As more and more photographers, both amateur and professional, take up wedding photography, the competition gets stiffer and work harder to come by.

Is it still worth the effort?

Of course it is...more so than ever now the economy is picking up! Even now with so many photographers out there, there are weddings to be had.

The beauty about this industry is that if you have a bad year (work wise) for whatever reason, come January the slate is wiped clean. We all start again from the same position so it’s all fair game in the wedding photography business.

Of course, we are all having to work harder these days but so what, the rewards are there for those that do. So what can you do to compete and get more work in?

Diversify

You need to up your game, be innovative, be creative and be there. You need to look at what you do now and think "am I good enough...am I really pushing the boat out with every wedding I shoot…could I do more?" Let me tell you about the last wedding I shot in the hope it may give you some inspiration.

Andy and Meggan

Andy and Meggan are an incredibly likeable couple. This showed by the amount of people that went out of their way to be at their wedding in the middle of nowhere. They are both intelligent, hard working people with Andy being a doctor and graduate from Eton.

So, you would think that when I completely forgot about our very first meeting, they would immediately look elsewhere for their photographer!

I was sitting in my office one day with nothing planned (or so I thought) except the usual work to do on my images and websites when there was a knock at the door. I looked like crap.

Unshaven, an old pair of jogging bottoms and a creased t-shirt, I answered the door.

Standing there was a smart, young, attractive couple who gave me a big smile and said "Nick Stubbs?" (we hadn’t met before). Oops. They were bang on time for our meeting. For the only time I can remember, I had forgotten to put this in my iPhone calendar with alerts. I was mortified.

I asked them to wait in their car for 5 minutes whilst I tidied my office and got changed. My heart was pounding and I felt such a fool. I was sure this had killed the chances of me shooting their wedding. As it happened, they found it quite endearing and the meeting went really well.

They decided to book me as their photographer and earlier this year we met for their engagement shoot in Weymouth. After starting off tentatively, they soon warmed to the camera. Within no time, they were naturals and we got some amazing shots.

You can see those in my blog: Beach Engagement Shoot

Then came the wedding.

The Venue

The venue was a fantastic place set deep in the Dorset countryside. A converted series of farmhouses done up to a standard that was certainly worthy of its 5 star status.

There were three houses, the main house and two smaller outhouses (ahem…they were huge, each with their own Jacuzzi and indoor, heated swimming pool) and a large (huge) marquee in the garden.

The couple had booked the entire place for a week and all the immediate family and bridal party stayed there…amazing!

Reccie Visit

The day before the wedding, I visited the venue and did a full scout…all the while, thoughts of the day running through my head:

The couple had planned a LOT of things for the day which was also rather "higgledy piggledy" (arse-about-face ; ) to say the least. There would be:

All in all, I was there for around 14 hours! I was shattered at the end but exhilarated at the same time as it had been an amazing day. I just knew we had some great coverage and couldn’t wait to get processing. Bear in mind that as well as photographing all of the above, I was filming it too!

Equipment

For filming, I used one main broadcast quality video camera and one high definition Handycam. Two Go Pro point of view cameras and of course, both 5D Mark II cameras.

I had to prepare well so that each camera would be in the right place at the right time. They would have enough power and storage to last for each section. I would then move all cameras and tripods (whilst checking sound levels and mic placements) before the next event.

Myself and Chris, my brilliant young assistant, used the following gear:

Note: By no means at all do you need this much kit to get started with wedding photography. We discuss what kit you need in the Wedding Photography Blueprint 2.0 below but rest assured, it needn’t cost a fortune to get into this business.

Use an Assistant When Needed

It was tough but helped massively by having an assistant. Although I shot two similar weddings by myself this year...so it is possible. Hopefully you can see just how much of a headache it was to organise and shoot this wedding!

You can see in the image below where the cameras and myself were placed during one part of the day, the main ceremony. Remember, these all had to be moved, set up again and sound levels checked for each part of the day.

However, with careful planning and preparation, we did the job. You can see the best of the images and video clips in the following slideshow.

Please Note: All relevant licenses and permissions have been purchased to use the tracks in this slideshow.

Andy and Meggan were over the moon and the feedback from them and their guests was brilliant. Such a good feeling when a plan comes together…

Testimonial

She later told me that she had watched the slideshow about 100 times and showed it to all her friends. Great stuff.

So, the money is there, the weddings are there, the opportunities are there...are you?

You have to be out there to get a piece of the action. In the Wedding Photography Blueprint 2.0 DVD’s and bonus eBooks, we talk about not only how to effectively and efficiently shoot a wedding, but how to get them booked too! There is nothing like this business if you love having a camera in your hand and love great feedback for your work.

www.weddingphotographyblueprint.com

Please share this page if you know anyone getting into or wanting to get into wedding photography. Thank you!