I just cannot believe that 2011 is nearly over!! Has anyone else out there noticed how ridiculously fast this year has gone??? It’s been a huge year for me on so many levels. I broke down with burn out at the beginning of the year, picked myself back up again. I stopped drinking alcohol for 9 months which gave birth to the fact that I am no longer a smoker. I stopped biting my nails. I traveled to Madagascar and Hong Kong. I got engaged with Stu. And I worked. I worked alot.

Looking through a years worth of images is quite a reflective process. Going through all of these I am floored by just how lucky I am to do a job that I love so very much. More so, I realise how incredibly lucky I am to have such awesome clients. I wouldn’t have been able to make these pictures without wonderful clients!!!

2012 promises to be a cracker. We start the year off with a wedding in the Karoo which I am really excited about, then we are back at Netherwood which is one of my favorite venues. After that we head up to Clarens to photograph the wedding of a Springbok rugby player and his lovely lady and then we jet off to India for a wedding in Goa (yaaaaaaay!!!) And that is all before the mid February!  How exciting!

Thanks to everyone for everything and thanks to my friends and family  for not disowning me due to my workaholic tendencies!!! (that’s the problem with doing a job you love … sometimes its hard to stop doing it!!!)

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I have recently had a number of people call, mail and Facebook me to ask my advice about getting into the wedding industry and to find out what it is like to be a wedding photographer.

These people have ranged from photography students to people who enjoy photography as a hobby.

My answer is always the same. Wedding Photography is an insane amount of work and to do well you need to be creative, adaptable, technically sound, good with people and skilled at running your own business. It also helps to be a little obsessive! People seem to think it is an easy job or a way to make a quick buck and unfortunately it is this attitude, along with the digital revolution, that has resulted in a lot of fly-by-nights and wedding photography disasters.

I have therefore decided to write this post on what it is really like to be a full time professional wedding photographer. Please note that this is written from my own personal perspective, and I tend to be a workaholic who is constantly pushing myself to be better, do better and create more ….. Sometimes to the detriment of everything else!

I know there are wedding photographers out there who have it all figured out and have successful businesses, take amazing images and have a balanced personal life. I bow down to those photographers and wish I could be more like them. (By the way … I don’t really know any personally! Except for, maybe, one!)

I also know there are those photographers out there who are happy to deliver sub-standard work. I am not one of those.

So here we go.

What it is really like to be a wedding photographer?

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Stu and I recently got engaged and so now I am going to be on the other side of the camera!!! We are probably only going to get married in 2013 and we are slowly starting to work out what our priorities are. I decided to put a question out on facebook and the results were just too good not to share. I asked “Did you have any regrets about your wedding day?” Here’s what people had to say! Please feel free to add to this by adding a comment if the mood takes you.

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