Why I Quit Wedding Photography.
Wedding planning articles and tips to help you plan your special day. Discover a wealth of tips to help you start planning your wedding and have a perfect wedding day.
Our Sponsors
Why I Quit Wedding Photography.
Author : Anonymous
Article Date : 01 Jan 2013
There are a gazzilion blog posts that have all been written before. These talk about what to look for when hiring a wedding photographer. You can Google that exact phrase to find out the answers to that question, I want to talk about the most important thing to look for when hiring a wedding photographer and the same reason as to why I quit as a wedding photographer. The most important thing is not often mentioned on these lists and it's something we feel every couple should be looking for if they care about great images of their day.
When I started my business I was determined to be the best, determined to build my business and improve my photography skills with every wedding I shot. Wedding after wedding and year after year I gained more clients, improved my skill, built my business and made more money. I enjoyed this process, it was the most challenging part. Sealing those wedding deals, having clients want you for their wedding day.
This was brilliant. I was on my way and could still be on my way but unfortunately there was one thing missing. Passion. I had no passion for wedding photography, I never went into it because I enjoyed it, quite the opposite, I went in to it to make money. I enjoyed the challenge of setting up a business, building it and seeing the money come in, but I had no passion for this vocation and that started to show or at least I felt it started to show. On top of that I didn't feel I was getting the weddings I wanted to shoot, maybe I should have been more selective in the clients I chose, but when you are building a business from scratch, choosing isn't a luxury you can afford. I always tried my best at every wedding I shot but my heart wasn't in it especially after 10hrs on my feet, hours editing, backing up and stressing about delivering the images before my 10 back up drives exploded.
As my business built and the challenge of building a portfolio and getting those clients waned, so did my passion, the only challenge left was the wedding photography itself and I wasn't passionate enough about this to want to improve upon it. I took on less and less work and even those jobs were an inconvenience to me.
So this leads me to what you should be looking for in a photographer is Passion. The only people you should hire are those that have passion for the job, those that love it and love shooting weddings. You can see and feel passion in the photographers personality and portfolio. Being a wedding photographer is a hard and tiring job. If you are doing it for the money, you've already failed. You cannot sustain this career without a huge element of passion, maybe you can, but to be honest with you I wouldn't like to. Which is why I quit.
So. On top of all the questions you've googled about hiring a wedding photographer. Add this question or at least thought to your selection process. Does the wedding photographer I am thinking of hiring have passion for what he or she does.
