Zach and Jody Gray aren’t just any wedding photography duo. They have a fun, unique style that has landed them prestigous awards and national praise. They’ve really done it all, including speaking at WPPI, Imaging USA, and SWPP in London. Their images have appeared in various publications including People, Southern Bride, and PPA Magazine.

Quite possibly what Zach and Jody do best is interact with clients. They base all client relationships off trust. In order to establish that strong bond of trust, Zach and Jody often give their clients an idea of questions they should ask potential photographer’s before the big day. We sat down with them to get a better idea of their questions.

Take it away Zach and Jody!

1. What is your back up process?

It is sad to say, but unfortunately many photographers don’t have a systemically way to back up and protect your precious images and reduce the chances of losing memories. Our process is to shoot mirrored back ups the day of (our cameras have 1 CF card and 1 SD card, so every time we take a picture, the camera saves two copies in two places), then when we arrive home, we make 4 additional copies of the images on 4 separate hard drives, and one of those drives is taken off-location in case our house/studio burns down. Once the images are edited, we secure another copy of the JPG images to an online back up system that further protects the photos. If your photographer is not doing something similar to that, DON’T HIRE THEM!

2. Do you focus on taking great portraits during the wedding,  focus on capturing moments as they happen, or both?

Some photographers have great highlight reels of awesome portraits taken at weddings (or shoots they set up to look like weddings), but they have NO images or very little images of the real getting ready moments, the ceremony and the reception (the actual wedding). You need to make sure that if you want great images of the actual wedding, that they are capable of doing that. Be sure to look at images from different weddings that showcase REAL moments and not staged ones if that is important to you.

3. You should’t need to ask tough questions! What?

In our opinion, you should only hire a photographer (if photography at your wedding is important to you) that came from a referral. Never Google a photographer and just look at a cool site and hire someone. Ask your friends, family or other wedding vendors (or another photographer that you know) who is amazing and why. That way, you are getting first hand knowledge of how it is to work with them and what the entire process is like from front to back. Then, if you like them after chatting on the phone or meeting them, don’t hesitate and hire them immediately. The MOST important thing when hiring a photographer is TRUST. If you trust them, and like being with them, then you will have an awesome experience and get great images and memories.