Everything a bride wants to know about wedding photography but was too shy to ask or was so bold that she actually asked.

Don't shoot the messenger. This image is for illustration purpose only.

Question #17: (bride pulls out ipad and proceeds to show me her pinterest boards) These are some of the photographers I love (I have seen names like Jose Villa, Elizabeth Messina, Ben Chrisman and Apertura being bandied around). Do you think you can do something like that?

Me: Hmm….I see almost all of them are photographers from USA. You know….I’m sure you have seen my website and the type of pictures I make. I’m pretty sure those will be the types I can provide you with (looking very serious and professional). You know what, some of these photographers are my Facebook friends. Why don’t you contact them and ask for a quotation. Tell them I’m your friend. Maybe they might give you a discount.

I’ve been asked this many times, and after a decade of baptism in the industry, today I have a very firm stand against this kind of demands. When I was younger, I might waiver and compromise, either because I was too eager to please or too hard-up for jobs. I’d end up making compromises on the photography and lose my own style and identity. At the end of the day, we console ourselves by “making the clients very happy”. Unfortunately, I wasn’t. Deep down, I know I have been treated like a knock-off, a cheaper imitation and worse, a faceless “bao gao liao” (jack of all trades).

In a cookie-cutter world of wedding photography, some of us have to stand up and be counted. Otherwise, we’ll forever be condemned as the poorer cousin of other genres of professional photographers.