienced wedding photographer.
We’d like to say that she hired Mercer’s Wedding Photographers. The day was saved.
Next she would have to go and apologise to Uncle Damien and make right…….. if he could remember who she was. |
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