Wedding Photographer

I am a Wedding Photographer moving to Japan from Australia, and I would like to know the best way to find agencies or wedding planners, and if anyone knows of any. Any other advice will be greatly appreciated.

sorry i can't help much other than say wedding photography in japan is a much much smaller industry than it is in the west. the language barrier is a big hamper as well.

most shrines/temples do not allow flash photography, as well as a lot of churches, and many japanese couples do not even consider a wedding photographer as part of the budget.

tough market here. i'd be doing it if there was more money to be made.

I'd like to add a little to above response. I just got married in Japan and also know a foreign wedding photographer who is working in Japan.

It's not necessarily true that wedding photography is a smaller industry in Japan, rather the majority of weddings in Japan are package weddings held at hotels, kekkonshikijo (wedding centers), and shrines that include photography by in-house photographers. So it'd probably be more correct to say that freelance wedding photography is a smaller industry in Japan. However that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. My wife's relative is a wedding coordinator and regular works with a few different freelance photographers.

As for getting a job as a wedding photographer, the guy I know that is doing this just went to a bunch of different places (hotels and kekonshikijo) to see if they would hire him. Bring your portfolio and hope they are hiring. One thing to be aware of is that they are often salaried positions that don't necessarily pay very much.

Working freelance is probably much more difficult. For one thing I'm not sure if you can qualify for a work visa as a freelance photographer so please look carefully into the visa situation. Getting work is another problem. Your best bet may be to contact wedding coordinators and see if they might recommend you to their clients.

Also, as winterwolf mentions, many shrines (weddings are held at shrines) may not allow any photography inside the shrine buildings, but it varies from place to place. Photos outside the buildings are usually ok.

However, I'm not sure where winterwolf gets the idea that Japanese couples don't even consider wedding photography since nearly every wedding package includes it in the budget. Also, from what I understand it is common to give a photo album of a few studio shot of the dresses, family, etc. to your families after the wedding.

I'm sorry but I don't have an answer to your question. However, I am getting married in April and I am looking for a freelance photographer in Tokyo who specializes in photojournalism to take pictures of my wedding day. Yllwsmrf, can you give more details about your freelance photographer friend? I'm not that impressed with the portfolios of the photographers who are supplied to the wedding venues, especially since it looks like I can take better quality photos.

canuckgirl,

sorry but the freelance photographer I know now works for a kekkonshikijo and so is no longer freelance.

Where are you getting married? Have you checked to make sure that you are allowed to hire your own photographer?

Hello, I`m actually working with photography and design in japan, I`still didn`t get any wedding

Thanks for the reply. I'd love to get more info about what you are doing.

I am actually currently working in more commercial and portraiture photography. I was thinking about shooting weddings in Japan as I thought it would be easier, but this doesn't seem so.
I look forward to hearing from you about your work and how you got into it.