The Story So Far
2020
The year starts in the middle of my 6th wedding season. At this point I am shooting somewhere between 50-60 weddings per year and things are going pretty smoothly. While this is only my 6th year in the wedding business, I was in my 13th year as a professional. Because of all of my previous experience, I was never really plagued by the long editing cues that other photographers are often having to manage. Over the course of 500+ weddings you tend to get a pretty confident grasp of the task at hand I’ve really enjoyed how comfortable I became at each event.
So, I am busy, my clients are happy, and life seems to be firmly planted on the right set of tracks.
Covid derails all of us from the tracks
The first two days of “lockdown” at the beginning of the pandemic were, and still to this day, some of the most emotionally exhausting days of my life. Over the course of 48 hours, I had 31 brides call in tears to cancel their wedding. Watching 6 years of hard work get wiped clean in 48 hours was one of those wake up calls, that still rings in my head today.
Then something incredible happened
Before the dust could settle some of my clients were taking action and started changing their plans. Brides that were previously planning large venue weddings were changing their vision and opting to elope (or host a really really small gathering of just a few friends and family). Rather than trying to navigate the global pandemic and try to hit the moving target on when it would be safe to reengage with their initial plans, couples were choosing to explore. I often think about how bleak things seemed those first couple weeks of the pandemic. My business died in those two weeks and it was quickly reborn as something completely different. I spent that year shooting in Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Washington, Oregon, California, and New York.
Covid was a tragic time and I don’t want to understate the devastating toll it took on all of us, but man, it completely altered the course of my creative life in ways that I don’t think would have happened without it.
Post Covid
I think everyone has kind of a different perspective on when covid “ended”. For me, it was when weddings right back to how they used to be. Stressed out clients, burned out vendors, and all of the same petty shit that always had me eyeing the exit doors. It’s not that I wasn’t enjoying myself. I have loved this job even when I hated it. Even on the toughest days, I have always been grateful for being able to make a living through photography.
So I decided to niche down
I wanted my covid wedding season back. So I put together a list of all the things that made those weddings so much fun. These weddings took place in unconventional venues, the guest lists were small, and there was this spirit of blazing our own paths. Couples that got married during the pandemic were also grappling with the existential crisis that came with it. Covid reminded us of the things that are truly important because it was constantly threatening to take those things away from us. My work shifted away from the perfectly posed portraits and more towards candid storytelling.
Covid ended and all of the superficial stuff came right back into frame. All of the things that differentiate the luxury side of weddings from the rest of the market are things I couldn’t care less about. I will be totally honest with you guys, I don’t give a shit about details shots. I do them because I know you will want that documented but It is always my least favorite part of the wedding day. I would much rather spend my time shooting photos of people being people. I am not trying to trash the luxury side of weddings. I think that stuff is cool for the people that like that stuff. There are a lot of really creative people crushing it on that side of the market, we are just inspired by different things.
I really enjoyed the past few seasons though. I found my niche even though being picky slowed down my business. I was happy to take the pay cut in exchange for working these really unique and carefree weddings.
My first Photography Book
I was introduced to fly fishing 8 years ago and it immediately captivated me in the same ways that photography has. Taking fishing to this kind of fine art level is so appealing to me. Over the years I have built up remarkable resume as an angler. I have seen the Salmonfly Hatch on the Madison River in Montana, hiked to high alpine lakes in Colorado, swung flies on the salmon rivers in Alaska, and even backpacked through the Eastern Sierras to catch Golden Trout. Somewhere along the way I picked up the habit of photographing my daily life. I would bring my camera with me everywhere and I always really loved to stuff I would shoot on fishing trips. I can’t remember exactly when or how I decided to turn this into a project but I do remember when I started. I remember telling myself “I am going to show what it means and looks like fly fishing in Arizona”. I really like the perplexing nature of fishing in the desert.
I was totally caught off guard by how quickly I was overcome by this process. For 18 months, I spent 3-5 full days every week traveling all over the state with fellow anglers that shared the same passion for fly fishing in Arizona. All of this culminated into a final book design with 306 pages. I loved this whole thing and not because it was fishing but because this kind of project was like a wild fire of creativity. This project pushed my so far past my own perceived limitations and showed me that I am capable of amazing things.
So now what?
At the beginning of June I announced my departure from Weddings. Not because I don’t enjoy them anymore but because this book project changed my perspective and completely altered my relationship with photography. Now, two months later, I feel kind of odd about prospect of just being done shooting weddings. So rather than calling it quits I am going to further downsize. I would like to shoot maybe 4-5 weddings a year. I have loved the influence that wedding photography has had on my life. It has caused me to cross paths with people who I would likely never meet. Im grateful that I have been exposed to so many cultures and shared adventures with so many interesting people. I have witnessed a rare degree of authenticity that often comes out of people when they celebrate with those they love. This job has helped me learn how to understand people on a deeper level and learn about all of the things that people hold near and dear. I think it would be a shame to just stop…
I think I would be pretty happy shooting 5-6 weddings per year. I spent so many years in a dead sprint trying to make this all work. Then I slowed to jog and enjoyed having more room to breath but now I would like to slow down and make wedding photography feel more like a afternoon stroll.
If you’re getting married and you don’t care so much about the tables, lets chat.
