An open letter to Mr. TV Video Guy who also "shoots/direct" weddings (unnecessarily),
You are the Newman to my Jerry. The durian to my Andrew Zimmern. In other words I cannot stand you.
I believe this my 3rd wedding that I've had the misfortune to work along side with you or more like behind you (but who is counting). Each one so memorable, but in the worse possible way. I do not make this assessment about you randomly, because at each wedding you've consistently aggravated me by your lack of common courtesy.
Where do I start? Perhaps from the beginning. Where you assign yourself as the "director" for the day.
"Stop stop you stand here, and you stand here. Ok. Let's do this again one more time." Take two!
This is all in reference to every important part of the wedding day: exchanging of rings, kissing, getting in and out of the limo, again and again.
There was nothing organic about the wedding because you had to have it your way. This is not Burger King my friend. At the end of the day the wedding no longer belonged to the couple instead, it was another one of your cookie cutter directed weddings. And now you can stamp your directorial credit at the beginning of their Video and call yourself writer, director, and executive producer. Perhaps you feel the need to assign yourself as such to feed your ego.
You have no regards to the months of planning and thousands of dollars the couple has spent to make their wedding unique and individually theirs.
You also have no regard for the photographer or the audience. Every time I'm in a position to take an important shot you physically shove pass me to steal the moment. During the ceremony you stand in front of the couple the entire time and only few feet away. You literally cast your dark shadow on the bride. The guests did not dress in their Sunday best to stare at the back of your head and your giant camera manufactured in 1999. Had I not asked you to step aside the entire wedding would have looked like the photo above.
You tell me you've been shooting weddings for 14 years, and in 14yrs you haven't invested in a good zoom lens that keeps you away from the action? As vendors we wear black to stay incognito and behind the scene as to not steal the limelight from the true stars of the day. I think you may have missed the memo on that one.
So let's move on to the topic of your camera. In the day of digital SLRs, bigger is not better. And your brontosaurus camera is large enough to block out the sun. Yet you still think it's ok to get within inches of the couple during the ceremony. You're not only in every single shot of mine but you completely block the view. The bride spent thousands of dollars on her couture dress but because you don't give a damn about anyone else but your video, all the guest will have a view of are her cute ankles.
You're so close, that the poor officiant probably thought this was a polygamous marriage and you were the 2nd groom.
In closing, I have implemented a new question to my pre wedding consult.
"who is your videographer?" If it is you, I will have to decline as their photographer. Because if I had to endure one more wedding working with you it might lead to me tossing your camera out a two story building or in front of on coming traffic.
In no way am I generalizing about videographers. I know and have worked with many great videographers who are conscientious and a joy to work with. However you are no where near that list.
Hope to see you... NEVER
-B.
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