I agree that these stories show a lot of arrogance from wedding photographers
.....
That said, the photog stories in these threads sound dreadful and definitely give a bad name to wedding photography. It's a shame weddings are such stressful things.
Cheers!
Christina
craft.smugmug.com
P.S.
Smugmug is the best thing going for photography. Yaay Smugmug!
It would have been awesome if more pros had their attitude similar to yours
Cheers!
It would have been awesome if more pros had their attitude similar to yours
Cheers!
Well: true professionnals do. :
I mean: being a pro is being self-confident about the images done. You know it will "work" (I ain't talking about style).
I've been working for two years now at the Cannes Film Festival. While this year I was mainly shooting "meeting's portraits", I took the occasion to cover the opening on the red carpet. Well... every photographer has the same place, the same lighting, and everyone of them is using the motor ! so they may take the same picture...
They are not. When you see the results, well, that's to say... you understand what style is about. Some got great shots, while others didn't.
It's the same on a wedding: if someone is shooting next to you, he still won't be shooting at the same "t" time! He won't set up his gear the same way, too.
I've been lurking watching this thread with amusement. As a guest at weddings, I typically will drag along my gear as I'm known among family & friends to be a photo nut and they like my shots. However, with a pro there, I make a point of keeping out of their way; for posed stuff, if I want to grab a shot, I'll ask first & deliberately pick a different viewpoint. For the PJ stuff, I keep an eye on the pro & pick my spot *after* they've picked theirs. I also make pains to keep out of the shot--unless I'm supposed to be in it (then my gear vanishes briefly). It's all about respect & courtesy.
Afterwards, it's fun to see how my shots differ from the pro's. I've learned a few things by going through the bride's photo book later.
"It is also, almost impossible to be everywhere at once at a wedding. She probably saw you getting a table shot and realized she hadn't taken your table yet, and stuff like that. She was probably afraid that your pro gear would shoot better photos than any of the point and shoot cams, and that there might be some comments like, "Oh my friend got this really great photo." (and you, the professional, didn't)"
brings up something that happened to me. Professionals can't be everywhere at the same time and whether a big news event or a wedding or whatever, the more pictures the better. I had just gotten my D100 and read in the paper about the moving of an old historical house in a Chicago Suburb. I decided, as an exercise of sorts, to get familiar with the camera and clean off the rust from my photographic skills... that I would go out and shoot it. I hadn't been out shooting anything seriously in many years. Anyway, They are moving this house down the street, moving light polls and power lines, trimming trees and such and there are helicopters circling and photographers everywhere. There was news media all over and everything. I walked up and took out my camera and started shooting pictures. I should have tried to sell them but I haven't had much experience doing that. I get the impression that my pictures might have been right up on par with what the others from the Trib, Sun Times, Pioneer Press.... would have been taking. I say that because, so many times, I would be taking a picture and all of a sudden see other photographers, out of the corner of my eye, turn and take the same shots. I was noticing Electric, or maybe they were phone, workers with long polls checking the height of the overhead lines. Seems they measured these polls to the top of the roof of the house and could go down the street making sure the clearance was there. I kept seeing details of the story that the others didn't seem to see. They were all concentrating on the trucks and police cars and the house... Their attention seemed to be on the immediate areas around the center of attention. The trimming of the trees or the workers finessing the wheels over the curb etc. as the truck inched it's way down the street. I was looking at everything. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a couple workers loosening the bolts at the base of a lamp post. I Started to take a series of pictures as they lowered the light poll and other photographers came up behind me to do the same.
I didn't get any attitude from anyone or notice any insecurity or anything. It was just that I seemed to be about 3 steps ahead of all the others.
The experience has had me thinking of trying to do this all more seriously. Looking for other events and going out and shooting sets of photos. Then trying to sell them maybe. I don't wan't to take someone elses job or anything but then, If I capture something that someone else missed. Which they will miss at times, it can only be good, I think.
"I"m not at all threatened by other photographers. In fact, I really sincerely believe someone close to the couple can probably take better shots since they know who is who, the real emotions/stories behind things, etc. It can only work out better for the bride and groom -- and it's the bride and groom I'm trying to make happy."
