Jared Gant is one of our incredible SLR Lounge Educational Ambassadors, offering his professional wedding photography business experience and tips to our Master the Business of Photography with SLR Lounge where he serves as the Community Leader. He’s also a brand ambassador for companies such as MagMod, Holdfast Gear, and Tave! Each week he prompts our community to discuss and participate in a weekly challenge to help navigate the tricky waters of running a photography business. You can follow more of his work on his Instagram, Website, and Wedding Maps Profile. We interviewed Jared for our readers to get to know our fearless Community Leader and why he was chosen as an SLR Lounge Educational Ambassador.

Before you jump in, here’s a video of Jared introducing himself!

What Made You Decide to Focus on Wedding Photography?

“I have always loved photographing people. Capturing individuals during important times in their life is an amazing way to honor and celebrate who they are as an individual at that moment. Later, as I started to consider photography as a career path, weddings strongly appealed to me because of the amount of raw emotion and movement there is throughout the entire day. I get a front-row seat to an intimate setting and get to see the emotions and excitement from the early morning during prep, when nerves may be high, to the end of the night when everyone is just dancing and having the time of their life, and everything in between – it’s absolutely amazing!”

What’s One Tool You Use (software, app, etc) That Helps You Daily in Managing Your Business?

“Without any doubt, in recent years, moving my client management over to Tave has allowed me to streamline and make things easier, as well as better my client experience. The automation capabilities have forced me to deeply think about and re-structure my system. Now every morning, one of my favorite emails is from Tave letting me know all the things it did on my behalf. This isn’t meant to be a shameless plug because I genuinely love this software, but if you’re interested in giving Tave a try, you can join here to get two free months.”

What Are You Currently Reading (Photography or Non-Photography)?

“I am currently reading the book Willpower Doesn’t Work by Benjamin Hardy. This was suggested to me by my friend, Spencer Boerup, founder of MagMod. I absolutely love to read and consume as much education and books as possible. Unfortunately, there’s about a 4 month period during the busy season that that consumption slows down quite a bit. But it’s without a doubt my favorite past time in winter months.”

Why Does Education Matter To You?

“Education matters to me personally as an educator because it gives me the opportunity to give back to the community that has given so much to me. If there’s any way that I can lighten the burden on one’s journey through life by sharing what I have learned along my journey than I want to try. I have found that teaching is one of the best ways of doing that. As a student, education means growth and a fast track process of gaining more experiences. I want as many positive experiences in life as possible.”

Join the Master the Business of Photography Facebook Group to get to know and learn from Jared and our 11 other incredible Business Educational Ambassadors! The group is guided by our best-selling Business Photography Training System designed to help you build the photography business of your dreams!