The Mirror Imaging Difference
“It’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that’s all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot - it can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better. ”
One of the most difficult aspects of planning a wedding is the amount of choice! Pinterest can only do so much! It can be overwhelming, and whilst marrying the love your life will always be one of the best days of your life, sorting the good wedding suppliers from bad can save you a lot of stress and disappointment. Planning your big day is a balancing act of desirability, budget and gut instinct - when you book the right person for the job, it just feels right. There are many photographers out there with a huge difference in pricing, and some couples only find out why after their wedding day! So what is the difference?
Care & Service
As your photographer, this is not just a job to me but my passion, vocation and full-time livelihood. I don’t supplement my 9-5 income by photographing weddings at the weekend, then rush to edit them of an evening after work – these photographers are in the majority, and whilst they are able to undercut on price (it’s good pocket money to them!) they have to shortcut on quality. When I’m not shooting weddings and editing your photographs, I am working on prestigious commercial projects - did you know Mirror Imaging took the official Gold Cup photographs for the Cheltenham Races? I’m also constantly improving my craft and dedicated to my clients, so I’m there for you when you need me. Want to hold your engagement shoot at 3pm on a Wednesday afternoon? Need to call and chat about a wedding detail at 10am on a Monday morning, or 10pm Sunday night? I’m all yours.
Experience
We have a proven track record and over 10 years experience photographing weddings and events as big as 1,200 guests. Our experience extends into commercial, charity and event photography, where speed is of the essence and both volume and quality is demanded. Where necessary, we can draw on additional experienced photographers, videographers and drone specialists to create a completely bespoke package.
Digital Image Processing
This is an important, ‘behind the scenes’ distinction: I don’t batch process your photographs with editing software, I don’t apply generic photoshop actions and I don’t outsource my editing; a common solution used by my competitors. How could I send your personal photographs to a processing farm in India, when they weren’t even at your wedding, don’t know you or your friends and couldn’t possibly understand the mood of your event? That’s like booking one photographer and getting someone else entirely! With Mirror Imaging, every single one of your final wedding and event photographs is edited by hand, by me. This is ridiculously rare in my industry – it takes a long time and such demanding working practices reduce profit margins. What it does mean is that you get an entire collection of photographs that are consistently beautiful, flattering, technically accurate and bespoke to you.
High Quality
My weddings are regularly published in national and regional bridal magazines. This is an endorsement from industry experts whose job it is to source the best of the best, and gives you confidence that I reliably produce elegant, aspirational images of editorial standard. As Buckinghams Wedding Magazine says:
"Mirror Imaging is one of my very favourite photographers. The quality of Sarah’s work is consistently excellent and it's always a joy to work with her images. Having fallen head over heels in love with her style coupled with my personal belief that she has secretly harnessed the power of beautiful light which she carries with her at all times, I have no hesitation in recommending Mirror Imaging."
Mirror Imaging is a team of two and we’re both perfectionists. It’s the linchpin of our working practices and our whole ethos. It matters that your photographs are sharp and clear, that your wedding dress is correctly exposed and you can see the fabric detail in the photograph – after all, you paid a lot of money for the dress of your dreams! It’s important to Mirror Imaging that your ceremony and reception candles are lit, your dress is carried not dragged over wet ground and you don’t have clutter in the background of your photographs.
Empathy & Attitude
I’m stealthy during a church ceremony, moving quickly and without drawing attention to myself. Every good photographer will know the importance of natural images and it goes without saying I’m always on the lookout for them. Making time for you to enjoy your day and be with your guests without turning your wedding into an 8-hour photoshoot is also crucial to our approach. The laughter and love in our photographs is real – we make the effort to get to know you to make the photography experience a relaxing one, eliciting the most natural expressions. If you’ve looked through my weddings and thought ‘but they’re a natural at posing and so photogenic, and I’m not!’ – well, most of the people I’ve photographed have said something similar, then loved their results. We also consider it an honour to attend your wedding and dress accordingly, so we’re never a scruffy visual in an otherwise elegant day! To us, it’s just a sign of respect.
Value Added
For every hour we spend at your wedding and event, you can conservatively multiply that number by four to estimate the total time we spend on you. So for an 8-hour wedding, that’s at least 64 man-hours. Our service includes as standard; meetings, wedding day timelines, liaising with other suppliers, pre-wedding venue visits and of course, all that careful, post-event image editing. All this means you’re paying for so much more than an on-the-day service.
If you're excited to find out more about Mirror Imaging capturing your big day, you can view our simple and transparent pricing online or get in touch to arrange a no-obligation chat about your wedding photography.