Well put. In addition to just having more pictures and some more coverage to assure that less gets missed, having someone who is familiar with the guests, their relationships and connections with each other and the bride and the groom,as well as the distinct personalities, can lead to some better more personal photos. On a couple of the weddings that I have taken, as well as some other portrait projects that I have worked on for friends, I have been complimented on how well I capture the subject. One project that I work on is a yearbook, (still and video) for a class of kindergarteners. I go out several times during the year and take pictures of them in the course of their daily routines. By the end of the year, after spending many hours getting to know them all, when my videos and photos are showcased, mothers are crying and I am told of how well I captured eached childs personality. Someone who knows the members of the bridal party might Know certain things to look for, that a disconnected, impersonal perhaps, professional might not know.
But, then, there are the standard formal, got to have them, photos that only a professional is best equipped and experienced or organized to take. I have only done weddings as favors for friends who were in positions where they couldn't afford the thousands of dollars charged by local photographers. It was me or no one a couple times. Mostly, I shoot Video but have done some stills that came out pretty good. Otherwise, when I am contacted to shoot a wedding I usually decline. That is because I know I am not equipped to do it fully or correctly. I don't have the deflectors, slaves, umbrellas.... I feel comfortable taking some candids at the reception or something and would usually be happy doing that with my D200 and SB-800, but, like I said, unless the B&G are in a bind and just want pictures and aren't expecting everything, I tend not to feel comfortable doing the ceramony and formals... I do know some of what is needed but would hate to miss something really important.
I wonder, the day I get married, what I will do. I would like to think I could get a professional to get the formal gold standard portraits like cutting the cake, toasts, dances and so on. I may not be able to do that though with the expense of it. I don't know that I have any friends that I could lean on to give me all those basic shots. I do know though that I will have pictures. I will probably get plenty of the more personal color or candid stuff. There is a value to having your friends take pictures of each other or the more personal things. Like you mentioned, you could get a good slant or expression of things that a professional just can't capture. There is a place and purpose for both professionals and guest/amatures.
At one time I thought of shooting some weddings. Someone encouraged me, telling me, about 20 years ago, how lucrative it could be. I did my reading and found basic checklists of the main shots that one should take. The ladies getting dressed or made up, The bride getting fixed up. Getting in the limos, The procession.... all the way to toasts, The father and the bride, the first dance, the cutting of the cake and daparture.... You hire a professional, I see it, to make sure that all those shots get taken and get taken right.
Look at it, as with sports, Play by play as opposed to Color.
I think the suggestion of, was it a girlfriend that was suggested, following the bride and her bridesmaid around during the day, taking pictures during the makeovers and dressings. Photographing all those things behind the scenes would be good. Perhaps, the groom could have one of his friends, assuming one was photographically interested, take pictures of those preparations and the activity and emotions of the waiting for the bride at the church... would be good. Leave the ceramony and the reception and, like I said, all the primary formal shots to the hired professional.
Wedding Photographers are a STRANGE Breed.
I've been shooting weddings 6 years now and previous to that I managed a Lifetouch studio. I've shot a whole wedding with a Hasse, a whole wedding with a Mamiya C330, and a whole wedding with a DSLR. I have not however shot a wedding entirely with a 35mm, although I know lots of people who have. Personality wise, wedding photographers are a strange bunch, the first one I worked with I would go so far as to say he could be pushy and obnoxious. He ran on the 'old' business model Shay talked about before, he wore a hairpiece, had a bunch of kids to support, but was genuinely a decent guy and I consider him a friend. Here is WHY lots of pro social photographers come off rude or obnoxious.
#1 If they work on the 'old' model the more awesome pictures they take of the couple and every possible grouping the more material they have to sell on the back end, there is a DIRECT relationship to number of quality frames taken, and how much money they make.
#2 They can't miss anything, they can't have a bad day, they can't screw up, your reputation as a business person, as a photographer, as a professional (and ultimately your lievelyhood) are on the line EVERY Saturday. If you as a guest miss something no biggie, if the pro misses (sometimes just one group or shot) dissaster.
#3 Guests (people, drunk people old people) blink and have a tendency NOT to look at the camera, this tendency is increased by a bunch of yahoo guests surrounding you and taking pictures over your shoulder. Once again a group not looking the same way in a guest's photo? no biggie. In the pro photo, mini catastrophe. Pros used to shoot more than one (in HOPE) to make sure you got one with everyone's eyes open, and no one googlie, I shoot 2 now and clone brush eyes if people blink.
#4 You are constantly watched, and judged. I have been approached guests at weddings who recognize me the photographer a previous couple's wedding, but do not remember who the couple was.
