Who Took The Photos on a Photographer's Website?

A recent trend being used by some new, inexperienced wedding and portrait photographers may shock you. It did me! I learned of it from a photographer who actually did this. He told me he had finally booked his first wedding. I asked how that could be as I had visited his site and had viewed quite a few wedding photos there. What he told me left me speechless. Let me explain.

Let's say that you are in need of a photographer to shoot your wedding. Like so many of today's modern wedding couples you might begin your search online. You do a Google search for wedding photographers in your area. Then you visit each of these sites and carefully examine the photographs you find there. You look at each gallery, trying to find a photographer who shoots their photographs in the styles that you two like and want for your own once-in-a-lifetime photographs. Of course, you shop for the best price available. If all goes well, you hire the photographer who took the beautiful portraits that you saw on his or her site.

Or do you??

What shocked me is learning that many of these photographs that you viewed on certain sites were not taken by that photographer at all. They are "stock photos", shots taken by professional photographers who then sell them to one or more of the many stock photo sites on the web. These photos, or the right to use them, are in turn sold to anyone who can pay for them, and then posted on the photographer's site and falsely portrayed as their own work! Unbelieveable, right? And while this practice is perfectly legal, it is, in my opinion, unethical and misleading. It misrepresents what work the photographer is able to do, as well as how much experience this photographer has or doesn't have shooting weddings.

So how do you protect yourself from this misrepresentation?

First and foremost, as in most everything else, you get what you pay for! When a photographer quotes you an unbelieveably low price, far lower than anything else you've seen, be cautious. This might be one of their first weddings, and they don't have the confidence and the experience that you need in a wedding photographer. Secondly, when you have your face-to-face with the photographer, make sure that they can produce for you the same photos that you saw on their site. This is the litmus test. If they are proud enough of them that they made their way to their site, they will more than likely have them in print or in an album to show you.

Thankfully, most photographers are talented, honest, and hardworking people that are more than qualified to shoot a wedding. With a little caution on your part, you will find the perfect one for you!