Looking for cheap photographers in gulf shores al? Is this really what you want low-quality bad images? Here are a few things to watch out for when looking for a Gulf Shores family beach photographer.

Stay away from any company that has many photographers working for them.

Why? For one any good photographer will not be working for a photography group as they will not make as much money as working on their own.

The biggest problem with group photography companies is they will hire anyone and send them out on jobs with no experience or even good equipment.

We are a beach town and beach photographers make most all other income working in the summer months. A photography group cannot keep a group of photographers working all year so after summer is over so is all the jobs. The photographers working for the group companies just wander away as they can not make any money.

Before summer the group photography companies start hiring. They will hire just about anyone with a camera as they have a large turn over as most do not stay as they do not make much money. The people they hire to shoot your family photos have no background check and may even be chriminals you never know. Most do not own good camera equipment and have no photography training but they get hired anyways as they need them for the racket they are running.

Here is how many of them work

This is based on talking in person with many people that have been hired by the companies in the area at the beach on jobs they have been sent out to shoot. We run into them all the time waiting for a customer to arrive. We can always tell they have little to no equipment and have no clue what they are doing. But Sadly some family paid and this is what they get for their money.

They hire someone to be a photographer and show them how to do a few people posing setups and give them some tips on how they might use whatever camera they own. They market at lower prices and will book as many jobs as they can so they can make money off of many bookings each day. They then send out the new photographer to the beach for a job and give them a small fee with the promise of making more money by giving them a % of the after sales print sales hyping them up with numbers of making a lot of money.

The so-called photographer shoots the family photos with no real experience and good camera knowledge and no lighting or other equipment and the photos end up being horrible. The company at this point has already made their money off the customer booking with them. The photographers end up not making anything more as the customer does not buy any prints as they do not lik the photos or they may buy a few and they may almost nothing extra. After a few times doing this the photographer quits as they are not making any money and is replaced by the next person they use.

The company makes their money off the customer booking with them up front. The photographer, for the most part, is used as with so many new starting out photographers they think great things will come of this. In the end, the customer ends up with what may be horrible photos they do not even like.

Natural Light VS Flash photography on the beach

Shooting on the beach in super bright sunlight is not easy and for a photographer, it can be one of the harder conditions to get great images in.

The bright sun the wind and the water mist and ever-changing light exposures as the clouds move by.

Two way to shoot beach portrait one if natural night and two is using flash. Bother are a good way but both have up and downsides.

Natural light. Many newer photographers like to call themselves natural light photographers because they never learned how to use off-camera flash lighting and do not own any. They tend to make up any reason for why they shoot this way. The fact is any good photographer that knows flash photography can also shoot natural light as well but many times it is much better to use flash to get better images.

The big problem with this it is the bright sun we have on the beach. With natural light photography you need to use the light in a way to have your subject lit up from the sun but with the wind blowing this can be a nightmare to do at times unless you have everyone’s hair blowing in their face making for a very bad photo.

The other problem with natural light shooting is to get great exposures you will most likely need to overexpose the background blowing it out making the background very white with little to no details. You come to the beach for photos on the beach and can end up with photos that make the beach look all blown out and lack color.

Using flash. Using flash is not easy on the beach that is why you do not see a lot of people doing this. For one most on camera, or add-on camera flash systems do not have the power to compete with the sun to get the exposure right. A much stronger flash system is needed and needs to be run in full manual this alone stops many photographers as they have never learned how to do this.

So shooting with flash has many advantages over natural light. For on with using flash the photographer can balance the background with the flash to produce a much more even photo with the beach water and sky all looking good and not blow out.

With the wind on the beach using flash the photographer can move the subject so their hair is blowing back not in their face producing much better images.

From image to image using off-camera flash the photographer can use a consistant exposure creating images that are rich in color, very sharp with the better beach colors and look.

At My Family beach portraits, Ed shoots both ways. When the lighting is right for natural light shooting Ed will shot that way but when the lighting the sun and wind are like it is many times on the beach Ed uses flash to make sure you get the best possible photos no matter what it is like out that day.

Ed shoots with two cameras each with a different lens on it. One is set up for the family group photos and the other camera is set up with a special portrait lens on it just for creating the better portrait look and great background bokeh blur.

What to look for when looking for a good Gulf Shores Family Beach Photographer

What to ask 

1. First, Ask who will be the photographer?
2. How long have they been shooting family beach portraits?
3. Do they have a website with sample family beach portraits they shot you can see?
4. What camera and lens are they using?
5. Do they have backup cameras with them in case their camera breaks on the job?
6. Will they be using any flash photography?
7. If not how are they going to deal with the bright sun and wind to get good images?
8. Do they have a Gulf Shores business license to be in business?
9. Do they have the Gulf Shores area permit needed to work and shoot on the beach if not they are breaking the law?
10. How will they be editing your images using what?
11. How long will it take till your images are edited and ready to see? We have seen other photographers take till the end of Oct to edit images from summer sessions.

Any good family portrait photographer will have at least two high-end cameras just in case one breaks as that can happen. The better photographers will offer both natural light and off camera flash shooting that way you know you are getting the best of both.

Any good photographer with experience shooting beach portraits will have plenty of smaples images to show. And a website they own and run for their business. Any working beach shooter knows that they must edit the images fast and get them down or they will fall behind shooting every day in summer. They will have a good photo gallery system for the customers to view, download and order prints.

It is unlikely you will find a well-experienced photographer shooting or working for any company that has many photographers they don’t need to.

Hire the right photographer and get the better images you will be more happy with. Stay away from the photography farms as we call them as you never know who and what you are going to end up with.