Why should a bride and groom care about the “philosophy” of their photography? So what if they like Aristotle or believe the thoughts of Eric Fromm are the cat’s meow?

We’re not talking about philosophical theories here; we’re talking about a philosophy of wedding photography. It’s critical that you understand your photographer’s philosophy, since your wedding is a once-in-a-lifetime event and, arguably, the most important day of your life.

You should know that there is a huge controversy in the wedding photography business right now. It’s been brewing for a long time, but with the influx of thousands of new photographers, the controversy  has intensified.

What is this “controversy”? It may be a simplistic answer, but primarily it’s a debate between two camps: (1) ex-photographers who are marketing training services to (mostly) new photographers and (2) working photographers who are shooting weddings on a regular basis. The working photographers are objecting to some of the advice that is being handed out by these men and women who are telling new photographers how to get started in the business. No matter how you slice it, when the emphasis is on marketing, branding or how to get rich, they are peddling a “philosophy” of wedding photography. And many of us are offended by and completely reject their philosophy.

It all came to a head recently when a well known photographer named David Jay produced something he calls “The System.” It purports to give new photographers a 10 step program that promises to launch them into the stratosphere of wedding photography success. Mr. Jay was named one of the ten best photographers in the world several years ago, but left the business in 2006 to concentrate on selling services to photographers. He developed The System,” designed specifically for new photographers, presumably as a vehicle to sell his other products (you can tell by the ads that appear as you move through the ten points of his system).

Not all 10 steps of “The System” are objectionable; some of them are just common sense. In the process, though, he urges them to do something that established photographers find shocking and dangerous. For example, in point 8, he tells them to “get in the game”; that there’s no way to learn how to shoot weddings but to go out an shoot a wedding.

Now that may sound OK; after all, we learn by doing, right? But think about and ask if this is the kind of person you want shooting your wedding. He is encouraging someone who has never shot a wedding, even as a backup, to go out and shoot one (yours?). He even tells them not to take an internship with an established photographer, or go as a second shooter, but to shoot a wedding on his/her own. That is terrible advice. But it gets worse.

He says to these new, never-shot-a-wedding-before-”photographers” (these are his actual words): “Spray and pray. Shoot a lot, and if you forget what to do with your camera, just click it into ‘P’ (Program) mode and shoot away.”

If you’re a wedding photographer reading this, you know how irresponsible this advice is. In fact, if you haven’t heard it before, you’re probably shaking your head in disbelief. It makes me shudder, frankly. A wedding is probably the most difficult photography assignment that most photographer will ever take on. We have had several interns accompany us on weddings, giddy with excitement and hoping to get into the business, only to find out it is much too hard, too nerve-wracking and too unpredictable for their blood. We hear it all the time, “it makes me nervous.”

If you’re a bride- or groom-to-be reading this, you should be shocked, too, and aware of what is going on. This “top ten” photographer is promoting a philosophy, not just of photography, but of your wedding! He is implying that your once-in-a-lifetime wedding is a viable training opportunity for a new photographer. He is telling him or her that YOUR wedding is grist for his mill, so he or she can learn the trade. David Jay is peddling a philosophy that your wedding is less important than the opportunity for a brand new photographer to get some experience. Isn’t that awesome!!?

What should experienced photographers be telling those who would like to enter the business? I’ll make it short, because this post is designed mostly for those who are considering a photographer for their wedding, not photographers. But, at the very least, and at the top of the list, I would tell a new person to learn how to use his equipment, inside-and-out. Your camera should be an extension of your arm, and you should know your camera’s settings like the back of your hand. You should have a minimum of three cameras, for backup, as well as flash equipment and lenses that give you flexibility (sometimes we have to shoot in very tight spots or from very far away).

And “spray and pray”? That’s the dumbest advice I have ever heard. You’d better pray hard, because he’s telling you that whatever you get will be an accident or pure luck.

Yes, sometimes luck is involved when we get that one shot, that one image that just “sings.” A bride who, without warning, on the way down the aisle after the ceremony, jumps up and clicks her heels — getting that shot was the combination of luck (that she did it) and anticipation. Some luck, yes, but not dumb luck. One of my favorite quotes comes from an old baseball man, the executive who signed Jackie Robinson to play for the Dodgers. He said, “Luck is the residue of design.” Wedding photographers — at least the photojournalists among us — major in anticipation. We take a lot of shots, but we take them at the right time because we have a sense of when something is going to happen. The images I’ve included here were the product of anticipation, not prayer.

More importantly, a wedding photographer’s philosophy of weddings is critical and that’s what I object to most from Mr. Jay’s “System.” My wife Christie and I have been married 43 years in September (would you believe me if I said we were married very young? We were…). Our wedding pictures — all 12 of them — sit in our living room in one of those old white albums, complete with “Our Wedding” on the cover, embossed in gold. It’s the only record we have of that day and a minimal one at that. Our passion — at every wedding, at every price-point — is to capture the essence of that important day in meaningful images. It sounds almost trite to say that we want the bride and groom to look at their pictures 43 years from now and relive the day. Trite but true.

Our philosophy of wedding photography, unlike Mr. Jay’s and his disciples’, apparently, is that a wedding is so important, so pivotal that we will pour our heart and soul into it. Christie likes to tell young couples we meet with that we shoot every wedding as if it was our own daughter’s wedding. And that’s true because we are passionate about weddings.

We may say a prayer ahead of time, but we wouldn’t be caught dead “spraying and praying.” That’s a philosophy we can’t live with.