Becoming a Wedding Photographer Part 1
Let’s start with two figures £10,000 and 200 Hours. I’ll come back to these shortly as I believe they are 2 very important figures for anyone considering becoming a wedding photographer. The wedding photography industry is a very demanding and saturated industry, anybody hoping to get into the industry should be prepared for many struggles. Yet it is a very rewarding industry for those that can persevere and become successful.
The journey often starts the same way for most wedding photographers. Not with a college and/or university qualification or any sort of training course. The most common story from wedding photographers is that they started with a relatively cheap camera, a passion for photography and a few favours for a family members or friends which then led to them doing more work. Most will have been working for free or for very little amounts of money to start with. For many successful wedding photographers whose journey may have started this way, chances are it took them another 5 years to build a successful photography business. There’s a high possibility that they also had a full-time job to help them fund their journey.
So going back to the original figures of £10,000 and 200 hours. Where did these two figures come from? Although many people start with perhaps a £500 camera the likelihood is that they will have soon spent in excess of £10,000 on equipment and expenses to build their wedding photography business. You’ll need top quality, reliable photography equipment if you are to be successful and this comes at a price. Two cameras and a couple of decent lenses can easily set you back over £7000.
Time is another consideration, 200 hours is likely the minimum amount of time you will want to invest into building your business and developing your own skills. You should expect to invest this time without making any money from it. Your time will be invested in many areas, developing your photography skills, developing your editing style and skills, building your website and social media presence, networking and gaining experience in the field. Without wanting the start of this blog to sound too negative you need to be prepared to splash out some serious amounts of money and dedicate time if you are going to become a successful wedding photographer. Running a successful photography business is a full-time job, the bookings don’t come easy and the competition is relentless.
In part 2 of the becoming a wedding photographer blog we’ll focus on more hints and tips to helping you build your own wedding photography business.
Sarah & Joe
