Looking For A Decent Photographer

[cmjantje]

My son gets wed on Koh Samui half october. The only thing we need is a good photographer who also can make a little bit of video.

No editing.. Just raw material.

Who can and wants us to help out? Please pm me.

Thanks in advance!

[yantzen]

Martyn Goodacre lives on Samui see: http://www.martyngoodacre.com/

[SantiSuk]

Re wedding photographer / wedding photography in Thailand

As a pricing reference point, in the sticks of Northeastern Thailand I got all of the following for 12,300 baht ($400) 2 weeks ago for my marriage.

Studio portraits of bride and groom done 4 days before the wedding (the bride's 2 hour make-up session was 500 baht extra)

Book of small (6" x 4") prints of same

CD of same - full resolution files (no question of having to use the studio for prints)

Large framed print for the wedding reception - about 1'6" x 2'6", with apologies if you only know metric (that alone would have cost several thousand baht in the UK)

Still photographer - one visit for the ceremony (about 5 hours and 20k from his studio) and one for the party (about three hours)

All his printable shots (about 400) on 6" x 4" in an album (admittedly the album itself is a generic plastic pockets affair, not a wedding album, but I am happy to print up and make my own memento later)

2 copy CDs of all his shots - again no restrictions on having to use use their printing facilities

Video cameraman for the same timings

2 copy videos - some editing - over one hour in length

I am an amateur photographer myself and have done wedding shoots in the UK. The stills guy was fine - not particularly creative/inventive (had I thought more I could have briefed him and you could do the same by buying a western marriage photogarphy book from Amazon and going through what you like with the photographer) but his shots were a good mix of informal and formal and he used adequate semi-professional Canon gear with 10 megapixel or thereabouts. A pro in the West would use better, but the results are fine. I was very impressed (and so have been all my friends) by a couple of his studio shots - cheesy American style but hey this is a wedding.

I am not a moving pictures guy but am so pleased we did buy the video guy as well. Hugely important to catch the chanting and the spirit of a Thia wedding and my friends and family back home are absorbed by it.

The price was staggeringly good - for all this I would expect to pay £1500 plus in the UK (75,000 baht or $2250 plus).

Even in the small town of Kantaralak there were at least 4 photo shops and all we did was use the shop my TG now TW normally uses - did not even shop around. You should recognise that Thais use photograhers routinely for weddings and other celebrations so there will be a large supply wherever you are.

I hate to take bread out of the mouth of a fellow falang - I am sure he will be a pro and good if you need top notch creativity, but if you want to do it cheap (and to my mind very satisfactorily) buy local - or if you want some insurance reduce the time of the pro farang and get a local in for whole day cover.

Hope this helps you or any later researchers

July 2009

Edit - the important thing on cost with any photographer is to find out whether you get the files or whether they insist on keeping the right (and sole ability) to do the prints. If they do the prints it could work out very expensive and if they sell you the copywrite that will also be a big fee. Oh and do ask any photographer to show you his work before hiring. They will expect that.

All the above based on UK experience - maybe US or Europe is different.

Maybe someone will now come on the board to say they have had really bad experiences with local photographers - I know couples in the UK who have not been happy having paid $1,500 up also.

Do encourage wedding guests to bring their own cameras - many small compacts are capable of producing professional quality prints these days. I remember at one shoot I did at a UK wedding the family left some disposable cameras on every table at the party. We got back a lot of rubbish (penises and tits of course) but one camera came back from a still anonymous source with three different pictures on that I would have died to have claimed responsibility for!

Edited July 19, 2009 by SantiSuk