Not a particularly interesting week for me, but it's the calm before the storm right now. There's a crisp and cool change in the air and I think it's time for me to make some changes too. For the next five weeks straight I will be photographing weddings. Once I photograph the last one mid-May, I think that will be it for me in regards to weddings and large events.

I haven't really spoken on a personal level on this blog before, but I feel like I want to now. Recently I had reached out to one of my favourite international photographers asking for advice, not expecting a reply and I was surprised to see a considered and lengthy response in my inbox a few months later. Since this email I have been in a period of self reflection. And after reading this considerably long post over on a photography forum about how this man is calling it quits after four years in his photography business, I wanted to share my experience as well.

Just some background on my photography journey. I found photography roughly five years ago when I was about 25 years old. My point and shoot died and I was given an entry level DSLR as a gift. I started off just taking photos of flowers, food; really simple stuff like that but quickly fell in love with the mystery of working out how to take a particular photograph and how to use light. I started to attend pop culture conventions where most of my photos of people in costume would turn out awful. I had no idea what I was doing. But I was so inspired by the effort and brilliance of the people in these costumes that I forced my way through the ongoing learning barriers to make myself better for each convention. I had started to develop a little following online for my cosplay photos, and it was so exciting for me! I had never really had anything recognized before and it was motivation to become better with each photo I produced.

This was the best learning environment for me because I wasn't being paid and the people I was photographing were just happy to have a nice photo of their costume.
I  quickly grew out of what I was doing and I wasn't happy with the quality of image I was producing. I would look to my favourite photographers in the world and compare myself constantly (worst thing you can do, by the way). I felt like I reached my glass ceiling in that area of photography. I could see the type of work being produced by others, but I wasn't producing the same quality.
So I enrolled myself into a local technical college for photography. I began to learn everything - legals, copyright, business ethics, studio lighting, natural light, composition and editing just to name a few. I learned a lot studying here and the best piece of advice I got from it was: photograph everything and see what you like.

So I took on everything; families, newborns, events, engagements, head shots, landscapes, portrait sessions, product photography and then eventually weddings. I reached out to my favourite local wedding photographer and still shoot for her to this day as we've become good friends! None of these types of photography have really stuck with me, yes they pay money but I am not 100% truly passionate about any of it.

I've been photographing weddings for nearly two years now, I've successfully shot over a dozen weddings by myself and second shot/assisted on many more. If you want to learn photography quickly, photograph weddings. I'm not saying you should be a complete beginner and learn your way through your first wedding. But second shooting for a while and then doing some of my own weddings gave me so much on the job experience in such a short period of time. Photography is 90% problem solving, and believe me when I say weddings are filled with potential problems. There's never a wedding that goes smoothly and perfectly, ever.

It's got nothing to do with hating weddings (I love them, everyone is happy and the day is a huge buzz!) but I just don't think it's where I want to take my photography due to a couple of reasons.

If You Don't Have Anxiety Now, You Might Have It After

So Much Money, So Much Time

It's not advisable to photograph a wedding with just one camera and one lens. What if that camera suddenly stops working? (This has happened to me before, and my camera wouldn't work for a good hour) Other types of photography are a bit easier when it comes to money and time. Camera not working at a family session? Reschedule it. Dropped your lens while photographing a couple for their engagement? Do it another day. Yes it's inconvenient for your clients, but it's not like a wedding day. Those can't be rescheduled. The initial startup for photographing a wedding is huge. The first year of my business I reinvested nearly all the money I made back into my business. I bought gear, not because I was gear obsessed but because of the fact that I would be photographing weddings. Weddings require all types of gear: at least two full frame cameras, flashes (for the reception at night), a long lens of some type (to photograph the ceremony from a safe distance and speeches at the reception) as well as a decent portrait/everything lens. I worked a casual job so I could use the money I made from there to pay my bills, while all the cash from my business was quickly reinvested. It's actually really hard and I think a lot of people don't tell you about this fact when you're first starting out.
So much time is invested in wedding photography as well. As I briefly mentioned earlier, there's a whole lot more that goes on than just the 10+ hours spent photographing the actual wedding day. Emails, draft timelines, meetings and calls leading up to the day, photographing the actual day and then the many, many hours you spend culling thousands of images, editing those images and then finalising those images (albums, prints, online galleries, posting them out to the client, organising and sharing on social medias etc). When I'm in the middle of wedding season I don't have much of a life outside of my computer and cameras.

I'm Just Not Extremely Passionate About Weddings

So What's Next?