In today's world, professional photos and video are crucial for your church's online presence.

Unfortunately it's not always easy to acquire professional photos and videos for your church's website or social media platforms. Here are a couple of ways you could go about this.

1. Find professional photographers/videographers in your congregation.

Chances are you have a professional photographer in your congregation who has experience capturing events like weddings and corporate events. Finding professional volunteers is the best option for getting great photos or your church because it's free and it's a great way for them to utilize their gifts for the church. Simply start asking around to find out who in the congregation makes a living doing this type of work.

2. Use thumbtack.com to connect with photography/videography professionals in your area.

Thumbtack.com is an amazing platform that will help you find professional photographers for a great price. Go to their website and fill out the project request form for "event photography" services. Once you specify the details of your project, photographers in your area will be notified and 5 of them will send you a quote. From there you can converse with the photographers, check out their portfolios, and then decide who you want to hire.

3. Invest in your own gear and education.

Finally, your church could buy a dslr camera like this, and have someone on staff take photography courses online either formally or by searching youtube tutorials. I'm always and advocate for church leaders to equip themselves with the basic skills of digital media, but if you are short on time or have absolutely no desire to learn how to do it yourself, either or the first two options on this list will work great.

Oh, and here is a video of me talking about this...