Click!

There must have been thousands of articles about how to choose someone to photograph your wedding. Most of them say the same sort of things about budgets, shot lists, professional memberships. Some of them give you nice long lists of questions to ask. Now, these may be useful tips if you’re looking to narrow down dozens of photographers to a shortlist. It’s handy to have a few simple ways of qualifying candidates without spending too much time or effort.

But once you’ve got your shortlist, these basic guidelines don’t really get to the core of what you should be looking for. They’re too mechanical. Choosing a wedding photographer should be an emotional decision – after all, you’re trusting someone to capture some of your most important memories and emotions.

So what is the key factor? Simple. It’s click. Rapport. Connection.

Once all the boxes are ticked (pricing, experience, availability), you need to know that your photographer really gets you. This has to go deeper than someone with a friendly smile and a firm handshake. Someone is going to be creating memories of the most important day of your life. If their aesthetic, or sense of humour, or basic view of the world don’t sync with yours, those images are going to jar whenever you see them. Your wedding memories are going to feel like someone else’s.

I believe that there are three areas you should look at.

Firstly, there’s the way that the photographer communicates in their marketing. Anyone that publishes a website or a brochure is sending messages about who they are, and how they want to represent themselves. How do you feel about their style, their tone, their approach to design? Are you excited, intrigued, amused? Or are you irritated, impatient, bored?

Secondly, when you meet in person, the conversation should flow naturally. If it feels like you’re being blasted by a sales pitch, something’s wrong. The meeting ought to be a relaxing experience, where their confidence gives you a sense of security. You may not be looking for a new best friend, but you should like and trust this person. And on top of that, you should be able to sense that they’re excited about your venue, your funky cake, and your eight-piece soul band, and touched by your great-aunt flying in from New Zealand.

Thirdly, you should feel great about the sample products they show. The images should have the emotional punch you’d like in your own. The quality of the albums should make you enjoy handling them. The page designs should be satisfying. The stories should leap off the pages. Does the style feel like a natural extension of their brochure, their website, their conversation? Does it feel natural to you?

If all these factors are in place, you’ll know you’ve found the right person to photograph your wedding. Listen to your instinct. Trust them to capture your unique moments. Trust them to tell your story. Trust them to create your memories.