Kathy + Manny // Yucaipa, CA

If someone had told me a year ago that I would be a full-time wedding photographer, showing up at people’s homes and venues, and photographing their day for them, I would have told them that they were crazy. I never thought, in a million years, that I would be a wedding photographer, because of how difficult I thought it was to break into.

The truth is, it’s not that hard to become a wedding photographer. Photographing weddings are tricky, but actually becoming one isn’t hard. The trick is to find friends + family who are getting married, scour the Internet for people in your area who want smaller, intimate weddings, or work as a second shooter at weddings to develop the confidence you need to become a full-time wedding photographer.

It’s weddings like Kathy and Manny’s, where it was just their closest friends + family in the backyard at Kathy’s sister’s house, and only about an hour of photography shoot time to fit in first looks, first dances, cake cutting, and everything in between, that remind me of my earliest days as a wedding photographer. I started with backyard weddings, small receptions, and intimate venues. It is a reminder that even though I now regularly photograph weddings with 400+ people, going back to where it all began, and photographing the true heart of a wedding, can make for the most meaningful set of images. Because even if you are only photographing for an hour in someone’s backyard, literally knowing no one, you can still capture authentic moments and tell a story of the day.

It’s not about the amount of time that you spend with someone, it is about the quality of that time.

Laura PerkinsComment