My life as a wedding photographer

Some of my friends commented how nice it is for me to be able to bring my wedding photography work to locations in country Victoria such as Yea, Shepparton, Mildura etc. What they had in mind about my work is something like this:



But in reality, my work often extends beyond the 9 to 5 working hours, and is actually something like this:


Just like any businesses, a huge portion of the time is dedicated to back-end work. For a start, I spent an entire Saturday last week just to do my taxes. Much of my time is dedicated to editing and album designing. Business upkeep pretty much fills up the rest of the time.



Pie chart courtesy of ISPWP

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Tax time grrrrrrr

A reminder for everyone like me, who do their taxes at the last minute, the due date is approaching soon. I plan to do mine this weekend.

WPJA has some tax tips for wedding photographers here.

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Chemistry between a wedding photographer and wedding videographer

Original article

Wedding photos and videos are a huge part of your big day. They will be what lives on as memories after the magical moments of the wedding itself. So naturally, you would love to have these moments to be the best they can truly be. To make the most out of your wedding photographer and videographer, there has to be some chemistry- some understanding between the two roles. Instead of covering technical aspects of the shooting, the following suggestions are to help you decide how to plan your wedding photos, wedding videos, and work them into a gorgeous symmetry of breathtaking beauty.

Firstly, for the wedding photos and videos to turn out right, both photographer and videographer have to have the same theme in mind. You wouldn’t want the wedding photos and videos to seem to be taken on separate occasions would you? So to establish a harmony between the two, do take some time to have a chat with both photographer and videographer and decide on a common theme which would run through the wedding photos and videos, say traditional or perhaps the four seasons. All these considerations will help in capturing those picture perfect moments in your wedding photos and the videos for the many years to come.

Another thing you should try to do is to communicate to your photographer and videographer about key events during the wedding. For example, if you wish to pay special attention to a speech the best man makes during the banquet, inform them of its importance to you. As such they will be able to devote special attention towards these special events, and produce lovely wedding photos and videos pertaining to these events. This will help them familiarise with the layout and events on the day itself, leaving lesser room for error.

In addition, it will help alot when the wedding photographer and videographer have worked together before. They will understand each other shooting styles and know how to compliment one another instead of blocking or fighting for the best angle/views.


Finally, don’t be overly concerned with the details of the wedding photos and videos on the day itself. It’s your special day, go ahead and enjoy yourself! By communicating well, and making your wishes known, your wedding photos and videos should turn out just the way you’d want them to.

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Melbourne - Numurkah - Melbourne

I love country weddings as each place has its unique character. This time, I drove all the way to Numurkah to photograph Gareth and Allison's wedding. The Garmin GPS proved to be reliable and I reached the place without drama.

To keep myself entertained along the way, I tried to strike up a conversation with Karen, but was being responded with her telling me to turn left or turn right. Karen is the GPS.

Total travelling time (two ways): 5 hours 45 minutes
Distance travelled: 485 km

Photos will be up when I get around to pp them. Meanwhile, here is a photo of Gareth, me and Allison, taken just before I left.

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Minor updates on the website.

1. Added Michelle and Harry's pre-wedding photos to the gallery, check it out here
2. Removed article links from all pages except the "about" page. Homepage now has article link that directs to "about" page.

That's about it. If anyone encounters a broken link, please kindly let me know.

This post is written while packing up for a wedding in Numurkah this coming Saturday, with the Commonwealth Games on the tv. Can you believe Jamaica sent their 8th fastest guy to represent their country in the 100m race, and he still beat all runners from the other countries.

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Wedding Photographer - The cheaper the better?

An article sourced from wedding photos, our affiliated wedding photography company based in Singapore.

Original article here

Wedding Photos portal is delighted to have Jason and Jiaqin to share with us their thoughts on engaging the ideal wedding photographer for their wedding day. Jason and Jiaqin will be having their ROM 10th Oct 2010 and their actual wedding day on 31st Dec 2011.

Below is an article shared by Jason and Jiaqin
Wedding Photos – The cheaper the better? Think again!!
When it comes to wedding, everyone who earns a humble income will naturally thinks that engaging a service or services – “the cheaper the better”. One main reason for the philosophy for most is because it is less painful to our pockets.

BUT.. Have you ever consider that having less pain to our pockets might in turn put on more pain to our once in a lifetime event.

Initially, when I started planning for our Actual day, I started out looking for affordable wedding photographers. During then, I do not have any understanding with wedding photography. To me, photography is just another money spending service. I received several quotations from many wedding photographers; they ranged from less than $1000 to more than $3000.

My hubby to be has entrusted me to do all the researching for anything related to our wedding photos and I gladly accepted. His job was mainly to accept whatever I had decided and pay his fair share of the services. With those quotations that I got, I wanted to go for the cheapest. I sought for my fiancé help for short listing the wedding photographers. As wedding photos is a big ticket item for our wedding, I strongly believe that I should get him into the selection of the right wedding photographers.

I told him that those wedding photographers ranged from less than $1000 to more than $3000 and surprisingly, he told me that we SHOULD NOT choose the lower end wedding photographers. His reasons were…
• These Photographers may not be professional in shooting for Wedding Photography; they might be just starting out to create their portfolio.
• Their equipments may be too old and not up to date.
• Their photography style may be very conventional kind a.k.a sit down force to smile and shoot kind. (like that any of our friends can also do it)
• Wedding is once in a lifetime event, we do not want to regret when the wedding photos are out. We do not have a second chance to walk down the ‘red carpet’ again.
• What if they lost our wedding photos?
With all those reasons, he managed to persuade me not to go for the cheapest wedding photography service. It is not worth the risk that we will be taking.

Ask around your friends, have they ever engaged someone who is not very professional in Wedding Photography and regret after they have seen their wedding photos. This is definitely what we do not want to risk!!

Think again..

By eliminating the less than $1500 range, we are left with $1500 or more. We certainly do not wish to engage the higher end wedding photographers, as they are REAL EXPENSIVE. This left us with the mid-range to consider.

With those reasons that my fiancé had listed out, maybe it can help others think about it when engaging a wedding photographer for your ONCE IN A LIFETIME WEDDING PHOTOS.

Written by: Jason and Jiaqin

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wedding album layout for Michelle and Harry

This is the album layout for Michelle and Harry's pre-wedding photography session at Melbourne. Album size 15x20" and contains 10 spreads (20 pages). The theme of this photoshoot is mainly about food.

For wedding photography enquiries, please visit http://www.teddytan.com.au

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