#5 Unless you are Dennis Reggie (sic), you ARE a portrait photographer and are responsible for making people look good, people with bags under their eyes, big noses, big ears, double chins, people who made bad clothing/gown choices, people who are just plain ugly. And you have to do it, and position them, without embarassing them, or drawing attention to their flaws in front of their family and friends.
#6 You have (usually) make things look better, richer, more fun, less drunk, less dramatic, than they really were. Sure you have couples who are looking for a TRUE documentarian, but they are not usually your couple getting hitched at the local wedding world, who arrive in an RV, and end up exposing themselves at some point in the night (all of which I have seen).
#7 Your personality has to mesh with the client well enough to get decent expressions from them, you are selling YOU. You are an extremely important part of their usually already artifically inflated day of uber high expectations.
#8 You have to maintain your creative edge, you have to push yourself within the framework of unimaginable stress and adverse circumstances to continually come up with something new and fresh.
I've worked both sides and the middle of the wedding industry. I've shot (as a second shooter) 200k dollar affairs at the Willard Intercontinental in DC, real deal traditional African weddings in Baltimore neighborhoods I wouldn't stop to get gas in at anytime of day, and 17-24 something middle class wedding world jobs. Every bride wants to look beautiful, every groom just wants to get it over with and get drunk, and both have paid 'a lot' of money to make their day look they way they 'want' it to look in pictures. If you are the professional you are that guy/girl. The best photographers I have met have fun at it, and one of the best I know is getting out of it because it isn't fun anymore. The job has a SERIOUS burnout factor. Everyone that does it for some time has a somewhat masochistic side.
I love it.
So far as other people shooting at weddings, I could really care less. I tease the ones with big cameras, and take pictures of the ones with little ones, but so long as THEY don't think they are the professional (at that job) I could really care less. I shoot with a 20D/30D and I have had people with 1DS MkII's show up as guests (a professional sports photog) and I'm not intimidated by bodies or lenses. I once had an older gentleman with a m6 who wierded me out a little, but even he was really cool and even let me take a picture of him and his wife with the mighty red dot rangefinder. Wedding photography is a personality business, you could take the most beautiful pictures EVER and be a big jerk and never get booked. You have to be part bard, part clown, part stylist, part coordinator. I won't say that people with a big ego are not well suited to the job, because in some ways the big ego can help you, if it is in check. It helps to be smooth, to be charming, graceful, and refined, self assured, and in control, but it is always a fine line a wedding photographer walks between egomaniac control freak, and someone who doesn't produce the product the client expects. In short folks it aint easy. As far as the first case goes I think she may have been teasing with you, she may have been lashing out, she may have been annoyed by you, but I have a feeling she knew what she was doing and what she was about, but may have been doing it too long to realize that she wasn't having fun doing it anymore.
Here is another funny thing that I'm sure someone with a background in Psychology will have a field day with. I quit smoking 7 days a week 4 years ago. But I smoke at weddings, so I smoke like a pack of cigarettes a month 3 or 4 per wedding. I have absolutely NO desire to smoke during the week, I deal with stresses (money, kids, family) and have no desire to smoke. If I am not shooting a wedding that week I don't jones for a smoke. I smoke when I shoot weddings and that is it, and I can't imagine not. I'm probably crazy, which is probably necessary to shoot weddings.
Yep, very interesting & entertaining post. It just verifies my desire to avoid getting into that market. More power to you wedding photogs, I have no idea how you do it (I only do the occasional one for family that cannot afford a pro).
Seems to me the professional photographer wasn't thrilled with your setting up on her turf. Like the rest of you, I don't envy the wedding photog's job. I do however respect it. She has put in time with the customers getting to know what they want from the shoot. And believe me, that's a lot of work! She is hoping that it will pay off. Probably she got a fee for the shoot but the rest is coming in print orders from the wedding party and family.
I have had parents/other photogs set up right behind me when I'm shooting. They say something like you did, "Just shooting for fun," only to be selling the images later or giving them away. But mainly I find it distracts the subjects; making it VERY hard to get them to smile at you and share that sparkle in their eye. Instead you get a confused group. It is frustrating to be the one who gets everyone together for a nice arrangement & looks for the moment to capture their energy just to get a confused group wondering who to look at.
I really do believe my images speak for themselves. So I don't worry about who's getting the best shot. At a horse event in Wyoming, as the exclusive photog with about $400 in expenses & 3 days work invested, I had someone who keep shooting from my locations claiming she was just shooting for a few friends. No problem. But when it came time for riders to place orders they were confused about who the photog was or even worse disappointed in the quality of pictures. Seems she takes crappy shots, doesn't know how to work with horses, and can't put a quality print together. Not my work, but it still makes me look bad.
