I have a couple of Second Photographers I completely trust with my eyes closed during a wedding. Meaning I know that IF I have to rush to the bathroom during the first dance or toast they’ll be able to take full control of the situation and shoot just as if I was the one shooting. This really has never happened but you always have to think 5 steps ahead during a wedding, because you just never know.
Weddings are not something you can really predict, anything can happen, and by anything I mean from getting your car lost at a Hotel’s Valet to getting a flat tire and being late to the ceremony or being sick to the point of throwing up and not being able to stand for very long. Not that these things have happened to me, (except for the first one, my car did get lost at the Bride’s prepping hotel) but I’m always thinking about all the wrong things that can happen during a wedding, that way if they ever DO happen, I’m already prepared and have a Plan B or Plan C up my sleeve.
This is why I find it imperative that all photographers use an assistant photographer during a wedding and I always include one in all my collections, because brides just expect the day to be perfect and sometimes are not very realistic.
The hard part comes down to finding the right assistant photographer. When I was searching for one, I would go on Facebook, I would google photographers in Miami, I would ask around, and I even considered training people I knew, to be my second photographer. I started off doing weddings with my boyfriend’s cousin, Danny, and he was amazing because as a guy he knew exactly how to deal with the grooms, but I knew it wasn’t really his thing. Danny was more into the cars and the artists than he was into doing weddings. So I had to move on and find someone else so he could venture on his own stuff. So of course I had to try new people and different eyes but always researching them first.
My second thing was meeting with them and talking to them, seeing that they would agree to my terms while always making sure I was being considerate of their own feelings and terms. Just because their “second shooting” for me doesn’t mean I have to treat them as if they’re below me, NO! if anything I want them to feel extremely comfortable with me so that it’s pleasant to work with one another.
I, unlike other photographers, let my second shooters keep their photos and give them a USB for them to place their images on. But I let them know my terms ahead of time. I don’t want my second shooters friending my clients on their facebook or instagram, or uploading their images and taking the credit as if they found the client. They can credit the image as them taking it but my client doesn’t need to know that or see them posted everywhere else but my page. At the end of the day they ARE representing my business and they need to understand that. Why do I let them keep their photos? because I want them to be able to access them years later and see how they were shooting before and how far they’ve come. I want them to see the difference in their own work and be proud of it. I want them to build their own portfolio and I am not that greedy photographer that needs all the credit to herself. That’s not what I’m here for, I’m here to photograph YOUR day not make it about myself.
I do believe if you want to find someone and train them or mold them to do things the way you like them to be done you can do that, but don’t forget just because you’re training them doesn’t mean they’ll see things the way you see them behind the lens. I also don’t expect my second photographer to take the most important photos, that’s MY job, that’s why the couple hired ME. They hired Andrea, because they like Andrea’s style so the portraits will always be done by me. I want my assistant photographer to shoot what I’m not shooting, meaning if I’m shooting the Bride and Groom during the ceremony and the bride’s mom is crying in her seat, I want my assistant to photograph that. I also like to make sure that my second shooter is professional at all times, does not have an attitude with my clients or their guests, dresses the part, and FINALLY just has FUN! I want them to just have fun at all times and to feel like I’m their friend and not a boss, because I don’t consider myself to be their boss, they’re independent contractors that are doing what they love and doing me a favor. My second photographers own their own businesses and I try to make sure to book them ahead of time, but if they book something of their own I am understanding about it and always have more than one to go to that can back me up.
Miami Wedding Photographer Andrea Arostegui 