Fiyel

Your bookstore idea is a great start. Give yourselves places to be and things to do.

Honestly I would be surprised if the photographer had no options for digital images. Obviously everyone is different. But all the high end photo groups I am personally in offer digital single images. They aren't magically cheap, obviously. But you can split the cost with more people and frankly, they shouldn't be cheap anyway. It isn't sustainable for the vendor.

The catch being you'll just end up with a worse result anyway, if anyone wants to print that digital out. I've yet to see a client of mine print on their own and get an image that didn't look like shit.

There's arguments to be fairly made in every direction, here.

This pricing model isn't even kinda rare. In my experience it used to be pretty standard.

And not to get too deep in the weeds, but actual numbers aside, I think charging by the image makes way more sense than a flat rate for a flat time and just dumping a wad of images on you so that you can all print and enjoy just one or two, anyway. The photographer is able to give exceptional thought and care into that one image.

I do retouching for several photographers like that. And I'll be doing head swaps, giant object removals, etc., to get you the most perfect image we can. Makes enough sense to me compared to getting a gallery you'll flip through and predominantly forget about.

I'm sorry you guys feel cheated, though. Truly. The balance is being upfront with clients and not scaring off people before they get the experience.

You're obviously going to have a somewhat biased account, but even by your own admission most of your folks couldn't even be bothered to stay, so I get the feeling you were all about as invested as the photographer was, if not less so. Doesn't sound like the kind of environment where stopping everything to unpack deep number crunching results in higher sales/ better experiences. Also just jumping into it generally gives a way better impression than putting off the session to unpack ideas, all you what you want and have you say "we are here to trust the professional" anyway.

But obviously on the flip side it would be great to only have transactions that are free of surprise. So perhaps there's more the photographer could have done to lessen the shock.

In my mind, the biggest reason you guys are taken aback is because you are trained by other photographers/ vendors pay structures of giving you about as much as they can for a flat fee. Basically the new-ish norm for wedding photos. Not nearly as sustainable for other photo niches.

Just a basic understanding of how the quality of light works. Size relative to subject. Changing it's shape and not its spread does very little, if anything, to its quality. You can see examples in the link.
Regardless, you will still hear photographers regurgitate this misinformation based on what they have been told by someone conveniently selling them a round head flash.

Neither. Different applications with different pros and cons.

Anyone telling you a round head has higher 'quality' or softer light is at least kind enough to out themselves as an idiot, though. So there is one point for round heads.

Here is a decent write up on comparing them;

I agree with all the suggestions to pare down on selection. But also, any opportunities to balance the load more? Peak Design clip on a strap would be my first guess. Subtle changes in load balance and ergonomics can make pretty significant loads super sustainable.

I see folks unpacking (no pun intended) it a little in this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/peakdesign/comments/zyu638/using_a_large_lens_with_capture_clip_on_backpack/

The clip itself is rated for 200lbs. So the big deciding factor would be the pack strap. I've used a clip through the mountains of Peru and never doubted it for a second.