picture perfect

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Overall, a bride's first question when interviewing potential photographers should be, “What do you do that demonstrates your commitment to the community and the environment?” You want someone who supports local businesses and economies, and is clearly knowledgeable about his or her environmental impacts.
Also, there’s a lot of buzz these days about how opting for digital versus film photography is environmentally friendly because it reduces the potentially toxic chemicals used in the developing process. While that’s true, in this day and age, you would be hard-pressed to find a photographer who doesn't shoot digitally. Take it one step further by looking for someone who recycles office materials and uses recycled paper for all printed products, including your wedding album.

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Get creative with your budget. Some photographers donate a portion of their fee to charity. If you’re already planning on making a donation in lieu of wedding favors, why not see if your photographer will redirect his or her planned donation to the organization of your choice, or to one you both support? That way, you can add your favor budget to your photography budget, which will, in turn, help you cover any added costs that a photographer running an eco-friendly business might incur and subsequently pass along to you—energy offsets for travel and photo production, recycled packaging and shipping materials, etc. Also, ask about your photographer’s shipping policies for print orders. Some photographers have the lab ship prints to his or her studio before repackaging and shipping those same items to clients. To avoid the unnecessary energy consumption and emissions, and save on shipping, we have the lab send all orders directly to the client; it costs a little more for us but conserves money and natural resources overall.

Best
Shopping locally for green photography products is the ideal way to lessen your impact. However, labs and printers with green practices are not always around the corner, especially when it comes to wedding albums. In the absence of a sustainable local vendor, look for a photographer who has relationships with other eco-friendly companies and suppliers. For instance, our album company gives back a portion of their proceeds to support the environment, so we know they are as committed as we are. For everything else, use the most reliable local lab available. In the end, do what you can and feel good about it, whether it’s taking one of these steps or all of them. Your wedding pictures will remain with you forever and you want to remember how happy you were that day, not how guilty you felt.