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

What’s it really like to not only be married to a wedding photographer but also work with them on a regular basis? For this episode, I invite my wife into the studio to talk about life over the last five years being married to me and the challenges of adapting to my unconventional lifestyle. We’ll talk about how she first started shooting weddings with me and her own interest in weddings and photography, as well as how our relationship has changed over the years both inside and outside of the business. She’ll share some of the frustrations of living with a wedding photographer and their unconventional schedule and how she has adapted to it. She’ll also offer some tips for other partners of wedding photographers out there who might be considering assisting or second shooting and how you can be as supportive as possible during the busy peak season.

While we often talk about how to build our wedding photography business, take better photos, and where to invest our time and money when it comes to advertising, nobody ever talks about how to balance a career in wedding photography with our personal lives. We don’t live inside a wedding photography bubble and we can’t just brush off our loved ones, conventional jobs or health to pursue a dream of establishing a successful wedding photography business. In this podcast episode, I’ll chat about my experience early on in struggling to find a balance between working on my wedding photography business, a career in engineering, and other things going on in my life...and how that has evolved today with a newborn in the family. We’ll also talk about the negative effects of living in a wedding photography bubble when it comes to your relationships and health. The struggle is different for each individual and no two lifestyles are the same but there are ways we can address the issue by first acknowledging it and then l

Being your own boss means you’re constantly faced with decisions about how to successfully manage your business and the direction you want to take it. Join me on a trip down memory lane as I talk about some of the biggest wedding photography risks I’ve taken in my business and how they have affected it to this day. I’ll chat about the decision to become a full-time wedding photographer and the risk of leaving my stable engineering career, as well as more personal risks like buying my first home. I’ll share with you some of the risks I’ve taken that may not have been in my best interest, as well as those that have led me to create the wedding photography business I have today.

In this day and age, the amount of wedding photography educational information available to us can be overwhelming. From online articles to in-person workshops, videos and podcasts, it can be difficult to know where to start and what is of value. In this episode, I’ll chat about finding a balance between the amount of content you consume and how to know what is worth investing your time and resources into. We’ll also talk about the importance of not only consuming wedding photography educational information but also taking action and applying it to your own business. How can you translate the information you find into actionable strategies to create a successful wedding photography business?

Recently, I did a whole rebranding of my wedding photography educational material from Wedding Photography Podcast to Success In Wedding Photography. In this episode, I want to share with you the process of rebranding, how I went about it and the lessons I learned along the way, which will hopefully help others who are considering rebranding their business. I’ll chat about how I got started in podcasting and how my wedding photography educational efforts have evolved into webinars, YouTube live sessions and one-on-one coaching. I’ll also share with you why I thought it was important to rebrand and what you can expect going forward in the coming year under the Success In Wedding Photography (SIWP) umbrella.

Every year I set myself a number of goals and resolutions, both personal and professional in relation to my wedding photography business. In this episode, I want to share with you the resolutions I set myself for 2017 (and whether or not I achieved them), as well as those I’m hoping to achieve in 2018. From spending more time with my wife to saving a certain amount of money and growing my wedding photography educational efforts, I’ll break down why I set myself each of these goals. I’ll also share with you how I achieved them (or why I think I didn’t) and how I’m going to realize my goals and resolutions for 2018.

It sounds great. Waking up to realize that all of sudden you’ve got a significantly higher number of wedding bookings than you’ve had in any previous year and with that, a significantly higher income. But in this episode, we’ll take a reality check about what that actually means and how it can affect your life, for the better and the worse. I’ll explain how I handled a significant jump in the number of wedding bookings when I was just starting out as a wedding photographer and how that led to me eventually leaving my engineering career. We’ll also chat about whether your current schedule and lifestyle allow for the increase in time you would need to spend on your business and how that might affect your loved ones. While reaching for the stars is admirable, it’s important that goals are attainable and practical, ensuring you can still lead a balanced life. Having 40+ weddings suddenly booked in your diary may not be the blessing you thought it was.

As wedding photographers, we have a huge arsenal of evidence at our disposal when it comes to showing clients our style, experience in the industry and what they can expect when hiring us. So rather than sending lengthy correspondence emails telling them how great we are, why not just show them? In this episode, we’ll chat about the secret to booking wedding photography clients by showcasing your work and it all starts with your website. From a solid portfolio and online galleries to blog posts, slideshows, and album designs, I’ll chat about what I do to “show” prospective clients my experience and what they can expect before any emails are sent or meetings scheduled. It’s a great way of building trust and confidence in prospective clients that you can capture their special day the way they envision. At the same time, it will free up the time you might otherwise spend in meetings to build your business in other, more constructive ways.

