mccallmedia wrote:
I'm pretty sure wedding photography isn't a potential life-and-death situation. I wouldn't care if the band or dj playing at my wedding had a couple drinks. I wouldn't care if the caterers had a couple drinks. I would care if my surgeon, or pilot, or anyone else extremely important where my life is in their hands had a drink. Let's not combine apples to oranges, cause that just gets stupid.
No, it's not life and death....nor is a vasectomy....but it is a once in a lifetime event for the client. If you Don't think your client's wedding is an important event, you're in the wrong business. The photographer is there to capture fleeting, once in a lifetime moments....you blow it and they're gone for good. Bottom line is be professional.
BTW.....the phrase is "compare apples and oranges" not "combine". <<stupid.
Littlebike wrote:
All I know is the single gimlet I had this evening completely destroyed all photos taken seconds after my first sip. Clearly it was impossible for my to shoot an image while also having a beverage. how would tending to a gimlet be any different than tending to a coke?
I know the bride and groom must have been wasted, otherwise they would never have told us how much they enjoyed working with us and how we made the day better buy calming their stress; me specifically with the groom.
Glad it worked out. Now that one little gimlet made your day right. Could not have made it through the night without it. Would have looked like a loser nerd by not having the drink.
I just keep it simple, no drinking on the job, period. Seems like the logical thing to do.
Thinking about the last 30 or so weddings I've shot, maybe 3-5 did not immediately offer me a beer or a cocktail when I arrive. In all cases I have never accepted anything more than water or a cola.
After 6-8 hours of shooting, after the wedding/formals/environmental shots, after they wedding party walks in, after the speeches and cake cutting and first dance - yes, the gimlet was nice.
In fact, it may completely impossible for me to work without one. This thread has taught me I am a raging alcoholic and a single gimlet is my medicine.
glort wrote:
Untill such time, I'll go with what 25 years of real life, real world experience has shown me the risk to be over totally unsubstantiated internet forum paranoia.
Then there really wasn't a reason for your OP.., was there?
Attitudes to drinking are going to vary from place to place and culture to culture. There are weddings where i would not have a drink. But if the bride, groom, the entire bridal party and the parents of the bride ask you if you want a beer then I assume it's going to be OK to have a single beer at the reception. When the brides Dad says "you deserve that" or "why haven't you had a beer yet?" then there's not going to be any trouble. At many receptions a beer just magically appears, ordered by the bridal party or the parents. Hard to resist unless you don't drink at all. If we have a beer we usually go up to the couple and give them a quick toast and thank them for letting us share their day. Personally, I think that locking your cameras up when you've finished your allocated time and hitting the dance floor is unprofessional. You're not a guest. You should have a camera ready.
But the only truth is that's it's your business and your reputation. If you decide that having a drink is not acceptable. Then it's not. You know your clients and you know what keeps them happy. In my area, with the majority of my clients it would be almost rude to refuse a beer at the reception. People are loosening up for the party and they feel more relaxed around you if you appear to be joining in. And here, in Oz, it's a beer for the boys. A glass of a nice Chardonnay may get a whole other reaction.
Australia is certainly becoming more litigious. But to sue for drunkardness you'd have to be able to prove that I was over the legal limit. You can't get married here if you're over 0.05. And that's the limit for alcohol being a cause. Either the police have to test you or some evidence (video??) of you obviously incapacitated by alcohol would need to be produced. Maybe if you're hitting the legal limit at every reception you need to re-assess? How would you drive home?
Someone mentioned that deals are done over drinks, or rather that drinks are had after deals. Even if the deal is done you're still at work for those drinks. You're reputation is on the line regardless whether you're in the boardroom or the nightclub with clients. Personally I look at the reception a bit like that. The wedding has happened. the formals are done. The location shots are in the can. Business is concluded, kinda. So I will allow myself to relate on a more personal level with the clients. That's what get us wedding bookings. People book us because they like us. They like us because they can relate to us on a personal level. We spend more weddings sitting at a normal table than in the hall. It works well for me, but it may be the kiss of death for others.
Someone above said that you're not there to have a good time. Oh my! If you're not having a great time shooting weddings then I think, you should get out. I think being around all those happy people and not enjoying yourself would be a miserable experience. I get paid, and paid well, to shoot weddings. But, that's not why i do it. It's a lot easier to make more money elsewhere. i do it because I love it. I have an absolute ball at every wedding i shoot, and most of the time I'll have a congratulatory ale with the B&G. You do what feels right for you.
flash wrote:
If you're not having a great time shooting weddings then I think, you should get out. I think being around all those happy people and not enjoying yourself would be a miserable experience. I get paid, and paid well, to shoot weddings. But, that's not why i do it. It's a lot easier to make more money elsewhere. i do it because I love it. I have an absolute ball at every wedding i shoot, and most of the time I'll have a congratulatory ale with the B&G. You do what feels right for you.
Gordon
+1 You hit the nail on the head. I've had a great time at every wedding I've shot, even the ones where alcohol wasn't served. When alcohol is served, I usually have a drink with the b&g and/or family & friends of the B&G toward the end of the reception. How can taking pictures (which you should love if you're a photog) + being around happy people + making good money not = having a good time?
rhyder wrote:
No, it's not life and death....nor is a vasectomy....but it is a once in a lifetime event for the client. If you Don't think your client's wedding is an important event, you're in the wrong business. The photographer is there to capture fleeting, once in a lifetime moments....you blow it and they're gone for good. Bottom line is be professional.
