Welcome to AYO - The  Premier Photography Consultancy

A professional weddings and events photographer doesn't always come easy, and yes, they don't come cheap either. Anybody who can hold a digital camera point-and-shot, this doesn't mean they are a photographer. Every now and then we capture a good images when we traveling or in some gathering, if this rare occurrence qualifies a individual as a professional photographer, I don't see there's any reason why people spent years studying and practicing in this profession, not to forget work produced by these professional are copyrighted for a reason - It is SO GOOD !

Unfortunately, today's bride and groom heavily gears toward the "budget" and over looked many important elements when choosing a wedding photographer, hence, in order to make their money work harder, bride and groom normally like to request a bigger wedding package (the more the better), large number of photographs (hundreds or even thousands). Honestly, I will do the exact same thing, if I knew nothing about everyday snap shots from professional photography. Here's what I think, if you are tight on budget or not willing to pay the price in hiring a professional wedding photographer, then my suggestion to you is this - Go to Best Buy, Circuit City or any store that sells digital camera, pick out a digital camera and a 2 gigabytes card/stick for little under $500.00, take them home and ask your brother, sister or maybe your uncle to practice on it for two or three weeks, I assured you, any of them will be able to take point-and-shoot pictures on your wedding day. Trust me, you will be much happier this way than spending $1,500.00 on a wedding photographer who delivers the exact same stuff which your brother or uncle can do it for free.

I am going to tell you a few true stories, no joking, these are my personal experiences from working with so called professional wedding photographer locally:
An older gentleman, he is a headstrong, proud individual. He knew a thing or two about taking pictures after taking nearly hundreds of wedding pictures in 30 years (it must be a easy thing become a professional wedding photographer back in the days). He recently taught his step-daughter how to take wedding pictures, what amazes me is, in less than 2 months time, she now called herself professional wedding photographer and racked up all the wedding photography job in town - anything under $900.00 dollars.
This elderly person also have a female school teacher which is a friend of his, her website gallery is listed on his website (his website is on the top 3 google page depends on how you type the search term - more eyeballs, gives him more business). This female teacher also called herself "professional wedding photographer", she load up all wedding photography job between $1,000.00 to $2,000.00 which referred through the elderly gentleman or through his website. A very sweet little networking they had together, more power to them.
Both ladies have no formal training by licensed photographer, no photo editing skills, and have no idea what is USM or NR. I am not surprised if the bride and groom hired them knew anything about photography whatsoever. Actually it worked out perfect for bother parties - Bride and groom know nothing about photography, since these lady photographers were highly recommended by a 30 years experience in wedding photographer, there's no need to question their qualifications.
Today, this elderly gentleman no longer shooting because he can't keep up with modern technology in photography, but he teaches people never held a camera in their life to become a wedding photographer in three months.

Second story.
I worked with a highly recognized wedding photographer in town. "Wow, he is listed on the first page of google, with a very impressive credentials, he got to be someone special in the local professional photography community", that was my first impression.
I wrote him and stated my terms and condition, before knew it, I was sitting in his studio taking with him in offering my services. I was thrilled about working with him, hoping work with him side by side, I'll acquire more experience and broaden my photography knowledge, because he claimed he had worked with so and so, photographed so and so, and so on so forth. Yes, I was totally impressed. Together we shot two weddings in one day.
He had three cameras around his neck, the fourth one in his hand which he can hardly stand straight. On the first wedding, he used one camera through the entire wedding (ops, my bad, he did used a second camera mounted with a wide-angle lens for 1 group shot). The second wedding, he used one camera and rushing through the entire shoot.
Here's the thing, don't be fool by the google listings when you looking for a professional photographer, I felt for it, this doesn't mean you should too. Inside his studio, those beautiful wedding photographs were taken by other photographer(s) who worked with him in various occasions. How I know, very simple, after all day photo shoot, he asked me to GIVE him the entire digital photographs that I shot for the day. I never send the disc to him and it sits on my desk as I am typing this.
During the photo shoot, he advised many times:" You should shoot with aperture, you should try it." I almost burst out laughing:"Why would you asked me to shoot with aperture, when you saw I had a specific professional portrait lens with DF feature mounted on my camera?".
This type of photographer is all about showing off, lack of substance. On the personal level, he has pleasant personality, with the right business sense, if taking photo is the only way he knows how to make living, I am all for it.