Just wanted to share some insight from the other side. Hope no offense taken. Would just suggest that in the future you don't shoot the same shots as the official photographer or that you offer to be the official for no/low cost next time. Will make everyone happier.
Comments
It would have been awesome if more pros had their attitude similar to yours
Cheers!
Well: true professionnals do.
I mean: being a pro is being self-confident about the images done. You know it will "work" (I ain't talking about style).
I've been working for two years now at the Cannes Film Festival. While this year I was mainly shooting "meeting's portraits", I took the occasion to cover the opening on the red carpet. Well... every photographer has the same place, the same lighting, and everyone of them is using the motor ! so they may take the same picture...
They are not. When you see the results, well, that's to say... you understand what style is about. Some got great shots, while others didn't.
It's the same on a wedding: if someone is shooting next to you, he still won't be shooting at the same "t" time! He won't set up his gear the same way, too.
This is what photography is about, isn't it?
I've been lurking watching this thread with amusement. As a guest at weddings, I typically will drag along my gear as I'm known among family & friends to be a photo nut and they like my shots. However, with a pro there, I make a point of keeping out of their way; for posed stuff, if I want to grab a shot, I'll ask first & deliberately pick a different viewpoint. For the PJ stuff, I keep an eye on the pro & pick my spot *after* they've picked theirs. I also make pains to keep out of the shot--unless I'm supposed to be in it (then my gear vanishes briefly). It's all about respect & courtesy.
Afterwards, it's fun to see how my shots differ from the pro's. I've learned a few things by going through the bride's photo book later.
http://www.chrislaudermilkphoto.com/
"It is also, almost impossible to be everywhere at once at a wedding. She probably saw you getting a table shot and realized she hadn't taken your table yet, and stuff like that. She was probably afraid that your pro gear would shoot better photos than any of the point and shoot cams, and that there might be some comments like, "Oh my friend got this really great photo." (and you, the professional, didn't)"
brings up something that happened to me. Professionals can't be everywhere at the same time and whether a big news event or a wedding or whatever, the more pictures the better. I had just gotten my D100 and read in the paper about the moving of an old historical house in a Chicago Suburb. I decided, as an exercise of sorts, to get familiar with the camera and clean off the rust from my photographic skills... that I would go out and shoot it. I hadn't been out shooting anything seriously in many years. Anyway, They are moving this house down the street, moving light polls and power lines, trimming trees and such and there are helicopters circling and photographers everywhere. There was news media all over and everything. I walked up and took out my camera and started shooting pictures. I should have tried to sell them but I haven't had much experience doing that. I get the impression that my pictures might have been right up on par with what the others from the Trib, Sun Times, Pioneer Press.... would have been taking. I say that because, so many times, I would be taking a picture and all of a sudden see other photographers, out of the corner of my eye, turn and take the same shots. I was noticing Electric, or maybe they were phone, workers with long polls checking the height of the overhead lines. Seems they measured these polls to the top of the roof of the house and could go down the street making sure the clearance was there. I kept seeing details of the story that the others didn't seem to see. They were all concentrating on the trucks and police cars and the house... Their attention seemed to be on the immediate areas around the center of attention. The trimming of the trees or the workers finessing the wheels over the curb etc. as the truck inched it's way down the street. I was looking at everything. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a couple workers loosening the bolts at the base of a lamp post. I Started to take a series of pictures as they lowered the light poll and other photographers came up behind me to do the same.
I didn't get any attitude from anyone or notice any insecurity or anything. It was just that I seemed to be about 3 steps ahead of all the others.
The experience has had me thinking of trying to do this all more seriously. Looking for other events and going out and shooting sets of photos. Then trying to sell them maybe. I don't wan't to take someone elses job or anything but then, If I capture something that someone else missed. Which they will miss at times, it can only be good, I think.
Well put. In addition to just having more pictures and some more coverage to assure that less gets missed, having someone who is familiar with the guests, their relationships and connections with each other and the bride and the groom,as well as the distinct personalities, can lead to some better more personal photos. On a couple of the weddings that I have taken, as well as some other portrait projects that I have worked on for friends, I have been complimented on how well I capture the subject. One project that I work on is a yearbook, (still and video) for a class of kindergarteners. I go out several times during the year and take pictures of them in the course of their daily routines. By the end of the year, after spending many hours getting to know them all, when my videos and photos are showcased, mothers are crying and I am told of how well I captured eached childs personality. Someone who knows the members of the bridal party might Know certain things to look for, that a disconnected, impersonal perhaps, professional might not know.
