How can village wedding photographers position themselves for success?
Today anyone has a camera, a Canon or Nikon that will convince you to think you are dealing with a professional. Its only on the deliver that you realised your wedding day is ruined. On that note, most of couples have relocated to towns and big cities, but their weddings mostly take place back in the villages; understandably so because its their culture for the bride to leave from home on her wedding day, and most of all the majority of the family is back home in the villages. The couple has to decide to either find a local wedding photographer, or pay huge amount to ship one from the big cities.
So how can a village photographer take advantage of this trend? Here are three elements to consider.
Be professional
The main reason couples hire a Johannesburg wedding photographer all the way to the village is because they saw the quality. So should our village photographers match the same quality, they get the market. This is an investment that one has to make to reach the professional level.
Online presence. The other reason for a Johannesburg wedding photographer to harvest the village wedding photography market, is because only their portfolio is accessible on social media platforms. So, as a village photographer, put your work on all online platforms as possible, Facebook, Instagram, Website and so on.
Deliver in time. The village services are known for their slowness and lousiness, people have to beg for their wedding package. Its time to change that and match the fast and quick delivery by big cities wedding photographers who don’t have space for many weddings as their schedules are tight.
Be cultural
By culture, the bride must leave from her parents house on her wedding day, she cannot sleep at a hotel or a wedding venue. The morning ululations and a convoy to the wedding venue is what makes the great experience for the bride.
But the problem is, most of the big cities photographers do not go to the villages, they wait for the bride and groom at the wedding venue, or else extra amount is paid for them to get to the villages. Its time for the local photographers to capture the wedding from home up to the wedding venue with the same quality and an affordable price.
Time. Mostly village weddings are known for their long program and dances; that is the best advantage for local photographers to take an advantage because they stay local so time is is not a huge factor to them, unlike the photographers from big cities charging at an hourly rate and still have to drive back. For the village photographer to make business, do not charge per hour, just charge a reasonable amount that might cover you for incase the day is bit longer.
Be affordable
Here im not saying one must drop their prices to a level of no reason to take work, but configure your wedding photography packages to suite your effort and rewards. The main reason couple source local programmer is doe to budget constrains, however the photographer can configure their deliverables to suite the market and price. For example, you can cut Parent Albums, or number of prints just to realise a decent income. The rest of extras leave them as top ups that attaches extra cost.