United Photographers

What it is

United Photographers is the wedding studio of Lenke and Robert, a pair who shoot both stills and video. Their own introduction, repeated on every page of the site, reads: "Wir sind Lenke und Robert professionelle Hochzeitsfotografen und Videografen aus Leidenschaft" (we are Lenke and Robert, professional wedding photographers and videographers out of passion). They go on to say they specialized in weddings because they love recording moments that happen only once, and that they preserve those moments not only in photos but also on video.

The site does not publish a studio address or name a home town. What it does show is where they have worked: a wedding at St. Charles Hall in Meggen near Lucerne, a church wedding planned across Olten and Thun, a civil ceremony at the Stadthaus in Zurich, a wedding on Lake Lugano, couple sessions tagged Basel, and a wedding in America. The site describes its reach as "nicht nur in der schönen Alpen Region und Schweizweit" (not only in the beautiful alpine region and across Switzerland) and says they also photograph weddings worldwide.

Photography and film under one roof

The services menu is long, and it mixes stills and film. On the photography side it names E-Session / Paarshooting (an engagement or couple session), Brautpaar-shooting (the couple portrait session on the day), Ausgewählte Bilder (selected images), Bildbearbeitung (image editing), Fine-Art Hochzeitsalben (fine-art wedding albums) and Save the Date! photos. The portfolio is split into single photos and Reportagen, meaning full-day reportage sets that follow a wedding from start to finish.

On the film side the menu lists a Highlightclip, a Hochzeitsfilm Trailer, a Kompletter Hochzeitsfilm (complete wedding film) and a Trauungsfilm (ceremony film). There is also a Same Day Edit, a film cut during the day and shown to guests before the party ends, and a Foto Corner / Fotoecke, a photo corner for guests at the reception. For couples who would otherwise hire a photographer and a videographer separately and hope they get along, having both from one studio is the main practical argument for United Photographers.

The blog gives a sense of the film work. One post presents a complete wedding film from Lucerne for Monica and Christian, running "gut 20 Minuten" (a good 20 minutes), and notes that the studio rarely gets to show a full-length film publicly. Another shows a trailer for Jessica and André, whose day took in Olten and Thun, with clips of the old town woven into both the full film and the short trailer.

The ceremony film in detail

The Trauungsfilm page is the most specific on the site. It is written for couples who want their ceremony kept in full length rather than cut down to a music-backed summary. The page says the result is a film of 25 to 45 minutes that presents the ceremony complete, with little music laid over it.

The studio says it is often asked to record one or several ceremonies in full, and that in that case it prepares with several cameras and takes care of sound through professional microphones that it always positions discreetly. The edit runs chronologically: the team is already on location as guests start to gather, films the arrival of the wedding car with the bride, and at the same time films the groom waiting inside. The page says the whole film is shown in real time so that no second is missed.

For a couple whose ceremony is in a language half the family does not understand, or who are marrying twice (a civil ceremony and a church or free ceremony on different days), a full-length record of each ceremony is a real benefit, and the page explicitly mentions recording more than one ceremony.

Language and working from abroad

The navigation carries a "de" and an "en" switch, so the site has an English version, although the pages quoted here are the German ones and the blog is written in German. The site does not say in so many words that consultations or the wedding day itself can run in English. One of the featured weddings took place in America and was filmed and photographed there, and one post quotes an English line from a bridal makeup article ("we got you covered"), but neither is a statement about working language. A couple who needs English on the day should ask.

Contact runs through the email address shown at the top of every page, info@unitedphoto.ch, and a contact page. The site also links to Facebook, Instagram and Vimeo, where the films are hosted. It does not describe a booking process, a deposit or a contract.

What the site leaves open

The navigation includes a Preise (prices) page, but this listing does not reproduce its content, so it cannot report what a package costs or what it contains. Ask for the price list before anything else, and ask how the photography and film services combine, since the menu names many separate products.

The site also does not say how far ahead weddings should be booked, whether both Lenke and Robert attend every wedding, how travel inside Switzerland or abroad is charged, when photos and films are delivered, or what the fine-art albums are made of. The blog posts shown date from 2016 to 2019, so a couple may want to ask for recent full galleries and films before deciding.

Nothing on the pages says where the couple is based, which matters for travel charges to a mountain venue or a wedding in Ticino. It is a simple first question.

The blog as a planning resource

The blog is less a portfolio than a set of practical articles in German: how to write and deliver a wedding speech, what not to wear as a wedding guest, bridal makeup mistakes as seen by photographers and makeup artists, things to do together before the wedding, how to handle a first look, what to wear to a photo session, and what wedding stationery covers. The post on wedding day secrets makes the point that the day rushes past from posing to ceremony to cutting the cake, which is the case for a photographer who documents rather than directs. For a couple who reads German, these posts show how the studio thinks about a wedding day.

Who it suits

United Photographers suits couples who want photography and film from the same team, and especially couples who want the ceremony itself kept whole on film rather than reduced to a highlight reel. The documented weddings range from an elegant lakeside villa near Lucerne to a city church wedding and a civil ceremony in Zurich, so the studio is used to different settings and sizes of day.

It suits less well a couple who wants every detail settled in writing before the first email: prices, delivery times, travel terms and the language of service all have to be asked. Couples who want stills only may find the film-heavy menu more than they need, though the photography services are listed separately and can be asked about on their own.