Wedding Photographer – Jennifer Sulak

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Day in the life of
Wedding Photographer – Jennifer Sulak

Jennifer Sulak
Wedding Photographer
Weirdo Weddings Photography

My Typical Day

A typical work day for a Wedding Photographer begins weeks, sometimes months before the big wedding day. Part of our job as Photographers is to assess lighting, posing, and photojournalistic captures on a fast-moving day of love & celebration! The technical side is something no one talks about because most only focus on the photographs themselves, but a lot of time is spent preparing our digital space for the images, backups of the images, and charging every battery we own for both cameras and flashes.

The day of the wedding is the biggest of all the work days. Most wedding days will have the photographer show up on or off site while the couple is getting ready and you are capturing the day as it unfolds with the wedding party getting ready in their areas, details being set up, and the grounds of the venue.

Most weddings do have a timeline that we follow as photographers so every wedding will be slightly different depending on the couples – but a typical work day would have you taking group pictures before or after the ceremony and then you step into the reception to capture the important moments like dances, bouquet & garter tosses, toasts and dancing the night away with friends & family.

While every wedding can be different, most of the main elements are the same – there is a getting ready, a ceremony, and an after-ceremony reception of some kind. In some cases, there is also a wedding send-off where they run to their car and drive away. If this happens the day of, you are working upwards of 6-10 hours depending on your couples requests. The get away is usually into the night time and a wide variety of examples include sparklers, bubbles, ribbon wands, glow sticks, or whatever you want for the day. The wonderful thing about a wedding day is you are getting in about 4 different types of photography – portraits, still life/macro, architecture, and photojournalistic. It always keeps you busy and you most likely never stop moving when it involves all the humans that showed up to celebrate!

Key responsibilities

  • To capture the day as it unfolds and tell their story.
  • Key elements of the images are also discussed ahead of time because every couple has their wants & needs – and you, the photographer, are responsible for capturing the meaningful things and the little surprises along the way.
  • File & data storage & backups AFTER the wedding are key to not losing any digital data. Most of your work will also include having the technology to keep up with the demands of high resolution files and backup systems for your clients – no matter what type of delivery.

Pros

  • You get to meet & work with amazing people on one of their happiest days beginning their marriage!
  • The challenge of several kinds of photography – I never get bored
  • Re-living the emotions with them, even after the wedding is over – including a delivery of an album or prints
  • Wedding cake! (I love having wedding cake on wedding days!)
  • Fulfillment in your purpose, should Photography choose you, or YOU choose photography to serve others with
  • You get better as you practice, learn, and keep honing your people & photography skills

Cons

  • File management and back end work gets tedious – editing, file management & computer space
  • You will spend more time marketing than actually photographing – meaning you will be running your business most days, the photography is the EASIEST part
  • Paying ALL the required taxes as a small business owner, you really have to watch your spreadsheets and prepare accordingly so that you adhere to all Federal, State, and City taxes

Advice on becoming a Wedding Photographer

If you are truly interested in becoming a wedding photographer, shadow, or 2nd or 3rd shoot with already established wedding photographers & businesses. You will learn very quickly if you like it or dislike it. Weddings are NOT for everyone.

Being a 2nd/3rd photographer is VERY DIFFERENT than a Lead Photographer, so take this into consideration while learning a wedding day routine/ritual.

Ask yourself WHY you are interested in this area of serving couples. You will NEED your “Why” if you stay in this line of work. Always go back to WHY you started and your heart behind it.

Gear

You will need basic gear to get you started BUT here are some very important things you must know:

  • Always have a backup. (backup body, lens, cards, batteries, flash)
  • Insurance on gear and events. (some venues and wedding professionals REQUIRE this)
  • Take photography courses to get to know your camera, the better you know your technology and making images, the better.
  • Be prepared to handle the volume of digital images coming in after capturing a wedding day, you COULD average up to 100 images per hour depending on the details or looks you are going for. (get a computer, back up drives, and research types of cloud storages & websites)
Jennifer Sulak
Wedding Photographer
Weirdo Weddings Photography
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