Wedding Photographers in Merseyside

VIVA Photography based on the Wirral provides professional photographic services with over 40 years experience in wedding, party, event, portrait and commercial photography. Here they share their story plus some really useful advice based on their experience on what to check when looking for a photographer for your event.

What do you need to know from an organiser in order to provide a comprehensive quote?

For us to provide you with a quotation, we need to know the following:-
1) What is the date of your event?
2) What type of event is it? Wedding? Party? Corporate Conference? etc.
3) Start and end times for us working for you.
4) Any special requests, e.g. bring a mobile studio for individual and group portraits.
5) Roughly how many guests you are expecting.
6) Where is the event being held?

What advice would you give to a customer looking to hire a provider in your area of work?

Firstly, look at their website to ensure that you are happy with their work. All photographers should have an online presence, showing examples of their work. How long have they been trading? Are they members of any professional body, such as the Professional Photographers Association, Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers, Royal Photographic Society, Guild of Photographers, etc.
Speak to them via the phone rather than via email or online chat services. You'll get a good idea of how genuine someone is from their voice and how competently they answer your questions. Do they sound like someone that you would like to work with?
When you are hiring a photographer, it is also a good idea to ask them to confirm that they are covered by both Public Liability and Professional Indemnity insurance. These can be very important if things go wrong so that you don't end up with an unexpected bill from a venue if something gets accidentally damaged by someone who is working for you.

Please tell us a little bit about how and why you started the business.

I started wedding photography in 1977 by accident. I was a keen amateur photographer and the brother of my girlfriend was getting married. Her dad was a director of a large company and said to me "You're pretty handy with a camera Gordon. You can take the wedding photos, can't you?" He wasn't the kind of man to take no for an answer, so I was thrown in the deep end. I did the photography and everyone was pleased with the results. I then found that several of their friends were asking me to cover their weddings too, so it snowballed. At that time as a sideline to my day job as an electronics engineer in the IT business. These days, I only work as a photographer.

Please tell us about a booking you've had through Add to Event, how did it go? Would you recommend us to others?

I am new on here so still looking forward to my first booking through Add to Event