But, then, there are the standard formal, got to have them, photos that only a professional is best equipped and experienced or organized to take. I have only done weddings as favors for friends who were in positions where they couldn't afford the thousands of dollars charged by local photographers. It was me or no one a couple times. Mostly, I shoot Video but have done some stills that came out pretty good. Otherwise, when I am contacted to shoot a wedding I usually decline. That is because I know I am not equipped to do it fully or correctly. I don't have the deflectors, slaves, umbrellas.... I feel comfortable taking some candids at the reception or something and would usually be happy doing that with my D200 and SB-800, but, like I said, unless the B&G are in a bind and just want pictures and aren't expecting everything, I tend not to feel comfortable doing the ceramony and formals... I do know some of what is needed but would hate to miss something really important.
I wonder, the day I get married, what I will do. I would like to think I could get a professional to get the formal gold standard portraits like cutting the cake, toasts, dances and so on. I may not be able to do that though with the expense of it. I don't know that I have any friends that I could lean on to give me all those basic shots. I do know though that I will have pictures. I will probably get plenty of the more personal color or candid stuff. There is a value to having your friends take pictures of each other or the more personal things. Like you mentioned, you could get a good slant or expression of things that a professional just can't capture. There is a place and purpose for both professionals and guest/amatures.
At one time I thought of shooting some weddings. Someone encouraged me, telling me, about 20 years ago, how lucrative it could be. I did my reading and found basic checklists of the main shots that one should take. The ladies getting dressed or made up, The bride getting fixed up. Getting in the limos, The procession.... all the way to toasts, The father and the bride, the first dance, the cutting of the cake and daparture.... You hire a professional, I see it, to make sure that all those shots get taken and get taken right.
Look at it, as with sports, Play by play as opposed to Color.
I think the suggestion of, was it a girlfriend that was suggested, following the bride and her bridesmaid around during the day, taking pictures during the makeovers and dressings. Photographing all those things behind the scenes would be good. Perhaps, the groom could have one of his friends, assuming one was photographically interested, take pictures of those preparations and the activity and emotions of the waiting for the bride at the church... would be good. Leave the ceramony and the reception and, like I said, all the primary formal shots to the hired professional.
I've been shooting weddings 6 years now and previous to that I managed a Lifetouch studio. I've shot a whole wedding with a Hasse, a whole wedding with a Mamiya C330, and a whole wedding with a DSLR. I have not however shot a wedding entirely with a 35mm, although I know lots of people who have. Personality wise, wedding photographers are a strange bunch, the first one I worked with I would go so far as to say he could be pushy and obnoxious. He ran on the 'old' business model Shay talked about before, he wore a hairpiece, had a bunch of kids to support, but was genuinely a decent guy and I consider him a friend. Here is WHY lots of pro social photographers come off rude or obnoxious.
#1 If they work on the 'old' model the more awesome pictures they take of the couple and every possible grouping the more material they have to sell on the back end, there is a DIRECT relationship to number of quality frames taken, and how much money they make.
#2 They can't miss anything, they can't have a bad day, they can't screw up, your reputation as a business person, as a photographer, as a professional (and ultimately your lievelyhood) are on the line EVERY Saturday. If you as a guest miss something no biggie, if the pro misses (sometimes just one group or shot) dissaster.
#3 Guests (people, drunk people old people) blink and have a tendency NOT to look at the camera, this tendency is increased by a bunch of yahoo guests surrounding you and taking pictures over your shoulder. Once again a group not looking the same way in a guest's photo? no biggie. In the pro photo, mini catastrophe. Pros used to shoot more than one (in HOPE) to make sure you got one with everyone's eyes open, and no one googlie, I shoot 2 now and clone brush eyes if people blink.
#4 You are constantly watched, and judged. I have been approached guests at weddings who recognize me the photographer a previous couple's wedding, but do not remember who the couple was.
#5 Unless you are Dennis Reggie (sic), you ARE a portrait photographer and are responsible for making people look good, people with bags under their eyes, big noses, big ears, double chins, people who made bad clothing/gown choices, people who are just plain ugly. And you have to do it, and position them, without embarassing them, or drawing attention to their flaws in front of their family and friends.
