Wedding Photography Podcast | How To Become A Successful, Full-time Wedding Photographer | Wedding Photography Tips

Continuing with my November theme “How To Photograph A Wedding”, in this podcast episode, we’re going to chat about bride and groom getting ready photos. I’ll share with you why this is my favorite part of the wedding day (albeit also the most challenging) and offer some of my top tips when it comes to capturing beautiful getting ready photos. The getting ready period is a time for you as a photographer to build rapport with not only the couple (if you haven’t worked with them during an e-session) but also their bridal party and family. If you do this successfully, then you’ll have their trust and cooperation throughout the rest of the day, which will make your job that much easier. They’ll be more relaxed and comfortable in front of the camera and more willing to be “in the moment” and follow your instructions. That being said, there are lots of challenges we have to work with when capturing getting ready photos. Sometimes the rooms are messy and cramped, with the area of natural light near the window occupi

To coincide with the launch of my new course “How to Photograph a Wedding”, I wanted to offer some tips and advice over the next month on how to do just that. In this first of a five-part series on wedding day photography tips, we’ll chat about what it means to be a great wedding photographer and what you can expect from my podcasts over the coming month. I’ll share with you what I believe it takes to be a great wedding photographer and how you can go about it - not only taking amazing images but also offering an excellent client experience. We’ll then break things down, focusing one episode on tips for photographing the bride and groom getting ready and another on portraits, including pre- and post-ceremony couple portraits, as well as bridal party portraits, and family formals. Another episode will be dedicated to photographing ceremonies and receptions before we wrap things up. We’ll be focusing on the three different types of wedding day photos in this "How To Photograph A Wedding" podcast series - detail

This October marks three years since I started my wedding photography podcast, with the main focus being on the business side of the industry, such as marketing tips, people skills, and the business mindset. But it’s with great excitement that I announce an expansion for Success In Wedding Photography in response to numerous questions I’ve had from the community about how I go about photographing a wedding. In addition to YouTube videos offering a behind the scenes look at how I photograph weddings, I’m also going to be releasing regular podcast episodes to share my insights on shooting venues, details, and portraits. I’ll share with you tips on how I photograph different parts of the day, including the directions I offer couples, as well as the lenses and lighting that I use. I’ll also be releasing an upcoming course, "How To Photograph A Wedding", which will be my flagship educational project to help other photographers with the shooting side of running a successful wedding photography business.

Even if you’re just getting started in your wedding photography career, sooner or later you’re going to have to make a decision about how far you want to take it. Perhaps you’re still focusing on building your experience and portfolio. But at the back of your mind, it’s good to have an idea about whether you want to turn it into a full-time career or just keep it as a part-time or side hustle from your conventional job. In this wedding photography podcast, I’ll share with you how I transitioned from being a full-time engineer to a full-time wedding photographer in just over two years. I’ll also offer some tips and advice depending on your professional and personal situations, as well as your skill level in photography, business management, and communication with people. All of these factors will determine how far you can realistically go in your wedding photography career and whether it’s a good idea to quit your job or if you should keep things part-time. By understanding where you’re headed (and your chance

While in the middle of my month-long workshop “How to Become a Wedding Photographer”, it got me thinking about when I first started out in the industry. So in this podcast episode, I thought I’d share with you how I booked my first 10 weddings and some of the lessons we can all take away from it. I’ll reveal how the couples found me and how much I was paid, as well as exactly what was in their wedding photography packages. I’ll also share with you some of the strategies I used to book weddings during those early years and the insights I’ve gained from my own humble beginnings. It’s a reminder that we all have to start somewhere and will hopefully provide motivation to those looking to give their wedding photography business a kickstart. If you’re needing more inspiration, you can watch my recent two-day free masterclass at teamsiwp.com/bookmoreweddings.

After a rough week of being knocked back by four prospective couple inquiries, I thought it would be appropriate to chat about what we’re doing as wedding photographers to ensure we stand out. If you’re in a competitive market like I am in Southern California, chances are there are hundreds (if not thousands) of other very talented wedding photographers with lots of experience that you’re competing against. What is about you that makes you unique from all the others and what’s your competitive advantage that would make prospective couples select you over someone else? While it can be frustrating and demoralizing to be knocked back after receiving inquiries from prospective couples or even having a meeting with them, we need to pick ourselves up and regroup. Do you need to work more on your branding or spend time honing your photography skills or perhaps you need to invest more money in advertising so that couples can find you at all! Rather than dwelling on the defeat, it’s a great opportunity to reanalyze wh

It’s been around a year since my wife and I welcomed into the world our first child, so I thought it was an appropriate time to reflect on the lessons I've learned trying to juggle being a father and a full-time wedding photographer. While I know that many of my listeners are parents, others may not be (and might have no intention of having kids), but I still think there are valuable insights we can all take away from these experiences. In this wedding photography podcast, I’ll share with you 10 lessons that I’ve learned in my first year of being both a father and wedding photographer. We’ll chat about the need to be highly efficient in the way you do things, as well as patient and understanding that making compromises in your business will be inevitable. I’ll also talk about how important it has been to have support from other people in my life, such as grandparents so that I can continue running my business. In sharing with you my experiences as both a father and wedding photographer running a full-time bus