Here's even better one. A young wedding photographer I worked with in several occasions, he's the sweetest photographer I ever met, young and energetic. He called himself "professional wedding photographer" because he was told that he has the eyes for photography, this is very important - capturing what you see. The whole story in short, he left his mentor after three months of training, then he hired someone to build a website, now he is a professional wedding photographer in town.
The first time on a wedding photo shoot with him, many conversations later, he told me that I should shoot RAW format because raw is this, raw is that and he would shoot RAW only. He looked at my camera before the shoot, not knowing that my camera can shoot both RAW and JPG files at the same time. As the day progresses, I watch him shot close to a thousand wedding pictures on a 4 gigabyte card straight through, not once he put in a new card- Huh ? RAW format for nearly thousand pictures ? How is this possible?
It gets even better, when I asked him with a trick question: "Do you use adobe light-room for editing" he replied:"Yeah, I used light-room" I asked:"what other photo editing software do you use?" "photoshop!" who else is not using photoshop but which photoshop to be exact? If you are a professional wedding photographer you'll know the basic photoshop is not good enough to edit raw files unless you have CS2 or higher or a professional photo software for RAW format. About the light-room, this is a quick tool to display photographs, it is not a editing tool per se. I laughed all the way home after the wedding shoot that evening.
If you asked:"How do those self-made photographers make it this far?" Very simple, because most people don't know the difference when someone tells them: "I am a professional wedding photographer vs. I am also a professional wedding photographer." If you can't ask the right question, you won't know who is who. The best way to find a professional photographer is to put your fingers to work by obtaining a basic knowledge about a digital camera, digital photography and the few latest photographic terms. When you meet with your photographer, listen to them, see if they give you the right answers. If you're still not sure after talking with your photographer, make sure he shares the technical and meta-data information with you if you are planning to hire him, because these in-camera information are coded on each photograph. Professional photographers will be happy to show you and explain the data and tech information because they know what they are doing. This way you don't have to second guess the quality of your wedding photograph, but if this photographer doesn't have the editing skill your photographs can still be at risk.

Photography is professional photographer's passion, we love what we do, we will climb a mountain if we have to, just because a shot we wanted to capture is located at the mountain top. Photography is photographer's love, life, beyond and above. Hey, don't blame them if they charge you more than those self-made wedding photographers out there, you will see every dollar you've spent in your final print. Don't let the bigger package steer you away from a good wedding package provided by a professional photographer.

Many professional photographers use their skills to make a honest living because they are real good at it, but if you are tight on the budget and really want to have a professional photographer, this type of professional photographer is what you want - The passionate professional photographer! These extremely well to do photographers do exist where you live, they will give you top quality photographs at a very reasonable price. Their passion and love mainly lays on "photography" the package might be very simple but this will be a once of a life time opportunity on your wedding day, they'll document every details on your wedding day with depth, vision and beautifully presented in flawlessly edited final format at your desire. When you can't come up with $4,000.00 to $6,000.00 worth of professional photographs - All your need to do is look harder, dig deeper (forget the google top three listings, bet you don't know you can buy first page listings on google with less than $50.00 per month).

If all things fail, come talk to us about what you want for your weddings and events photography, we will find you a full fledged professional photographer for much less than $6,000.00 or $4,000.00 or even less than $3,000.00 dollars. If the photographer likes the client and understands your budget situation, it is possible they might consider lowering the price (Hey, I will do my best but don't hold me to it.) This is the weird side of a true artist, hard to put it in words but often they'll let their passion lead the way. By the way, we also recommend DJ, catering or any weddings and events related services at the price which will put a smile on your face. We won't recommend people we didn't work with.

This is free service! If you are the bride and groom, please worry about your gown or tux, if you are a model, go worry about your make up artist, let us handle what you can't.