Uninvited Competition... Anyone Relate?

Never work with children, animals, or FAMILY. Plus no-one else knew the other guys camera was better than yours, just you.

tim wrote in post #16160003
Never work with children, animals, or FAMILY. Plus no-one else knew the other guys camera was better than yours, just you.

I dunno about the first two. There's a lot of money in it if you're good and find the right people. But yeah definitely don't work with family.

Man, I feel for you. I've come across a lot of amateur-wedding photogs/videotogs at weddings, but so far they have all been polite, if a bit clueless, about it. One guest-with-video-camera even strolled right behind the groom and his mother as they were walking down the aisle! He wasnt filming, just walking behind them so he could get in position. In a moment of panic I uttered some sort of caveman grunt and held up my hand and waved for him to stop! walking! behind! them!

Another uncle-with-video camera wanted to be really creative and get all sorts of angles. He moved when I asked, but then he got directly behind the couple. I couldnt exactly talk to him while he was that close to the ceremony and I didnt want to cause a distraction by also walking behind them to tell him to move. It was rough and I had to get some extreme angles and use the bride and groom's head to block him or mirror image his position which put me at a disadvantage of getting nice reaction shots.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the other guy's photos!

Finally got to see the pictures... My worrying was completely unfounded. Him using direct undefused flash left everyone glowing bluish in the dark and he didn't crop anything so there are shots with people's hands in the frame, cell phones, etc... He used photoshop so the edits where generic and the final photos were over compreessed. I give him an A for enthusiasm and a D for his photos. It got me thinking if he makes $3000 a wedding and he's that bad maybe I should do a few on the side.

Just not with family next time ....

Would love to see some comparisons. Glad it went well for you. Thankfully this is the sort of thing we avoid when we do it for a living (a la contract). I do agree that if the bride asks it trumps everything else.

I had one recent wedding where the videographer (friend of the groom) kept getting in our shots. We politely asked him to be more considerate, to which he nodded and agreed, but kept getting in the way. We eventually had to notify the groom who managed to subdue the guy for about 2 hours until he started again. At that point it's tough because you make it very clear to the couple that if we don't get priority as the hired pro's the pictures suffer and we aren't liable. It's in our contract, but we don't want the pictures to suffer. We want to deliver a high quality product, so it's definitely tough in these situations.

Having seconds/assistants helps a lot too. We had to resort to 'unintentional' body blocking in that wedding to get some first dance shots because he kept running around with his camera across the scene and no amount of complaining/polite asking got this behaviour to stop.

His contract probably covers your getting in the way too. Remember, you're not the only service provider.

I have nothing to add here other than I love how you described the situation as a "coup."

I had something very similar except, friend w/camera wanted to shoot the wedding, and mother of Bride trumped bride. Mother's reasoning was friend takes great pictures, but isn't a photographer. Somehow this got back to friend w/camera, and I was stuck being the competition in friends eyes. Overall we succeeded in delivering on our stated product, exceptional shots that the family loves. Only caveat is that the friend complained about who low I kept the lights during some of the beauty shots, then was shooting over my shoulder, only to take those composed shots and fire up a Facebook page claiming her prowess as a wedding photog. Live and learned, contract contract contract, and no amount of polite gesture of please stay out of our way helped. Very frustrated by the whole deal but learned a lot, and will make sure to head this issue off at the pass as much as possible.

jmcgee131 wrote in post #16170995
wedding photog. Live and learned, contract contract contract, and no amount of polite gesture of please stay out of our way helped. Very frustrated by the whole deal but learned a lot, and will make sure to head this issue off at the pass as much as possible.

Yeah. I don't care if it's an acquaintance, my best friend or my mother. If i'm contracted to shoot the wedding only myself (and my crew) are covering it. GWC/Uncle Bob's notwithstanding as it's an unfortunate reality.