In this wedding photography podcast episode, I want to introduce my two flagship educational efforts and share with you some of the benefits I hope they’ll bring to the SIWP community. They both adhere to my three core values, which includes ensuring the content I present is tailored to those specifically wanting to make a part-time or full-time career in wedding photography and offering insights that will save you time while helping you earn more money. I really wanted to create a team environment where wedding photographers could collaborate - ask questions, share their successes and struggles - while also benefiting from my content. So this is why I’ve created the Team SIWP Facebook group as a community go-to place for wedding photography education, which you can join by going to teamsiwp.com. The other educational effort is the HTBAWP online workshop - a month-long, boot camp-style workshop designed specifically for wedding photographers who are just starting out but perhaps not getting much traction in t

When I first meet new photographers through my workshops or coaching programs, one of the first things I ask is what their expectations are as a wedding photographer and how many weddings do they want to be shooting. For part-timers, it’s often around the 10-15 per year mark while those wanting to go full time usually give a figure that’s 30+. But when I ask how many they have booked right now, it might be closer to 4 or 5. There’s often a huge disconnect between what emerging wedding photographers want to be shooting and what they are realistically booking. So in this podcast episode, I want to chat about setting realistic goals when it comes to booking weddings and the steps you can start taking right now to make them a reality. Firstly, why do you want to be shooting a certain number of weddings per year? Is it because of financial reasons or just because you’ve heard from other wedding photographers that that’s what it means to be successful? What marketing strategies are you using that are working (and h

While we often focus on the logistical side of wedding photography and how to get more leads/bookings, in this podcast episode, I want to look at the bigger picture of achieving the lifestyle that you desire. How would your days, weeks and months look like in an ideal world, with the balance between work, family, and hobbies that you really love? We’ll chat about figuring out exactly what’s important to you and how you want to spend time outside of your business, whether it’s juggling a conventional job, a family or indulging your other interests. Starting with how you’d like an ideal day to look, we’ll lengthen it out into an ideal week and eventually a month, so that you can dream big in devising your own wedding photography lifestyle. In the second part of the podcast, we’ll discuss why you haven’t achieved the work/life balance you might want and what’s preventing you from reaching this. By looking at the bigger picture, I hope to inspire you to be ambitious about building a lifestyle and career in weddin

One of the most common struggles I see new wedding photographers facing is being overwhelmed by the sheer amount of educational content available. From online digital courses to in-person workshops and one-on-one coaching, it can be difficult to know what is right for you at this point in your business. Perhaps you end up consuming wedding photography educational content in the wrong order or you feel so perplexed by the amount that’s out there that you don’t end up consuming anything at all. In this podcast episode, I’ll share with you some of the questions you should ask before you determine which content is right for you. Where are you currently in your business and what are your biggest struggles? Understanding your individual problems is an important first step in finding wedding photography educational content that aligns with your business goals. We’ll also chat about some of the most common reasons why wedding photography educational content doesn’t work, such as consuming content that doesn’t apply t

It’s easy to constantly compare yourself to other, more established photographers, particularly when you’re just starting out and are looking for role models in the industry or trying to learn from others. But sometimes there comes a point when comparing yourself to other wedding photographers starts getting unhealthy and you might feel yourself in a downward spiral wondering why you aren’t as busy or as successful as them. In this podcast episode, we’ll chat about why you need to avoid constantly comparing yourself to other wedding photographers and how it can lead to feelings of negativity and maybe even wanting to give up. Yes, you should allow yourself to be inspired by other wedding photographers and learn from their success but it’s important that you focus more on yourself and what is special about you. What can you do to stand out from other wedding photographers and what is your “unfair advantage”? Rather than constantly comparing yourself to other wedding photographers, you need to focus on your pos

Quite often I’ll hear new wedding photographers make the excuse of “My website is not launched yet.” or “If only I had better gear.” to explain why they’re not getting leads and bookings. But usually, it comes down to not spending the time, energy, and money marketing their new business and getting their name out there so that potential clients can actually find them. Of the three components that you need to launch yourself as a wedding photographer and help you book weddings - gear to shoot, a quality website, and a marketing plan - it’s the latter that too often gets overlooked. Many of us will spend lots of time researching what gear to buy and spend all of our available resources on purchasing the best available. We might then skimp on a professional web designer to save on a do-it-yourself website and spend months creating it, while at the same time missing out on opportunities to be shooting weddings. In this wedding photography podcast episode, we’ll chat about the importance of getting the balance bet

While some wedding photographers know that they need to improve (not just when it comes to photography skills but also managing their business and developing their people skills), others think they’ve got it all figured out. They’re confident about their photographic skills and they’ve got a website up, so the bookings should just start rolling in, right? In this wedding photography podcast episode, I want to give those photographers a bit of a wake-up call and bring them back to reality. You might have lots of followers on Instagram or hits to your website, but if that’s not translating to leads and bookings, then you might not be where you think you are in your business. If you’re not seeing progression or the earnings you think you should, you might not be as good a wedding photographer as you think you are. If this is the case, it’s time to look yourself in the mirror and be honest about your skills as a wedding photographer so you can start taking positive steps in the right direction.

