Day in the life of
Wedding Photographer – Bryan Striegler
I’ve been a full time wedding photographer for 5 years now. Before that, I taught for 10 years. In that time, I was teaching and doing photography on the side, so I had two jobs to compare. Don’t get me wrong, teaching is extremely important, but it didn’t fit with who I was. The way I always explain it is that with teaching, 50% of your customers don’t want to be there and hate you for it. With weddings, everyone is happy and excited and listens to the photographer because they are paying for it. It was two different worlds, and I’m so glad I moved into photography full time.
In a normal week, I’m in front of a computer Monday through Friday. I’m either editing, responding to emails, or working on some form of lead generation. I might have one or two shoots during the weekdays, and that’s about 6 hours of time. Saturdays and Sundays are my main days of real work, which is opposite to most businesses. The real downside to that is I miss a lot of normal weekend things like spending time with my family or other events.
My main goal as a wedding photographer is to make the whole process fun. Most people don’t enjoy being in photos, guys especially, so I try to build relationships and help people relax. People loosen up a lot more when they actually know and like the guy or girl behind the camera. I also try to be as helpful as possible. I send out roughly 40 emails to a couple throughout the whole process and give tips on every aspect of planning a wedding. I know there’s a lot of pressure on them, so I want to help out in any way I can.
As far as the actual wedding day goes, I create a timeline for the day and make sure everyone is organized and following it. I scout out locations for shoots and help pose and arrange everyone. I make sure to capture all of the big moments and the behind the scenes that the couple might not see.
I love my job! I get to meet new people, learn about them, and be there for them on the happiest day of their lives. Even more important, I make sure that the day can be relived and remembered for years to come.
Pros
One thing that I love about my job is the freedom I have. Almost every day I have control over my schedule and what I do. I also have the ability to say turn down any job that doesn’t fit into my ideal client. Having that control also means that I’m responsible for my success or failure. I can’t blame anyone else because it’s just me. If something isn’t working right, it’s up to me to figure it out.
Cons
One of the struggles with being a wedding photographer is that I run the business by myself. I got into wedding photography because of the artistic and people side, which means I have no business background. I’ve had to learn it all as I go. With that, I have to learn to do it all. Finances, marketing, website design, customer service/support, pricing, time management, sales, writer, and plenty of other things. To be honest, being successful depends more on the business side than the photos I take.
Home office
