Anniversary by the Ocean

January 13, 2021

When it comes to wedding photos, by law the photographer owns the copyright. So what happens if you don't want your wedding photos shown in your photographer's portfolio or socials? This is a controversial topic within the wedding community and many of my peers in the UK were gobsmacked (jk jk haha) to find out (or thought it was very American) that most of us charge a fee for not being able to share our work. My stance: If I accept only non-disclosure clients who sign a contract for me not to share their photos in my portfolio, how am I supposed to get new work? My business would fail. With each wedding my work gets better. It just does and should. I need to be able to show what I am capable of to prospective clients. I also know for a fact that many wedding vendors claim "NDA clients" as an excuse for lack of REAL in their portfolios or lack of portfolios altogether. There are so many scammers in the wedding industry who have zero shame when it comes to claiming they have experience when they absolutely do not. They will take your money and leave you with a horrible product 9 times out of 10 and for some reason people are scared to leave bad reviews, but I digress. 

Recently, I came across one opinion from a wedding stylist on TikTok (I love her, but I'm not going to tag her here because I'm about to somewhat disagree with her) who suggested that since we are "service providers" we should "humble ourselves" and understand that we are simply paid to show up and capture a client's wedding and if we need portfolio material she suggests we should "hire models and do styled shoots like everyone else." That's a fun opinion, truly. I understand her desire to align herself with her prospective clients. I also don't think this is great advice for a few reasons. 

One, as a pro wedding photographer and small business owner, I am selling a service that results in a product. The product is wedding photos. The product is NOT models pretending to be married in the easiest, highly stylized, best, most emotionless conditions where nothing is difficult or funny or surprising like it is on a real wedding day. Many of my clients hire me for my ability to capture their family and friends (not to mention themselves) so honestly and so beautifully in a candid way that preserves personalities and spirits in a way that is nearly impossible to do as a non-pro with a camera. I think the wedding industry at large has lost the plot when it comes to understanding what makes wedding photos "good." It isn't something you can fake. It isn't easy to do, actually! Not in a truly artistic way. There is a huge difference between a gallery of snapshots with no clear intention behind them except to show "hey this is a wedding meeting bare minimum technical standards" and a gallery that makes you FEEL. If you know you know. Not everyone knows and that's ok. Bare minimum technically correct snapshots have a huge market! That isn't what I'm selling, though. 

The argument could be made that styled shoots are harmless examples of your work like when Arby's takes some photos for their adverts of beef sandwiches made of styrofoam or whatever and painted to perfection. Model sandwiches in perfect lighting in unreal conditions. You know you're not going to actually get that model sandwich. You're going to get something inferior every single time and you're ok with it because it still tastes ok and it's cheap. That doesn't work for wedding photography. That's a fast food model for low stakes sandwiches that cost like five bucks. It does not translate for a luxury experience of a hardworking pro photographer capturing your live event. It just doesn't. The results of a styled shoot should not be similar to a real wedding unless you're only hiring models in love and their entire families to be in your shoot. No one sane is doing that and that's not a fair representation of your ability on a real wedding day as a photographer.

My solution and my standard for my small business is to succeed by being truly excellent at taking real wedding photos on real wedding days. My portfolio is a reflection of exactly this. I make it clear to prospective clients in my contract that there is a fee if they do not want me to share their photos. I completely understand the many reasons someone would want their photos kept private and I am totally willing to do that if it is info that is given to me upfront and we agree on a fair contract to that end. 

I am the only me and I can only take on so many weddings each year. When I accept a wedding I am turning down ALL other requests for that date, which means I must decide that a wedding is a good fit and fair terms for me and my business goals as well as fair to my prospective client. I treat my clients fairly and handle their wedding with the utmost respect. I never make them feel like I am using them for marketing in an unfair or unusual way. I also expect to be treated fairly and to have my policies respected. Not being able to share any photos I captured as a pro wedding photographer prevents me from potentially booking future clients and this means loss of income for my small business. So many people claim to support women entrepreneurs and small businesses, yet when we assert our absolutely fair policies, suddenly it's controversial and we should simply "hire models" for fake shoots. I hope I have made a compelling argument for my position and that you have enjoyed learning about this topic! It's difficult to leave emotion out of something that is so close to my heart, my livelihood, and what I have dedicated the last 1.5 decades of my life to, have sweat for, have broken toes and bled for, have cried over, and have put my best effort into. So please refrain from overly emotional negative comments and I will do my best to respond to anyone who would like to discuss this respectfully. Thank you so much for reading!