Have I worked at your wedding venue before?

Quite often I get asked if I have worked on a wedding at ‘such and such’ venue. In one case, I missed a booking because I hadn’t shot at a certain place before. I thought I’d try and give a view on this because to me, this couple have missed a fresh creative opportunity.

Having experience at a venue is great, no doubt about it. You know what’s happening, where everything is and where the light is coming from. I’ve got my share of venues in Melbourne and on the Mornington Peninsula where I have worked on a wedding more than once.

In my opinion, not having experience at a venue is just as good as having been there before. Why? The answer is very simple: you have a fresh set of eyes. Being a creative, I pay attention to a lot of detail and give a new place a very thorough once over. There might be something that has gone unnoticed by a previous photographer that would make a great foreground or background for an image.

Having worked at a venue before, you might not pay as much attention to the finer details because you know the shots to get and you make sure you nail them.

With every wedding couple, we get together in the lead up to their day to work out a plan for both good weather and bad. In most cases, we will visit the venue and the creative juices flow. With a combined effort, our ideas come together to form a solid plan for their wedding photography. To me, this is an essential part of the planning process. With planning, the result is that on the day, we simply follow our feet instead of standing around saying “Right, what are we doing”.

To me, it’s just as good to have been to venue before or not so I hope that gives you a good insight.