There’s a saying “you get what you show” and this rings true when trying to appeal to your ideal wedding photography clientele. The images you share on your social media pages and website should reflect the clientele you want to appeal to and reflect how you would capture their special day. But what if you’re not even sure what your ideal wedding photography clientele is? In this podcast episode, we’ll chat about determining what this means to you and how you can go about attracting those kinds of couples to your wedding photography business. It might be glamorous venues or high-end decor that you want to capture or perhaps it’s multicultural wedding celebrations or couples that put a high priority on photography. For most of us, we want to appeal to clients whose budget fits in with our pricing, as well as those that like our style of photography. For other wedding photographers, personality is also important and working with people that you “click” with. So once you’ve figured out your ideal wedding photogr

“Success” as a wedding photographer means different things to different people. It might be that you’re earning a certain amount of money or shooting X number of weddings each year or it might be that you finally have the time to do other things you enjoy in life that you couldn’t previously. But whatever your measure of “success” is, there are some signs we can all pick up on that your wedding photography business won’t succeed. In this podcast episode, I’ll share with you 10 different signs or reasons that you’re not seeing success and how you can turn the tables. We’ll chat about not having concrete, quantifiable goals with deadlines and how that can contribute to failure, as well as having too many things going on in your life that you never have time to work on your business. Perhaps you don’t have the photography skills to be a professional wedding photographer (or don’t want to invest the time and money in improving them) or maybe it’s the business side of things that are lacking. We all know that as a

One of the most amazing emails I’ve ever received from a listener (and watcher of my YouTube channel) turned up in my inbox in the middle of June (2018), sharing with me a lot of the professional and personal struggles that he’s going through. Many were things I had gone through early on in my career as a wedding photographer, so I thought rather than answer Thinh directly, I would (with his permission) create a podcast episode that might also benefit others. First and foremost, I want to thank Thinh for reaching out and really appreciate his kind words regarding the work I’m doing to help other wedding photographers build successful businesses. I was particularly thrilled to hear that despite watching many other photography-related videos, his passion for the craft was re-ignited after he started watching mine. Thinh asked a whole variety of different questions about not only marketing and building a successful wedding photography business but also issues he was experiencing from a more technical standpoint.

It’s easy to always be comparing yourself to other people and measure your success by theirs. So in this podcast episode, I wanted to get personal and share some of the things I’ll never be as a wedding photographer and why I’m okay with that. After 11 years in the industry, I’ve come to the realization that there are some things I will never achieve or be, whether it be due to my personal situation or lifestyle choices. I’ve come to a point where I don’t associate those things with failing but rather that I’ve found my niche and what I’m good at while being able to make an enjoyable living at the same time. Some of the things I’ll never be as a wedding photographer include being a high profile or celebrity wedding photographer, as well as a destination wedding photographer, as I don’t want to be away from my family all the time. I’ve also realized that I’ll probably never have a close network of colleagues working as part of my studio due to my social lifestyle and preference of just doing my own thing. Desp

As the first half of 2018 comes to a close, I thought it would be a great time to reflect on the past six months and how it has been as a wedding photographer, educator, and father of a newborn. So in this podcast episode, I want to share with you my wedding photography progress and how well I’ve done in achieving the goals I set myself at the end of last year. I’ll share with you exactly what those goals were and how they related to my wedding photography business and the commitment I wanted to make to the SIWP community. In some instances, I met the goals I set myself (such as creating a new podcast each week) while for others I fell short (in the case of my weekly live sessions on YouTube). Some of my goals at the end of 2017 were on a more personal level and related to the changes taking place as my wife and I celebrated our five-year anniversary, moved into our new home and brought our baby girl into the world. So I’ll also chat about how I’m balancing fatherhood on top of my wedding photography business

When you’re first starting out in wedding photography, it’s easy to just see the fun side of it and the opportunity to transform your passion into a money-earning activity. Being your own boss, capturing beautiful details and moments are all part of the allure, but there will probably come a time when it suddenly hits home that you have to make this work! In this podcast episode, I want to share with you two times that the importance of having a profitable wedding photography business suddenly hit me, which (not surprisingly) both occurred around the time I purchased a home. The financial obligations of buying a home and the mortgage repayments come as a reality check, particularly if your wedding photography business is your sole income. While we all hope that our career as a wedding photographer will be fun, there are times when you really have to buckle down and be serious about what you’re doing. By sharing my experiences and how I dealt with this realization, it will hopefully prepare others for the road