OVERVIEW
Located in SA, Bliss Images is a boutique wedding photography and filmmaking studio. Bliss Images is the ideal choice for couples seeking the artistry and focus of a small company, with the professionalism and flexibility of an established business. Founded by photographer Davin Smith 14 years ago, Bliss Images' style is vintage fun meets modern elegance– with a hint of cheek and a lot of heart.
Harbouring a special love for the magic of country weddings, Bliss Images offers competitive travel rates to regional SA and NSW locations, both popular and secluded. With the confidence and keen eye that comes only with extensive experience, Bliss Images’ photography team will unobtrusively catch the most candid and heartfelt of moments on film. The result? Beautiful, crisp, and expertly retouched imagery that showcases the beauty and authenticity of your wedding day.
What you’ll love about working with Bliss Images Photography & Cinema:
“Davin and his team are just amazing. 10/10 for great customer service. Davin was always available to chat and go over everything I needed and would always respond to emails ASAP. I truly recommend Bliss Images Photography & Cinema they captured everything and it is so great to go back and watch the videos and relive the day!” — Tobi S
Highlights of working with Bliss Images Photography & Cinema:
“Davin and his partner were absolutely amazing and pulled out all the stops on and before our wedding day, including sorting out a complicated Skype set-up for my family back home in the U.K. His video work is so professional and very high quality. These guys know what they are doing! I would highly recommend Bliss Images to anyone! Keep up the good work and thanks again!” — Helen H.
About
It's never great to bang on about yourself too much, but you're no doubt hoping to get a glimpse into the actual person, you're considering to document one of the biggest days of your life. An avid photographer since age 5, my career path took many interesting turns before leading back to professional photography more than 14 years ago. From co-founding Fresh FM, to working at Holden, I've had a wildly diverse career.... but having a camera in hand has been a constant throughout!
Mr Davin Smith
Business Owner
Easy Weddings Special Offer
The first $200 of travel costs waived for country and bush wedding destinations!
- Free travel from Adelaide as far north as the Barossa Valley and south to McLaren Vale, or
- The first $200 of travel costs waived for weddings further out
FAQ
We only require a 20% deposit, with the remainder not due until 2 weeks before the wedding.
Be exceptionally careful if anyone asks for more than 30%.... almost every couple who's come to us after having to cancel their old photographer last minute, had paid them a 40% or 50% deposit. That’s probably not a coincidence
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Unless you’ve planned dozens of weddings, you couldn’t be expected you to know how many hours coverage to book, so luckily, much of the industry has moved towards flat rate packages…. that is, a package that describes the parts of the day covered and is less about an arbitrary amount of time.
We still offer packages where you can book a certain number of hours, although these are usually selected by couples seeking more modest coverage, perhaps just a few hours.
The benefits of flat rate: With so many variables on the big day, we’re drawing on 500 weddings of experience, to guide us when planning the coverage timeline. For example, we’ll usually set aside an extra 20 minutes during the morning for a bridal party with 5 bridesmaids and groomsmen, vs say 3 of each. We plan to get to the ceremony well ahead of the start time…. 30 minutes on average. Making your wedding a stress free day, usually doesn’t start with cutting things close to the wire :)
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That depends…. if you’ve got the budget to cover 2 really great photographers, then absolutely, go for it. Some serious magic happens, when a pair of photographers at the top of their game, bounce off each other’s creativity!
But if you’ve only got the budget for 1.5 great photographers for the day, then spreading it over a package that includes 2 photographers, the best you could hope for is 1 good and 1 average photographer… possibly just 2 average photographers. And ‘average’ photographers will be missing that innate ability to just know what the other is thinking, especially during times such as the ceremony that require absolute silence.
Really great photographers usually don’t work for free, so 2 of them in a full day package should cost around 75% more than just 1. Anything less than this, and you’re at risk of signing up for either: a junior photographer, a less skilled photographer not able to cut it on their own, or the spouse of a photographer.
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December 2021
December 2021
May 2019
Expert Advice
As a wedding professional, Bliss Images Photography & Cinema offers expert advice to help couples plan their perfect day. Ask a question or read their expert advice.
Get Expert AdviceWhat is an appropriate budget for a photographer?!
I want the beautiful photos and my H2B wants the long coverage and we just can't seem to find the 'perfect' fit within our budget, we have set aside $3000 for photography AND videography and i am beginning to feel like this is not enough for what we want... Most photographers I have inquired too cost from $2500+. Is it possible to find a photographer that will meet both our needs within our price range, or is it too low? Any experience with how to handle this would be much appreciated.
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Bliss Images Photography & Cinema
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Bliss Images Photography & Cinema
Hi Alexandra, as we don't even normally service Queensland, hopefully you can see this advice as fairly unbiased :)
With a budget of $3000 ($1500 each for photography and video), either one of these 3 things needs to happen:
it's a quality product with coverage that is very short
the coverage is long but the quality is low
or there's a high quality studio that accepts the risk of running a business but still likes to work for McDonalds type wages
Not only do we have substantial overheads, we'll invest 5 days on the average wedding photography OR video package.... much more for both. From replying to emails, sales meetings, pre-wedding meetings, the whole Saturday, backing files up, 2 days of editing (3 to 4 for video), tracking payments, paperwork so that we don't forget your wedding you booked 2 years ago, through to physically delivering the product. By the time you take out marketing (we spend $250 per wedding), office expenses (rent, internet, phone), equipment insurance, public liability insurance, a vehicle and it's expenses, plus the equipment itself, there's probably about $800 profit for 40hrs work. Who in their right mind would take all that risk, invest $30 to $60k in equipment, and work for $20/hr?
So if the budget can't be bumped up, you then have to look at where your quality standards are, and this is different for every couple. I've seen some truly terrible photography, but the studio told them it was high quality, and they were none the wiser.... blissfully unaware and happy. Maybe you'd be blissfully unaware, maybe you'd be bitterly disappointed. Without a consult, I can't really tell from here :)
Oh, and one last thing, even being a Sunday wedding, beware of a studios who give Sunday discounts so they can sneak in an extra wedding on that weekend. I have a policy of not letting any of our team capture weddings on consecutive days, so if they work a Sunday wedding, they're excluded from a Saturday wedding. If you actually care about your craft and put in genuine effort, wedding photography is not only physically and mentally exhausting, we often put our bodies on the line. I'm trashed and ache all over most Sundays. So you probably don't want a photographer turning up Sunday morning, who's just run their body through the ringer the day before :)
If you have any more questions, I'd be happy to do my best to answer them, just get in contact with us through our Easy Weddings Profile.