As you know, wedding photography is our bread and butter. Wedding photography can be an exciting, lucrative career filled with travel and a ton of great memories. However, as attractive as the large paychecks and unforgettable destinations are, it’s important to be realistic about what it takes to run a successful wedding photography business. With over 10 years of experience, here are my personal 5 best and worst things about being a professional wedding photographer.
Video: 5 Best & Worst Things About Being a Professional Wedding Photographer
Pro #1: Your Weekday Schedule is Flexible
Con #1: Your Weekends Are Gone
Pro #2: You Can Make Great Money
Con #2: Your Income Fluctuates
Pro #3: Work is Meaningful & Enjoyable
Con #3: You Are Running a Business
Pro #4: Travel & Meet Tons of New People
Con #4: It’s Tough on the Body
Pro #5: The Sky is Your Limit
Con #5: You Create Your Structure
Related Reading: 10 Critical Tips for First-Time Wedding Photographers
Pro #1: Your Weekday Schedule is Flexible
Most weddings are on the weekends. That means your weekdays are free for you to design as you see fit. That doesn’t mean your weekdays will be completely free. You’ll have editing, client meetings, and likely local portrait sessions to take care of. However, you will have the flexibility to create your schedule, which is perfect if you have a family or other business ventures.
Con #1: Your Weekends Are Gone
While it’s awesome to have a flexible weekday schedule, the downside is that your weekends are almost exclusively reserved for bookings. This is especially the case earlier in your career when you aren’t yet able to command a premium rate. For the first few years as a professional wedding photographer, every weekend will likely be a grind. Once you hit those higher rates, you can start pulling back on the number of bookings. For reference, it took me 5 years to hit that $10K mark. At that rate, you can make a great living shooting only 10-20 weddings a year.
Pro #2: You Can Make GREAT Money
I still pinch myself that I make a fantastic income traveling and photographing large parties. As an established wedding photographer, this can be great money. However, I want to be realistic. All too often, we only talk about how much money we want to make. We don’t talk enough about what it takes to get there.
An established photographer or studio can charge over $10K per wedding. It just might take 5-10 years to get there. If you’re just starting out, you should expect to make just enough to cover basic expenses. At $1500 per event, you’ll need to shoot 30 weddings to net $45,000, and that’s before subtracting expenses. However, as you continue to grow, you can raise your rates. Stick it out, and you will make great money.
Con #2: Your Income Fluctuates
In this industry, it’s often either feast or famine. During the first few years as a professional wedding photographer, it’ll likely be a lot of famine. The key is to live frugally until you make it to the other side. Once you’ve made it, it’s still unlikely that you’ll have bookings every day. Even for established photographers who book 10-20 weddings a year, that income comes in spurts. One month can yield $40K while the next brings in nothing. This is where many wedding photographers go wrong and spend the money as it comes in, rather than budgeting for the periods they’re not booking.
Pro #3: Work is Meaningful & Enjoyable
Regardless of your niche as a photographer, you’re in a position to create work that is meaningful and enjoyable. Personally, I’ve tried it all: Automotive, commercial, fashion… In the end, I chose weddings because that’s what’s meaningful to me. I highly value family and the people I spend time around. As a wedding photographer, I get to create incredible artworks of my clients’ lives and amazing moments.
Con #3: You Are Running a Business
If you got into photography as a hobby, you have to understand that running a business is an entirely different game. As a hobbyist, you choose when and what you want to shoot. Wedding photography is a client serving industry. As a professional wedding photographer, you’re beholden to your clients and what they want. To be successful, you have to step out of thinking exclusively about your own creative process. When you’re relying on photography to pay for your rent and provide for your family, it’s no longer just about when you want to shoot.
Pro #4: Travel & Meet Tons of New People
If you love travel and love meeting new people, this is the job for you. I’ve visited so many incredible places and met so many incredible people on this journey. Many of them have become my lifelong friends. To me, this is one of the most rewarding aspects of what I do.
Con #4: It’s Tough on the Body
Wedding photography is challenging. To begin, you’re constantly traveling and always carrying around heavy and expensive gear. Then, the wedding days themselves can be 12-18 hours of nonstop hustling. On top of all that running around, you’re constantly interacting with other people and exercising your creativity. Simply put, wedding days are intense and can wreak havoc on your body.
Here are my tips for alleviating some of the stress:
- Stay fit. Not only will staying fit and healthy make weddings much easier, post-wedding hangovers will soon become a thing of the past.
- Drink lots of water and bring snacks that are easy to eat on the go. You might not always get time to stop to eat or they might just forget to feed you altogether. My snacks of choice are almonds and protein bars.
- Wear good shoes and bring comfortable clothes.
Pro #5: The Sky is Your Limit
Unlike a corporate structure where you just grind and put in your time, as a professional wedding photographer, you’re an entrepreneur. The sky is your limit! How much you make in the end will be about you and the effort that you’re willing to put in. On top of shooting weddings, once you’re established, you can create other revenue streams. Example are workshops, education, and speaking engagements.
Not only did we scale Lin & Jirsa to one of the largest boutique wedding studios, we built SLR Lounge to teach others to do the same.
Con #5: YOU Create Your Structure
The other side of the limitless opportunities is that no one is there to tell you what to do. You’re free to sleep in, waste time watching Netflix, or procrastinate. There are no immediate repercussions such as getting a strike or even fired. You’re in charge of your own schedule and career trajectory and this is a weakness for many creatives. However, to make this work, you have to make it your strength. Once you create the structure, you have to then stick to it, even if the motivation isn’t there.
Conclusion
If your dream is to become a professional wedding photographer, check out SLR Lounge Premium. There, you’ll find everything you need to start your photography career, from the fundamentals and Lighting, to Editing, the Business of Photography, and an entire course dedicated to Wedding Photography itself!
Don’t miss our next episode of Mastering Your Craft on Adorama’s YouTube channel next week! If you want to catch up on all the episodes, make sure you check out our playlist!