Education

Wedding Photography Gone Wrong: How I Protect Your Photos

In today’s social media climate, I think we’ve all seen the horror stories of wedding photography gone wrong. You can easily find posts on Reddit or TikTok where people share their devastation after working with a wedding photographer they thought they could trust.

While there are some truly horrible situations out there, I want to put your mind at ease!

I care so much about telling your story, and I do everything in my power to protect your wedding images during your actual wedding, but in the following weeks after as well.

So what happens behind the scenes that ensures that you really will see pictures after your wedding or session? I’m going to let you peek at my process below!

Newlyweds exiting the church in Pembroke, NH, as guests throw confetti. The couple walks under umbrellas on a rainy day, smiling and holding hands.

What I Do Beforehand to Avoid Wedding Photography Going Wrong

Truthfully, protecting your photos begins even before the wedding day. I have a few tricks up my sleeve that I rely upon each time I pull out my camera.

A bride and groom walk hand-in-hand on a sandy Cape Cod beach during their wedding. The bride wears a flowing white gown, and the groom is dressed in a light gray suit with a blue tie. The ocean stretches behind them under a soft, cloudy sky. Weddings on the Cape.

I regularly replace memory cards to limit risk of card failure.

Any time I buy new memory cards, I make sure to date them so I know exactly how old that card is.

After two faithful years of service, I retire cards. SanDisk, the company I trust, recommends to replace cards about every 3 years.

So why do I choose to swap them out a little earlier? Really, for my peace of mind. I don’t mind spending a bit more money to help mitigate risk!

I use two memory cards at all times

My camera, the Canon EOS R6, has two memory card slots. This means that when I take your pictures, I immediately have two copies of everything we shoot together. If something were to happen to one memory card, I have a second one that has the full resolution images.

After a shoot, I set these memory cards aside until your gallery is delivered. Just in case something happens with my other back ups, I still have all the original images.

A bride and groom stand together beside a sailboat named “Lighthouse Inn” on a Cape Cod beach. The bride wears a strapless white gown, and the groom is in a white shirt and dark tie. The ocean and cloudy sky provide a peaceful backdrop. Weddings on the Cape.

Avoiding Wedding Photography Gone Wrong During Your Wedding Day

After putting in the prep work, there’s some extra care I take during your day to help keep your wedding images safe.

I change memory cards throughout the day.

In today’s day and age, it’s entirely possible to capture a complete wedding day on a single memory card. Over here at Christine Hazel Photography, that’s not something I’m interested in doing.

Using different sets of memory cards helps ensure that I can’t lose an entire wedding at the same time. If a card were to get misplaced or damaged and it contained the entire wedding’s worth of images, imagine the heartbreak headed everyone’s way.

So, I swap out sets of memory cards as another layer of protection.

A pair of blue bridal shoes with pointed toes and satin ribbon ties, placed on a pastel floral background with scattered purple and white flowers.

I hire a second photographer for each wedding.

I include second photographers in all of my wedding packages, and one of the reasons why is redundancy.

When I’m not the only one documenting your day, that adds another layer of protection since there is a whole other person capturing your memories.

Part of my requirements for all of my second photographers is that they also use cameras that support dual memory cards.

And, I provide memory cards for my second photographers to use, so all of that prep work that I mentioned beforehand still goes in to those memory cards, even when I’m not the one photographing!

A bride in an off-the-shoulder lace wedding dress kisses a brown horse while standing on the shore of a calm Cape Cod beach. The horse is adorned with a simple bridle, adding a rustic touch to the moment. Weddings on the Cape.

I keep all memory cards on my person at all times

No one likes to think about this, but crime can happen on a wedding day.

It’s possible for someone, even if they’re not a wedding guest, to steal from a car, a ballroom, or wherever else we’ll be.

Just because your friends and family are the sweetest doesn’t mean everyone in the world is, unfortunately.

So, I wear all used memory cards in my belt bag to make sure that they aren’t left around for someone to grab.

Could someone take this bag? In theory, sure. But I wear it no matter what I’m doing, so the risk is lower than storing memory cards in my camera bag.

And, if I stop anywhere on my trip home, that bag stays with me. So if anyone broke into my car, I’m still thinking of ways to protect your memories.

A close-up of a bride’s back as she walks, with her delicate, flowing veil blowing in the wind. Her long blonde hair cascades in soft curls beneath the lace-trimmed veil, and blurred buildings are in the background. Bedford Village Inn wedding photographer

What I Do After Your Wedding: Avoiding Wedding Photography Gone Wrong

Because we can’t just let all of this hard work go to waste!

An overhead night drone shot of a large clear tent set up at the Colonial Hotel for a wedding reception. Inside the tent, tables with white tablecloths and red accents are arranged around a dance floor, with warm string lights creating a cozy ambiance.

Shortly after I get home from your day, I make 3 back ups of your unedited images.

I have two solid state hard drives that I use to back up my images. This happens when I get home from a wedding or session. Right now I use Samsung portable hard drives, and I’m quite happy with them!

In addition to the physical back ups, I also save a copy of my images online. I use SmugMug Source. Things upload quickly, and the storage fees are extremely reasonable.

So, all of this means that once I get home from your wedding or session that I have 5 copies of your images. (Don’t forget the original copies on the memory cards–that’s how we get to 5).

Once your images are finalized, I make 3 more copies.

After editing, I upload your entire gallery back on to my hard drives. And, I upload your images to my online gallery website. I use Cloudspot, and this gallery serves as a digital back up.

So, after everything is finalized, there are 3 complete back ups to help provide more peace of mind.

What You Need to Do to Avoid Wedding Photography Gone Wrong

Download your images!

This might seem obvious, but after being in the industry, I know that it’s not. The ease of accessing images on our phones makes us a bit lax with best storage practices.

Once your images are downloaded, have them saved in multiple locations. This can include your laptop, cell phone, and an online cloud based platform, like Google Photos, Apple Photos, etc.

And don’t forget to print your images! If you think about it, this is a physical back up. If anything did happen to your digital files, you could always scan prints later on.

Be Sure to Hire a Wedding Photographer You Trust

While there are many talented photographers out there, years in the industry are where you really learn all that goes in to being a trustworthy photographer.

If you’re interviewing a wedding photographer and they can’t easily provide their photo protection and backup system, that’s a red flag!

I’m not trying to say I have everything figured out. As I learn more from my continued professional development and networking groups, I might tweak my systems going forward. I’m sure there are trustworthy, conscientious photographers out there that do things differently from me.

But every trustworthy photographer should have a system that they can explain to you. If a photographer doesn’t want to answer questions about photo safety, please run the other direction!

If you’d like to chat about your own wedding, I’d love to connect with you! You can start the process by clicking here.

No system is fool proof. We can misplace hard drives, images can get damaged or lost, and files can corrupt. But the more back ups you have, the less likely you are to lose everything.

I hope this post gives you some ideas as well as some peace of mind! Over here at Christine Hazel Photography, I do all that I can to make sure that your images are safe!