#6 You have (usually) make things look better, richer, more fun, less drunk, less dramatic, than they really were. Sure you have couples who are looking for a TRUE documentarian, but they are not usually your couple getting hitched at the local wedding world, who arrive in an RV, and end up exposing themselves at some point in the night (all of which I have seen).
#7 Your personality has to mesh with the client well enough to get decent expressions from them, you are selling YOU. You are an extremely important part of their usually already artifically inflated day of uber high expectations.
#8 You have to maintain your creative edge, you have to push yourself within the framework of unimaginable stress and adverse circumstances to continually come up with something new and fresh.
I've worked both sides and the middle of the wedding industry. I've shot (as a second shooter) 200k dollar affairs at the Willard Intercontinental in DC, real deal traditional African weddings in Baltimore neighborhoods I wouldn't stop to get gas in at anytime of day, and 17-24 something middle class wedding world jobs. Every bride wants to look beautiful, every groom just wants to get it over with and get drunk, and both have paid 'a lot' of money to make their day look they way they 'want' it to look in pictures. If you are the professional you are that guy/girl. The best photographers I have met have fun at it, and one of the best I know is getting out of it because it isn't fun anymore. The job has a SERIOUS burnout factor. Everyone that does it for some time has a somewhat masochistic side.
I love it.
So far as other people shooting at weddings, I could really care less. I tease the ones with big cameras, and take pictures of the ones with little ones, but so long as THEY don't think they are the professional (at that job) I could really care less. I shoot with a 20D/30D and I have had people with 1DS MkII's show up as guests (a professional sports photog) and I'm not intimidated by bodies or lenses. I once had an older gentleman with a m6 who wierded me out a little, but even he was really cool and even let me take a picture of him and his wife with the mighty red dot rangefinder. Wedding photography is a personality business, you could take the most beautiful pictures EVER and be a big jerk and never get booked. You have to be part bard, part clown, part stylist, part coordinator. I won't say that people with a big ego are not well suited to the job, because in some ways the big ego can help you, if it is in check. It helps to be smooth, to be charming, graceful, and refined, self assured, and in control, but it is always a fine line a wedding photographer walks between egomaniac control freak, and someone who doesn't produce the product the client expects. In short folks it aint easy. As far as the first case goes I think she may have been teasing with you, she may have been lashing out, she may have been annoyed by you, but I have a feeling she knew what she was doing and what she was about, but may have been doing it too long to realize that she wasn't having fun doing it anymore.
Here is another funny thing that I'm sure someone with a background in Psychology will have a field day with. I quit smoking 7 days a week 4 years ago. But I smoke at weddings, so I smoke like a pack of cigarettes a month 3 or 4 per wedding. I have absolutely NO desire to smoke during the week, I deal with stresses (money, kids, family) and have no desire to smoke. If I am not shooting a wedding that week I don't jones for a smoke. I smoke when I shoot weddings and that is it, and I can't imagine not. I'm probably crazy, which is probably necessary to shoot weddings.
Lots of inside info, great read, much appreciated
Yep, very interesting & entertaining post. It just verifies my desire to avoid getting into that market. More power to you wedding photogs, I have no idea how you do it (I only do the occasional one for family that cannot afford a pro).
http://www.chrislaudermilkphoto.com/
I have had parents/other photogs set up right behind me when I'm shooting. They say something like you did, "Just shooting for fun," only to be selling the images later or giving them away. But mainly I find it distracts the subjects; making it VERY hard to get them to smile at you and share that sparkle in their eye. Instead you get a confused group. It is frustrating to be the one who gets everyone together for a nice arrangement & looks for the moment to capture their energy just to get a confused group wondering who to look at.
I really do believe my images speak for themselves. So I don't worry about who's getting the best shot. At a horse event in Wyoming, as the exclusive photog with about $400 in expenses & 3 days work invested, I had someone who keep shooting from my locations claiming she was just shooting for a few friends. No problem. But when it came time for riders to place orders they were confused about who the photog was or even worse disappointed in the quality of pictures. Seems she takes crappy shots, doesn't know how to work with horses, and can't put a quality print together. Not my work, but it still makes me look bad.
Just wanted to share some insight from the other side. Hope no offense taken. Would just suggest that in the future you don't shoot the same shots as the official photographer or that you offer to be the official for no/low cost next time. Will make everyone happier.