Catching up on my Photography Journey: 1st Wedding Job!

Pin It Now! Its been 7 months since my last entry because I really haven't had anything to write about until now. With in 2 weeks of each other I've had my first experience with Beach photography and my first paid gig shooting my wife's cousin's wedding (you got to start somewhere, am I right?)

I just finished with the post production of the wedding pictures and I can tell you that when a wedding photographer is asking for $1500 to $2000, its not just for clicking a button. We had 2 photographers on the job. My friend Pat and myself, along with my wife helping corral the wedding party. We were there for a total of 10.5 hours. A couple hours for planning and getting familiar with Lake Point Resort in Eufaula, AL and the rest snapping away. After the wedding, i put in about 20 hours of post production work on 2100+ photos that were taken, of which I narrowed down and edited to 373. Right there we've put in over 40 hours of work, and that's not counting time spent getting to the location. Since this job was 1) a favor to a relative and 2) a learning experience, I only requested $200 ($100 each photographer) to cover gas. Divide that by 30.5 hours and I made $3.27 per hour. That is below minimum wage, but a step above sweatshop wages!

My buddy Pat and I are camera enthusiasts and we're your typical "i'm a little bit country, i'm a little bit rock and roll" when it comes to things in general. He owns a Canon, I am all Nikon. His shots and poses are more traditional, whereas I like interesting lines, depth, and candid photojournalistic looks in my shots.

Below is a shot of the groom's father that had passed away when he was a boy. It was to be a surprise from the bride to have the framed picture in the chair on the front row. We were able to get the photo before the ceremony and take a few shots. I liked having the rows of empty chairs lined up. It reminds me of all the grave markers at Arlington cemetery in a row.

Below is an sample of what the wedding party portraits looked like. We were force indoors due to rain and the setting was large glass atrium with double doors on 3 sides. This angle was the only photogenic spot available that was in the room. Had we gone anywhere else we'd have passersby and rubberneckers to contend with in the background. In this shot, the large glass wall looked down the long hall of the main lobby of the resort. It added great depth and provided many lines that usually pointed down to our subjects. I'm a little thankful for the rain because we would have been outside in the middle of the bright afternoon battling glare from the lake .

Overall, I'm very pleased with our first wedding gig and hope to find more opportunities to hone my skills.
To see the complete set from this wedding, you can click here.