How To Run A Wedding Photography Business
Happiness in the Workplace: The Life of a Wedding Photographer
Apollo fields | Denver wedding photographer | New York wedding photographer | Wedding photos | Engagement photos | wedding writer
Most people don’t enjoy their jobs. Whether it’s the fluorescent lighting or the no windows casino approach to work environments, the tired early morning commute or the death by a thousand cliches like “happy wife, happy life,” working in the 21st century is at best and worst a dull sort of suffering. The intermittent good days make the job not quite bad enough to quit, and the benefits of a stable job outweigh childish millennial pursuits like happiness in the workplace. Lucky for us, we don’t have that problem.
Heather called me yesterday after her 4th wedding of the weekend (!!), and I could hear her smiling through the phone. She was beaming about being in the center of a 30-minute horah (Jewish wedding dance celebration) and reflecting upon how grateful she is to have an occupation that lands her in the middle of these powerful cultural traditions. Despite having no ties to any sort of religion ourselves, more often than not, we are educated on and included into these intimate spiritual circles rather than being forced to the perimeters and relegated to the role of outsiders. Take that “multicultural day” at the office!
This wedding season, Heather has already shot weddings in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Colorado, soon to be Maine, and at the tail end of the season, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Travel is part of our jobs and we’ve learned that there is love to be photographed everywhere! In the past, we’ve photographed weddings from the Dominican Republic to Quebec City, Canada, and we’re excited to the places our jobs will bring us in the future. Our ever-changing workspace keeps our eyes fresh and the hundreds of miles of open road keep our hearts for adventure well-fed.
That being said, the life of wedding photographers can be stressful and inconsistent. We don’t have work until we book it ourselves, making security and stability in our profession an autonomous responsibility of discipline and dedication. We don’t have windows in our office either, but that’s because the sun is on our shoulders; and we can’t hear cliches because we’re too busy dancing to the live band. Sure, it can be hard to keep the energy level high as the season wanes on, but every time it begins to fade there is a tear-jerking moment to bring us right back into the fold. I would trade the dynamic difficulties of our job for the static grinding of the human will that permeates office culture a hundred times over—because at the end of our workday—we’re growing towards love rather than withering towards retirement.
Oozlefinch Brewery Engagement Photography
Naomi & Johnny’s Engagement Session | Oozlefinch Brewery | Noland Trail | Norfolk Virginia Engagements | Apollo Fields Wedding Photography
It’s no secret that we love to travel! It’s one of my favorite things about the business so we always jump at the opportunity to shoot destination engagements and weddings. Throwing the dogs, cameras, backpack of clothes, and a board game or two in the back of the car and hitting the road is what we do best.
We got the chance to shoot Naomi and Johnny’s engagement session in Norfolk, VA because they are air-force and have been stationed in separate states. Naomi is currently in Colorado and Johnny is in Virginia, and this was going to be their last weekend together before their wedding in May so we cruised down the east coast to meet up with them for a rainy afternoon. We began the session at Noland Trail which is where they got engaged (fittingly enough it was also raining that day) but we could only stay for a short amount of time before the weather really moved in.
So off to Oozlefinch Brewery we went! We were so excited when they suggested this location because we’re totally craft-brewery people and were already mapping out our brew tour of the east coast :) The beer was all amazing and we gladly enjoyed a few flights together. It was great to hang out with them, snapping pictures, chatting about how they met, and wedding planning. We’re shooting their wedding in May at The Pines at Genessee in CO which we’re really excited for! We are also looking forward to recognizing a few faces in the crowd since Naomi is the cousin of Dylan (one of our 2017 grooms) and how we originally met this fun couple!
Virginia Engagement Photography: Apollo Fields
Locations: Noland Loop Trail, Noland News Virginia | Oozlefinch Craft Brewery, Hampton VA