Do you make a living as a wedding photographer?

Below are just observations from what we went through when finding a
photographer for our wedding. You may want to note a few things such as
we live in a big city with relatively young population (Houston, TX USA)
and the ones we dealt with are well-established and sucessful.

1. Where do you see yourself on the socio-economic scale regarding your
income? i.e. well above average, above average, average, below average,
well below average.
Most of them live in wealthy parts of town (most actually live in the
same part of town call "The Heights"). So I assume they doing well.

2. Do you do it full time as your only source of income or purely as a
part-time supplement to existing income? If you are doing it full time,
do you only do weddings? If not, what percentage of your income do
weddings provide?
Most started out as a weekend gig. Build up their clientele and
reputation. Then switch to full-time. Besides, weddings they also do
baby's, family's pictures and portraits. Some also do ads for local
magazines.

3. How many weddings do you do annually?
I don't know. But they seem to be extremly busy. The one we chose have
to be booked at least 6 months in advance and this is for "slow-season"
months.

4. How long did it take to establish yourself in the market? What
marketing techniques did you use? i.e. if advertising, where did you
advertise?
Vary from a few years to more than 10 years.
We found these photographers by searching on the Web, reading wedding
magazines for our area, and coming to wedding shows (in that order). Of
course there are those that slip their flyers under our windshield
wiper, but we didn't find their sample pictures very appealing.

5. Do you find it a rewarding profession? In other words, do you feel
you could have done something else instead of doing weddings?
They claim it to be. Some claim that they quit high positions in big
company to follow this profession. To me their stories are very
believable.

6. What do you base your pricing on?
I guess on market price. We've seen packages that range from $2000 to
$15000 (!). Packages go from something like 6 hrs, 2 photographers, 1
12-page album.... up to whole day coverage, 2 photographers, fancy
albums, negatives (or original digital files), etc. Most show their
pakages online, just google.

7. Do you find it very competitive to remain active in this field?
I guess so. I would say 50% or more of the business go to the top 10
photographers or so. This is just a wild guess based on talking to
people I know and who they paid to take their wedding pictures.

8. What size market are you working in? i.e. Do you have to travel
extensively to get commissions or are you in a big enough centre to
remain locally based?
They do travel but not much. Again we live in a huge city.


9. What kind of output do you provide your customers? i.e. do you simply
provide prints or do you also compile their albums in addition to other
offerings, such as CD ROMs, video, etc.
Depend on the packages. Again google for package info. In our case,
for $4500 we got 6 hrs, 2 photographers, 1 24-page 11x14
"story-teller-style" flush print (seem to be the trend here) album, all
original images on DVD. Comparatively, this is a "good" deal. Other
photographers won't give us the originals so they can make some extra
bucks each time we need reprints.


10. What format equipment have you chosen and why?
Most of them using digital cameras (Canon actually). We talked to about
a dozen and only one use film and this was the one with the $15000
package (their porfolio was pretty impressive though. Celebrities'
weddings, important govermental meetings, etc).

And most important, work on the brides. They are the ones who are more
willing to spend big $$$ on photos, cakes, dresses, etc.

wrote in message
oups.com...
I've always wanted to go into divorce photography....



In all the years I've been around the newsgroups, that is the first funny
thing I've ever seen you say...

--
Skip Middleton
http://www.shadowcatcherimagery.com

"BigPix" wrote in message
...


"DD" wrote in message
...
I'm interested in hearing from people around the world on their thoughts
regarding choosing wedding photography as a vocation. If you could take
a moment to answer these questions, I would be most appreciative of your
input.

You can't be serious, Dallas.
Do you really expect anyone to tell you this sort of information about
their business?

For every 100 people with cameras who call themselves "Wedding
Photographers" there are about 8 who actually are. Of those 8, maybe 2,
actually make their living doing it without needing to have their spouse
go to work to support them or have their "real" business fund the pretend
one.

That would be why I haven't quit my day job. My wife's cousin did it the
other way, quit his job as a photo assistant for several photogs, started
his own business, and, after nearly 10 years at it, finally is making it not
just pay for itself, but he's getting ahead. Way ahead.
OTOH, our wedding business funds itself, but what it doesn't have to do is
fund the mortgage, car, Christmas, etc.
--
Skip Middleton
http://www.shadowcatcherimagery.com

You can make more $$$ shooting boudoir....+ sometimes the fringe
benefits are better...much better!

wrote in message
oups.com...
I've always wanted to go into divorce photography....

This can be a very lucrative business....but they call themselves Private
Investigators.......

On Mon, 05 Dec 2005 21:58:24 GMT, "BigPix"
wrote:



"DD" wrote in message
.. .
I'm interested in hearing from people around the world on their thoughts
regarding choosing wedding photography as a vocation. If you could take
a moment to answer these questions, I would be most appreciative of your
input.

You can't be serious, Dallas.
Do you really expect anyone to tell you this sort of information about their
business?

For every 100 people with cameras who call themselves "Wedding
Photographers" there are about 8 who actually are. Of those 8, maybe 2,
actually make their living doing it without needing to have their spouse go
to work to support them or have their "real" business fund the pretend one.
How many "Wedding Photographers" do you know who have a barn full of props
for when the weather turns fowl or the ceremony is overrun by gate crashers?
For that matter, how many do you know with a wedding garden where they can
control the lighting for beautiful portraits? Maybe a private jetty for
those sunset shots over water? hmm? Money Dallas, it separates those who do
from those who want. You only get it by charging prices that look like an
exercise in algebra!

There would be no other business in the world where so many participants
have so few qualifications and credit card balances that look like serial
numbers to fund the purchase of the next flavour of the month camera and
still try to claim they are somehow "Professional Photographers". When I
obtained my qualifications, I served an apprenticeship for 7 years and got a
piece of paper in 1962 proclaiming I was a "tradesman Photographer". I also
got fired because I then qualified for full pay rates. I stole my ex boss's
booking diary and proceeded to undercut him on price for the next 2 years.
Then I sold my camera to pay the rent because I just learnt the first lesson
of business. - It's not about getting work, it's about money and getting
paid.


Consider yourself lucky you didn't get indicted for fraud.
-Rich

"uw wayne" wrote in message
oups.com...
You can make more $$$ shooting boudoir....+ sometimes the fringe
benefits are better...much better!

Until word gets around, then, for some reason, business dries up...
And you can't really make more money at boudoir, just stay busier.

--
Skip Middleton
http://www.shadowcatcherimagery.com

Skip, it was my attempt at a little humor. I was only kidding. Very
nice material on shadow...Thanks for sharing, uw_w.

"uw wayne" wrote in message
oups.com...
Skip, it was my attempt at a little humor. I was only kidding. Very
nice material on shadow...Thanks for sharing, uw_w.

Sorry, missed the humor, that, upon re-reading, was, at least, catchable!
G
I just had a prolonged discussion with someone, person to person, on that
very subject, but in a serious vein, so my humor was a little impaired at
that point.
And thanks for the kind words!
--
Skip Middleton
http://www.shadowcatcherimagery.com

In article ,
p says...

snip

Douglas, if you don't want to answer the questions (which I might add
are pretty innocuous), ignore them.

Simple really.

--
DD
www.dallasdahms.com
Central Scrutinizer