We saw the misconceptions about wedding photographers by society but what it is to be a wedding photographer and how tough life can be for them is little bit known to the others. So here you are go:
- Starting Up
When you think of starting a wedding photography business, you may face a lot of confusions. You need experience to get hired to shoot wedding photos but you can’t gain experience without getting hired. This is the major challenge for a wedding photographer while starting up.
Some may collaborate with other photographers, some may find luck through their family, friends who take a chance with you. It requires hard work and patience to get that much experience to move further. Investment is also pretty high considering to buy the best camera for wedding photography, lens, batteries, memory cards, etc. You need to have the best equipment for wedding shoots.
- Solo Work
As the owner of your wedding photography business, you are responsible for the most part of the being work done. Like deciding on a wedding photography package, looking after financials, marketing, advertising, hiring, lead generations, purchases. etc.
Lots of learnings will be coming to ensure smooth running of the business. Sometimes it may all feel like a burden but it will transform you into a different person to grow your business on a higher level.
- Work Life Balance
Wedding photoshoots can take your whole life. A wedding photographer’s main mission to present the best wedding photos to their clients. The work for it, is sometimes 24×7. Finding time to be yourself rather than a wedding photographer is tough. Finding time for family and friends can take a hit as most weekends you may be at the wedding, shooting wedding photos.
It can easily create a burnout, but it is essential to set limits and boundaries for work hours in the beginning and work accordingly instead of taking up all the projects and burning out. Without balance, you will easily lose the passion and love for your work.
- Seasonal Work
Wedding photography is not like every other business that runs 365 days a year in profit. In almost all parts of the world weddings are seasonal. You will hardly find work in the off wedding seasons. If you think wedding photography packages are high, you need to understand the expenses incurred by the wedding photographer to get you the best wedding photos. It’s a big challenge between shooting more weddings during the wedding season and finding work during off seasons.
- Finding your style
Like every other profession even wedding photography has competition, there are big players, small entrants, medium players. The challenging part is finding your unique style.
Wedding industry is one of the innovative industries and the trends keep changing every year. When you jump into the industry following a trend, next year it may become obsolete and you will be an old photographer. The key to finding your unique style is to ignore what all the other photographers are doing and paying attention to your own personal voice.
- Long Working Hours
Weddings are mostly for 5- 6 hours but it can easily jump to more hours. That time requires pretty much continual mental and physical effort, as you are following the bride and groom around, documenting their experiences.
You may not even find time to sit and relax or have your food on time. It can reduce your energy drastically. The long hours also easily dehydrate you as you are carrying the heavy gears around on your shoulders and not taking the eyes of the lens.
You need to handle all this while remaining positive and a smile on your face from the start till the end.
Conclusion
The most important thing to take away from this article is that you need to enter the industry with a realistic expectation of what it will take to be successful.
Yes, I forgot to mention, if you are looking for a best wedding photographer. Get in touch with Arun Prasad Photography our team has created many wonderful wedding shoots.