Getting into the wedding business

[Ben H]

I did the same - I had a quick look through your site - very nice, you certainly seem to be a fairly skilled photographer from those images, anyway.

I would +1 the above advice. There are plenty of places to research (one of the good ones for wedding shooters is David Ziser's blog at DigitalProTallk.blogspot.com - plenty of images, and his "Analysis of a Wedding Shoot" blog series is great, as are his wedding training videos on KelbyTraining.com.

But research is research, and though it helps get prepared, actually doing it on the day (especially when you are new to the whole wedding thing) is I'm sure a *world* of difference.

Absolutely try and assist someone - for free if necessary, and get a few shoots under your belt until you are confident in what's required of you.

And good luck! Shooting weddings as a primary (or only) shooter is a weighty responsibility!

[mindforge]

I have been trying to get into wedding photography for some time. I am from California and most wedding photogs do not let people assist, they will not return emails about the subject most the time. They have their assistants and they do not want second shooters other than them because they don't want to train the competition.

Here is my advice. Find a wedding photographer a few hours drive away. At least out of the vicinity and competitive area you are in. Ask an out of area wedding photog to shoot for them, they are more likely to be receptive.

[phinizrl]

Scott Kelby is awesome! I have a couple of his books and they are really great, helpful and entertaining. I would love to sign up for his online course. Maybe I will.
going to read through "Analysis of a Wedding Shoot" right now. thank you very much for the advice on resources to look at.

And about contacting photographers with no luck, I had the same thought. But at the same time, those businesses that get booked solid a year or more in advance can't possibly be too worried about competition.