(Photographer) Growing Pains

Remember our fabulous photographer?  I was so happy that I was able to find and book one that had an amazing portfolio and offered his services for a reasonable price.

Lately, the business of our amazing photographer has been booming.  And why not?  He is talented, professional, and affordable.  A couple of months after we booked him, his prices went up by almost 50%.  Sister Pudding (who interviewed the photog with me) and I both agreed that this was a good move - he really was a steal at what we paid.  I was super happy that I managed to nab him before he got really popular.

Just the other day, I was stalking our photographer's blog (totally normal, right?) and discovered that his studio is growing.  When I hired him, the studio consisted of him and another shooter.  Well, he recently hired 10 more photographers!  Talk about expansion!

This made me a little worried about who would actually shoot our wedding.  I wrote the photog a quick email, asking what these changes meant for our wedding.  He replied that he would no longer be shooting it.  Two other photographers on his team would be.

This worried me big time.  We hired him because we really clicked with him.  I felt like he understood our vision for the wedding, and now someone we have never met would be shooting it!  I took a quick glance at our contract, and discovered that it did not specify that the original photographer would shoot the wedding himself, but rather that a "studio photographer" would take the pics.  I clearly remember omitting the "will you be the one shooting our wedding" question from my list of things to ask - after all, there would be two photogs at our wedding, and only two at the studio at the time.

Nervously, I wrote an email explaining my discomfort.  Luckily, our photographer is a great guy, and explained to me that I had nothing to worry about.  The two photogs shooting our wedding were hand-selected by him, and their work is fabulous.  He even suggested scheduling an engagement session where he would shoot alongside the other two, and offered to shift things around so that he would shoot the wedding if I was still uncomfortable after that.

I haven't decided what I want to do yet, since I don't want to be difficult, and the work of the other two photographers is indeed pretty fabulous.  Just feast your eyes on these:

(source)

What do you think I should do?  Have any of you been in a situation like this?