Receiving negative reviews is never easy but it can also be the catalyst for positive change in your business and life. So following on from my first non-5 star review in iTunes, I’ve decided to shake things up and take some of the feedback on board. In this Wedding Photography Podcast episode, I want to share with you what the review said and how I responded by making a commitment to myself and my listeners to continue striving for improvement. It’s also helped me to bite the bullet and go live with Youtube wedding photography videos, offering a new and exciting format to connect with my listeners and viewers. We’ll chat about the content that I’ll be sharing on this new platform and the ways we will be able to engage with one another to help you go full-time in your wedding photography business or achieve your goals. The video format is a more accessible way of sharing stats and information, while the live component will enable us to connect through Q&A sessions, comments, and feedback.

One of the biggest contributors to my business success has been my ability to get hundreds of wedding photography reviews from previous clients on WeddingWire, Yelp, and Google. In my opinion, the best way to sell yourself is through the honest words of others. Having positive feedback and reviews from past clients is just as important as an impressive portfolio if you want to secure the bookings of future clients. In this podcast episode, I wanted to chat about how I’ve managed to get these wedding photography reviews over the 10 years I’ve been in business and why it’s the quality of reviews (not just the quantity) that matters. Recent reviews that offer specific details about your customer service or the client experience are a powerful means of giving prospective couples peace of mind and may directly address some of the concerns they have. Prospective clients will probably be drawn to you by the images they see online. But to take the next step and have them hire you, they want to know that your customer

Something I’ve been asked many times over the last few years is why I don’t use this podcast series to talk about the photography side of being a wedding photographer. So I wanted to take a moment to explain the reasoning behind my decision to focus on the business side of wedding photography instead. A lot of emphases is put on technical aspects and stylistic ideas for wedding photography, as well as post-processing, to create a specific look. But if you’re not getting inquiries from potential clients, then you’re not going to be able to make a successful business out of it, no matter how great your photography skills are! Many of my ideas about how to capture great wedding photos are also subjective - from the gear I choose to shoot with to my individual style. There are many different ways of doing things and no “right” or “wrong” way, so I don’t want to push my preferences onto others. It’s also tricky to describe technical aspects of photography in an audio podcast, without including lots of screenshots

Being passionate and believing in yourself are important elements in building a successful wedding photography business. But you shouldn’t rely on the off-chance that prospective clients are going to inquire or even book on that alone. We all hope that our business is going to be a success, particularly when we’re just starting out, but it takes a more objective approach to build a solid foundation and achieve your goals. In this episode, we’ll chat about the importance of not getting too comfortable in just being hopeful that your wedding photography business will take off. There is no blueprint for success, but being able to critically analyze what is working (and what isn’t) is more important than just counting on pure luck that clients will find you and trust you enough to book. Building a successful wedding photography business requires a methodical plan of attack that takes into account facts and data while addressing your failures and being transparent about what you are capable of. Rather than just ho

A huge game changer for me in recent years has been my ability to book wedding photography clients online, without requiring any face-to-face meetings. By this, I mean just a few emails back and forth before the contract is secured and the deposit paid. As a wedding photographer that doesn’t have a retail space, this significantly reduces the amount of time I’m on the road traveling to meet prospective clients in the hopes that they’ll book me. I put this down to three things - two of which are my own doing and one that applies to all wedding photographers. Couples these days are much more tech-savvy and are happy browsing through websites and reviews in order to build enough trust to comfortably book a wedding photographer online. What does this mean? You need to have a strong (and trustworthy) online presence to take advantage of this. It’s taken years for me to build the online reputation that I have, with a high number of positive reviews on reputable sites like Yelp and WeddingWire. Prospective clients c

They say you should live with no regrets but there are things we all wish we could have done better or achieved in our lives. So in this episode, I wanted to be completely honest with my listeners and chat about my biggest regret as a wedding photographer - not being able to grow my wedding photography studio! A few years ago, I rebranded Henry Chen Photography into Aevitas Weddings, with the intention of expanding the studio with a few more full-time photographers. I wanted to be able to say “yes” to inquiries from couples on days when I was already booked and be able to grow the business while helping other wedding photographers make a living. But due to a number of factors, such as not finding the right people and me being too tough on the photographers I do find, this hasn’t eventuated. But it’s still my intention and something I’m working towards, creating a collective group of artists with a common vision that clients can trust to deliver a consistent style and high level of customer service.

