The Impact and Importance of Wedding Photography Equipment on the Industry

A Discussion of the importance of wedding photography equipment on the wedding photography industry

If you poke around a bit you can find a good deal of discussion on wedding photography and the impact of equipment in the industry.  Specifically the notion or idea that the equipment really does not matter. That a talented photographer could grab an iphone or any cell phone with a camera and produce amazing stuff.  There is truth to that..just not complete truth…Let me preface this discussion with the caveat; I am a commercial success that sees himself as sill learning.  It’s my intention to make the reader I am stating all this as my opinion, and as the opinion of one who is not at a final destination but has a journey ahead.

Guess what? The equipment DOES matter!!!!

Let me draw an analogy….how often do you see a craftsman building a fine home with antiquated or outdated tools?

How often do you see a competent auto technician work on your car with anything other than the latest and greatest in the way of tools and diagnostics?

Answer…you don’t, at least not often. The tools DO make a difference. For us it can mean much faster auto-focus and the ability to shoot in varying lighting and still obtain a quality image.

So if we are accepting of the fact that the latest and greatest tools WILL allow the amateur to capture better images, what do we do?

How do we, as the professional photographer move forward? Do we accept the canon call that professional photography is dead?

I refuse to believe that is the future. I believe what we should be doing is concentrating on ourselves and our professional development. Looking at what we can do to get better, to produce results that would be very difficult to reproduce for the person who has the latest and greatest tool but who does not totally understand the tool and the ability to operate it.

We should be working to have better timing, to understand and control lighting, composition and finally to deliver to our clients an heirloom album that is so different than something they could produce from a friend with a great camera via common and easily produced books from any number of non-professionally dedicated producers.

So if we can accept the fact that the equipment will continue to evolve, and that evolution will undoubtedly allow for better images, made easier with less ability to understand the principles of photography required for everyone, then we realize we ourselves must change

Ill close by stating again, I am nowhere near where I should be or want to be, but it’s a journey I believe all professionals should commit themselves to. If we want to be successful ourselves. If we wish to grow personally and professionally.  If we want our industry to flourish we need to continue to develop ourselves and what we can deliver to our clients. Like almost any industry you can think of, the best of the best always rise to the top. They do not just continue to survive, they flourish  Maybe it’s time we committed ourselves to be more.

I would recommend an excellent opportunity to learn at the PPA’s Super 1-Day Classes. You can read and sign up for those HERE:

I would also recommend going to PPA’s Imaging USA. It is a bucket full of learning with classes by industry experts and a dynamite expos. You can find it IMAGING USA:

I’ll be there.

I hope you will to.

We owe it to our craft.

We owe it to our clients.

We owe it to ourselves.