If you are so at your limit shooting a wedding that one or 2 drinks are going to put you at risk of stuffing the whole thing up because of the impairment they render to you faculties, then YOU ought to be in another business.
If you are so at the edge of working a camera, there is no way in hell you ought to be driving a motor vehicle even if you have not had a drink in a month because clearly if there were some minor distrraction you could easily kill people.
I'm begining to think there are a lot of reformed alcoholics inputting to this thread. They are the only people I can think of that would consider one or two drinks to equate to the loss of all sensibilities and render one unfit to operate a camera.
I'm definately going to take some of the more laughable quotes out of this thread and show them to my clients for a laugh. I certainly hope some of my competitors share the same holier than thou views as expressed here because there is no way anyone I shoot is going to want to book someone so uptight and overly serious as some people here.
It might be worth casually mentioning having a toast with the B&G at weddings so they know I'm not a stick in the mud and as paranoid as some shooters.
I was just having a chuckle to my wife about this thread.
She reminded me of the Church Charity event we did at the begginning of the month where the CEO of the organisation, a church minister, came over and showed us to a table to have a meal and insisted we have a glass of wine with our meal and we not let it go to waste. He also said as soon as we were finished shooting we should have a dance and enjoy ourselves after working so hard.
Ya.
Guess he was real worried about us loosing control of our faculties and not being able to carry out our assignment as well.
Funny how he told us at the end of the night we had done such a great job and he would be in touch as soon as the date for next years event was finalised as he definately wanted us back.
We didn't donate our services either, we were hired to shoot the event for them.
Sep 20, 2011 at 01:39 AM
Lars Johnsson Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: Off
Micky Bill wrote:
Oh lord...now wedding photographer = surgeon
It doesn't matter what work/job/occupation you have. It's unprofessional and bad to drink while you are working. Whatever job you do, you do it better without alcohol.
I love to take a drink. But not until I finish working
flash wrote:
Someone above said that you're not there to have a good time. Oh my! If you're not having a great time shooting weddings then I think, you should get out.
Gordon
You may have missed the point. You're not there to have a good time, you're paid to be there to do a job. That doesn't mean you can't have a great time, I almost always did, but that's not why I showed up at a wedding of someone I didn't know until they hired me to cover it.
Edit - I do agree if you don't have fun shooting weddings then you should think about doing something else.
It might be worth casually mentioning having a toast with the B&G at weddings so they know I'm not a stick in the mud and as paranoid as some shooters.
It's another kind of paranoia if someone thinks that the bride and groom are watching him that closely, and he's afraid of being thought a stick in the mud.
That thought has been expressed a couple of times in this thread--the fear of considered a stick in the mud if one doesn't go along with the crowd. Teenagers fall prey to that fear very often...adults should have grown out of it.
Lars Johnsson wrote:
Whatever job you do, you do it better without alcohol.
There's a lot of world-famous artists and musicians, living and dead, who kinda disprove that quite spectacularly.
Keith Moon seemed to do OK after more than even heavy drinkers have in a year.
And for the record, if it's genuinely offered, I've got all the "must have" shots out of the way, and it's just 3 hours of dancing ahead of me...Maybe it's because we got the whole puritanical thing out of our system 400 years ago and became a Nation second only to the Irish when it comes to a reputation for drink, but to me it seems borderline hysteric that anyone could possibly think joining 2 very happy newly-weds for ONE drink because they enjoy your company and think you've worked damned hard for the last 12 hours is somehow going to ruin their special day......talk about first-world problems man, there's a severe lack of perspective going on somewhere.
First off...I doubt there's much left of his face what with being dead for 33 years and all...you're probably thinking of Keith Richards.
Secondly....did I say he was a role model? I'm just pointing out (as others have) the absurdity that using a camera is so damned difficult, mentally challenging and dexterity based (seriously? Surgery/Dental work/Airline Pilot comparisons? Jeez I thought *I* had an ego) that a single drink will render you entirely unable to do it, essentially transmogrifying you into a primordial rabbit floundering on the floor slurring "why on off button not make black box go click click no more??" when an obvious and famous alcoholic like Moon still managed to do stuff like this when totally off his face....but yeah....one drink.....wedding ruined....
Down with this kind of thing.
P.S. before someone jumps down my throat with pointing out the difference between ABILITY to perform, and professionalism.....if you're stuck in an area/market so completely uptight that your clients don't even offer what we would class as basic hospitality after a 12-15 hour day, mentally and creatively drained having carried 4lb of metal round your neck, as well as a Vaga II (must get the Lithium!) then I feel bad for you, hope you're happy and wish you all the best, but please don't judge those with clients less pious/uptight/open/whatever adjective doesn't upset your sensibilites and tar everyone with the "professionalism" brush as if sharing a drink or two with WILLING (very important!!!) clients is somehow akin to Oliver Reed's infamous Parkinson appearance, it's ludicrous.
I also thank God (pun entirely intended) that I live in such a secular country.