After my first week as a new father, I wanted to take some time out to reflect on the huge changes that have just taken place in my life and the rewards of this new role. Many wedding photographers out there are juggling a family and career, so how exactly do you prepare for the life-altering changes that having a baby brings and maintain the success of your business In this episode, I’ll chat about some of the things I did in the weeks leading up to the birth of our baby girl and how I handled the delivery itself with the weddings I had booked. I’ll also share some of my ideas about how I plan to maintain my wedding schedule (and the success of my business) while being the best dad possible. As much as you might be passionate about wedding photography and growing your business, once you become a parent, you can’t live in a bubble. But with a bit of foresight and careful planning, you can still be a success at both.

Passion is an essential ingredient for any successful wedding photography business and probably the main reason you decided to pursue this path in the first place. If your heart’s not in it, potential clients will quickly pick up on it and probably go elsewhere. But passion alone is not enough. There are a lot of other elements that need to be taken into account if you want to build a thriving business for the long-term future. In this episode, we’ll chat about some of the areas you need to work on to create a successful wedding photography business. Taking high-quality photographs that stand out from the rest is essential, which may require a significant investment of time and money when it comes to purchasing professional photographic gear and practicing your craft. You also need to have good time management skills and be able to juggle the photography and administration sides of your business. Do you have the customer service skills to engage clients, listen to their needs, and deliver the results they wan

One of the most important characteristics of an outstanding wedding photographer is communication - listening to what your clients want and applying this in the way you capture their special day. A couple has probably selected you because they love your work, but it takes more than just showing up on their wedding day to leave a lasting impression that will see them referring you to all their family and friends. From the very first moment they send you an inquiry, are you really listening to what they envision for their dream wedding and the individual elements that are important to them? Are there particular concerns they have about photography? Did one of their friends have a bad experience that has left doubts in their mind? In this episode, we'll chat about why you should be listening to your clients and how this information can be applied to capture gorgeous photos. Perhaps there’s a family heirloom they are incorporating into their wedding that is particularly sentimental or they have a special relation

Keeping in mind that most couples will start looking for and book a wedding photographer months before their special day, now is the time to start reevaluating your marketing strategies to ensure you’re getting inquiries for next year (and even 2019). It might seem like ages away, but it’s the steps you take now that will reap benefits down the track and ensure your business thrives in 2018. In this episode, we’ll chat about four main strategies you can utilize to ensure you’re getting inquiries for the coming year. First and foremost you should make sure your website is SEO optimized. From blog posts to images and page metadata, this is what will ensure your website is found on search engines like Google. If your budget allows, you can also do some advertising on sites like WeddingWire and Yelp. In my experience, the money I have invested in this type of advertising has more than paid off in bookings. Networking and helping out other vendors can also lead to inquiries, particularly when it comes to sharing y

When chatting with other wedding photographers, I often hear that they don’t know anything about their website analytics and what they mean or that they can’t really be bothered trying to understand it all. But before you spend money on marketing or expensive gear trying to boost your wedding photography business, understanding your website traffic is an inexpensive but essential step in the right direction. Your wedding photography website traffic can tell you so much about who is visiting your site, which pages they are visiting and where they are from. You’ll get information about how long they stay, if they are viewing it on a mobile or desktop platform and which pages lead to inquiries. This can tell you a lot about whether what you are posting is attracting the clientele you want and if it’s making them take the next step to get in touch with you. Understanding your website traffic is actually much simpler than it first appears with easy-to-use tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console. In t

EPISODE #100: THE MOST POPULAR TOPICS IN THE FIRST 100 EPISODES OF THE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY PODCAST Summary: It’s with much gratitude that I’ve recorded my 100th episode in this Wedding Photography Podcast series and I want to send a huge “thank you” to all of my listeners who have made it happen. To celebrate this milestone, I thought we’d look back at some of the most popular wedding photography podcast episodes in the series and highlight those that had the most downloads and discussions. We’ll touch on my thoughts about being a successful wedding photographer and how to find your own style, as well as how to efficiently manage post-production of images. The episode about how to get clients with low budgets to increase them was a community favorite, as was the discussion about how to rebrand your business. I think many listeners also benefited from hearing about my own challenges and mistakes after ten years as a wedding photographer. So we’ll reflect on the episodes about my top mistakes and some of the lo