Questions
Eight things worth knowing
before you write to meThe questions that come up at nearly every first meeting, answered here so the meeting can be about your wedding instead.
How far ahead should we book?
Nine to twelve months for a November, December or January Saturday — those three months are half the year's weddings in Accra and they go first. Four to six months is usually fine for the rest of the year, and I have photographed a wedding booked eleven days out.
Do you cover the engagement as well as the white wedding?
Yes, and I would encourage it. The traditional rite is where your families actually are, in their own cloth, in a room they know. Couples who only book the Saturday almost always tell me afterwards that the engagement is the day they wish they had photographs of.
Will you travel outside Accra?
Anywhere in Ghana with no supplement — Kumasi, Cape Coast, Ho, Takoradi, Ada, Tamale. Outside the country, flights and two nights' accommodation are added at cost and nothing else is.
When do we get the photographs?
A preview of about thirty frames inside seventy-two hours, which is what you will want for the group chat. The full gallery — six to eight hundred edited photographs for a full day — inside six weeks, and your album about eight weeks after you have chosen from it.
Is there a second photographer?
On the wedding-day collection and the full one, yes. It is the difference between having your walk down the aisle and having your partner's face while you do it. On the engagement I work alone, because a family compound with two photographers in it starts to feel like a production.
What happens if it rains?
We carry on, and the pictures are usually better for it. I keep two umbrellas and a plan for every venue I shoot at, and the twenty minutes of rain at Efua and Selorm's is the sequence they printed.
How does payment work?
A 40% deposit holds the date, payable by bank transfer or mobile money. The balance is due the week before the wedding. If you would rather spread it across three or four instalments, say so at the first meeting and we will write it that way.
Do we get the unedited files?
No, and no photographer worth booking will say yes. The edit is half the work and the frames I did not keep are the ones where somebody blinked. You get every photograph worth having, at full resolution, with a licence to print whatever you like of it.
Something else
If your question is not here it is probably a good one. Write it in two lines and you will have an answer the same day — I read my own email and there is nobody in between.
Bookings
Tell me about your day,
and where the light will beHalf an hour, no charge, at the studio in East Legon or on a call. I take about thirty weddings a year and one a day, so the earlier you write the more likely your Saturday is still open.
