intern wedding photographer?

[Kronie]

Lately I have been thinking about putting my thousands of dollars of photography equipment to work to actually make money. Currently I'm just a hobby photographer. (all though I have sold a few prints.)

Anyway......

My train of thought was that I could learn the business of wedding photography so I could shoot maybe one or two weddings a year and use the money to......probably buy more gear. :lol:

I'm thinking of contacting some local wedding photographers to see if they would let me shadow them for a few weddings this spring, to kind of learn the business a little bit.

I just don't know if a career wedding photographer is going to want to hire me considering they may be creating competition down the road.

Any advice on how I should sell myself? I consider myself to be a good photographer and I can provide samples of work and I don't mind working free as long as I will be shown how the business works.

Thanks for your help.

[tim]

What's in it for the photographers you want to 'shadow'? Offer to assist, and do it for a decent amount of time. I personally have better things to do than train beginners if they're just going to turn up a couple of times. Also you won't learn the business at weddings, you'll learn that through working with a pro for an extended period, picking up bits and pieces here and there. And honestly a beginner isn't considered competition, there's already a massive amount of competition so one more is pretty much irrelevant. Offer them something you consider as valuable as the information you'll gain and maybe you'll get someone take you up on the offer.

One or two weddings a year and you'll stay at the bottom rung. Do it properly or don't bother.

If you start shooting professionally you probably won't do it for fun so much. I know I don't.

[Mike30D]

What Tim said...

Weddings can be fun to shoot, BUT they are a lot of work.

[Kronie]

Well, you do bring some good points, although you sound a little jaded. To be honest, I have little interest in becoming a "pro photographer" you can have it. I already have a job that I like and make good money at. I want to shoot a wedding here and there and make some extra $$$ and expand my horizons.

I did figure I would be assisting more than anything else. What I want to learn from working with a half decent photographer is the physical setup and flow AT a wedding, how that process works, where to stand, where not to stand, that kind of thing. The actual business side, pricing, printing, being competitive in a competitive market, that stuff I think I can figure out myself.

[MichaelAlan_Photo]

You definitely need to have the drive to be a wedding photographer because you will have to take on many roles. I have to be a marketing guru, secretary, owner, accountant, graphic artist, web admin and updater, album designer shipper and receiver and I get to be a photographer once in a while!

[Mike30D]

Well, you do bring some good points, although you sound a little jaded. To be honest, I have little interest in becoming a "pro photographer" you can have it. I already have a job that I like and make good money at. I want to shoot a wedding here and there and make some extra $$$ and expand my horizons.

I did figure I would be assisting more than anything else. What I want to learn from working with a half decent photographer is the physical setup and flow AT a wedding, how that process works, where to stand, where not to stand, that kind of thing. The actual business side, pricing, printing, being competitive in a competitive market, that stuff I think I can figure out myself.

You need to be consistently good to do weddings. It's not something you can or should do "here and there".

[Kronie]

You need to be consistently good to do weddings. It's not something you can or should do "here and there".

Shouldn't be a problem. I'm consistently good at everything! :lol:

But seriously, why on earth do you think that I cant shoot a wedding here and there? I have already been asked to shoot weddings without any kind of advertising at all. I have been declining them mainly because I don't have the time right now and I'm a little nervous about jumping into it without ever having done it.

Before I jump into it though and make a bunch of potential mistakes I would rather spend a spring/summer working with someone that can show me the ropes a little bit.

[tim]

If the best wedding photographer only did a couple of weddings a year you can be pretty sure their standard would go down. To get good at anything you have to do it often.

[Kronie]

Well, I think Ill try it out this year at least, just to broaden my horizons. Who knows I may hate it. To be honest with you I kind of dread the idea of going around and taking pictures of people.
I like Macros and Landscapes.

http://www.pbase.com/akrone/image/99391785/original.jpg