The Five Ways Your Wedding Photographer Can Ruin Your Wedding: Number Two: Your Photographer sells you on their "gravy," then serves you up "cold potatoes." - Tobin Photography

Here’s the deal: anyone can take the best few photographs from each of the umpteen weddings they’ve shot (or worse: assisted on), and put together a decent portfolio to impress potential clients.

These dazzling shots on display in their website’s portfolio make it difficult to gauge their true skill and talent. These crowd pleasers are their “gravy.” Every photographer has “gravy”…but every photographer also has “potatoes.”

The potatoes are the rest of their shots–those that didn’t make it into their portfolio. The true merit of a photographer lies in his potatoes, not just in his gravy.

Heck, even drunken Aunt Selma will pop off a beautiful shot here and there between dirty martinis.

Simply put, what is the quality of work–overall? Is there a disproportionate amount of potatoes to gravy? Are their potatoes cold? Lumpy? Worse yet…do they seem like they’re from a box (you know, like, the photos are generic, they lack inspiration, uniqueness, passion)?

How do you prevent hiring a “Potato-Peddler”?

It’s simple! Ask to see a couple of weddings he’s shot in their entirety. This collection of images should include greater than one hundred shots, all from the same wedding. Then, once he’s let you see an entire wedding, you be the judge–what is the gravy-to-potatoes ratio, really? How good are the potatoes, really?

Trust yourself…you’ll know.