As an entrepreneurial activity, I did paid work as a wedding photographer. utilising my photographic skills set for commercial perspective. This I thought was a good utilisation of my skill base as wedding photography can be a well-paid profession, which can mean running my own business evidently because of that being able to pick my own hours and being able to utilise my time to continue my creative practice amongst other creative and others. This is a very practical way for me to bring in an income after my study period is over. and I feel this is achievable through the fact I’ve now got my first wedding and have that baseline experience to build upon. There was quite a lot of apprehension on my behalf with conducting myself, calmly, and confidently but still getting my footing with the day’s timings. Once I realised I was just implementing my skill set, but with a different context a lot of my apprehension once away.
I had a breakdown sheet of the timings for the day people to photograph, groups, the photograph, style of images etc. This was all to stay organised on time to leave very little uncertainty about the running of the day. what I found as the day went on is you mostly become the director of someone’s wedding day which is a lot of responsibility to hold but something I found well within my skills.
I’m really pleased with the quality of the images I’ve produced I feel like my background in documentary photography has helped me not just photograph people but to capture moments in time on someone’s wedding day. Hopefully catching feelings on the day as I feel this is a key part of photographing any social events.
Going forward with wedding photography and have to consider the investments I’ll have to make to build myself up as a business. Considering investing in more equipment for a more diverse range of images and video, high quality. Meaning I’ll be able to charge more for my services, also a website, social media and portfolio also bring in the consistency of clientele and work. I need to make myself a living from this endeavour. Building a portfolio would mean shooting more weddings at a lower rate just to get the volume of work needed to show consistency throughout my work. Networking with others within the industry, not just within photography, but with other aspects of the wedding industry such as venues, caterers and Florists to create a strong network I can utilise when necessary.
