Now is the time of year that most wedding photographers will tell you their to-do lists turn into multiple pages and the hours in the day never seem to be enough. We’re smack dab in the middle of busy season. With so much going on, it’s easy to start thinking you could give Gumby a run for his money – you’ve tied yourself up in so many knots! Deep breaths now. It’s going to be ok. I think the hardest thing to figure out when things start getting overwhelming, is where to start. There’s SO much that needs to get done and the list is piling up. And you lose precious time spinning yourself in circles trying to figure out what you should do first,
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What’s Love Got to Do With It?
I think by now most of us realize that business in general, and the wedding industry in particular, is very relational. Simply put, we are happier, do better work, get burned out less, and have more job & life satisfaction overall when we work with people we actually like. People we have strong relationships with. The kinds of couples that we would want to be friends with anyway had we met them in any other walk of life. And the kinds of couples that we would gladly spend time with, even if it wasn’t part of our job. These are the kinds of couples we have affectionately deemed our “Clients-Turned-Friends.” The question then becomes: Ok, so how do you find couples like that? How do you
3 Quick Tips for Husband and Wife Photography Teams
This is part three of The Photo Life Blog Series, True Life: I’m Married to My Business Partner. This series explores how husband and wife photography teams find success when their business and personal lives collide. 1) Compartmentalize. Decide up front who is going to be responsible for what tasks that need to get done in the business. Even if there is some overlap, it’s so great to know where the buck stops on all the different parts of your workflow. That way if something doesn’t get done, then it’s really clear who needs to step it up. And the ever-dreaded blame game can be avoided! 🙂 2) Go out on a date with your spouse, leave your business partners at home. Talk about The Office,
Top Ten Tips for Getting Ready Wedding Pictures
1. Start slow. Don’t come right in with guns blazing and start firing off a bunch of shots right away. Usually the bride & bridesmaids don’t have their hair or makeup done yet, so they aren’t going to be a huge fan of having a camera in their face yet. Instead, Justin & I will usually come in first without our gear. I’ll hug the bride, meet and hug her mom (who is usually already a fan from the engagement shoot) and get introduced to the bridesmaids (whose names I will already start to try to memorize for the bridal party pictures later). Only then will we go get our gear, and even then we start with shooting the details (dress, shoes, jewelry, a grandmother’s
Running Your Own Race – Three tips for being a Lovemark
Of all the people to give you an analogy about running, trust me you would think I would be the last. Because, quite simply put: I. hate. running. Absolutely hate it. Loathe it to be more precise. In fact, about the only thing that I hate worse than running is happy runners. I mean honestly, what are they smiling about? But. I digress. Because I am about to lay a running analogy on you. Smack down style. And I think it’s something we all (myself very much included) need to hear. Flash back three and a half years ago to when Justin & I were first deciding to go full time with this business. Law firm offers were turned down, student loans were deferred, and
Wedding Wonders
From Justin and Mary Marantz: Sometimes in life you get a freebie. A ‘show up and shoot and everything’s perfect’ kind of gift from the universe, and all you have to do is remember to say thank you. THAT was the kind of day that we had with Angela & Andrew. Everything was perfect, from the location to the light, the theme, and the couple. The day went perfectly and fit perfectly. It was the kind of wedding where you can shoot for 16 hours before you realize that you’re even tired. Because it’s easy and fun and there is beauty everywhere you look. It is at a wedding like this, that you are reminded why it is exactly that you have the best job