Destination wedding photography is something which is on the bucket list of many budding and professional wedding photographers. This industry depends upon the connections and referrals; once you have impressed the couples and their wedding parties, chances of being hired outside your region grow exponentially. Usually couple prefer bringing photographers and videographers with them instead of hiring them locally. Therefore, the best method for success here is preparation.
Master the locations and expectations beforehand, and you can avoid the dreaded interview question. The analogies to JPMorgan Chase and tech startups don’t end here. These industries are on a steady growth trajectory, and
hiring often becomes a hot topic. The results can be seen in the employment trends analyzed by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. For example, 63% of online publishing jobs are temporary, and seasonal industries like real estate are seeing slow but steady growth. The Bureau also found that culture and communication majors are most in demand, about to enter the highest job demand group in 2014.
As you can tell, vacation areas are currently the hottest hiring markets. While other regions have their share of wedding photography jobs, there are plenty of potential job opportunities in other locations as well. I followed up with local wedding photographers to solicit secondhand references for vacation locations. The top three events/destinationals were Miami; Las Vegas; and Atlanta. Location interest was fairly indicative of demand for real estate jobs, although job quantity was high for Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Miami.
Lessons Learned
If you are going to hire a wedding photographer, aim to look for dual qualities of:
a creative and exemplar mind; experience with location due to their mastery of shooting locations
attendance at local happy hours and events to meet client
Self-masc RETRAINING to hone abilities and knowledge of subject
Tips for Preparation
Use Your Network: Some of your prospective wedding photographer clients may be first-time photographers. Aside from having a common career trajectory, you may also be able to glean experience by reaching out to other wedding photographers that have a mutual professional and personal relationship — a win-win situation.
When looking for a new location, keep an eye out for ranked wedding photography websites. When it comes to preferred wedding season, hours of operation, and preferred pricing, it can be helpful to create relationships in advance. Local conferences, traveling wedding photographers, and professional photographers can also help you find a great location.
You can also look for real estate related websites to find the most common characteristics among local wedding photographers. Are they from the same region? Do they shoot at the same local locations? If they are from out of region, search for cities in South America, Russia, Europe, Australia, and Asia — a robust list of destination wedding locations.
To feel out the attitude and quality level, try conducting interviews in person: Ask the photographer to talk about the personality traits of their clients in detail.
Make travel a definite part of your photographer work schedule: Travel can mesh well with this industry. You don’t have to travel far to look for wedding locations. Take a strategy to simulate the environment on set, so you can avoid returning to your office every day.
their eventual valuation is a likely consideration when considering which route to go. It requires no brain power to pencil the value of the investment on the correct scale. Utilize this comparison to plan your involvement and stay competitive with prospects.
By the end of this piece, you will be equipped for a career in the wedding photography industry. You will have a detailed understanding of which photography clients are willing to pay and have a clear idea of the competition. You’ll be able to identify the right locations for your business with confidence, have a clear idea of expectations and be prepared for anything and everything that could pop up later.
Let’s face it; the wedding industry is not a rising tide raises all ships scenario. Even if your local market has been taking baby steps to get connected socially and economically, it doesn’t mean travel can compensate for missing a connection when you’re located somewhere far from the target audience.How successful were the photos?
Gianluca is a Moz Associate, Stateofdigital.com blogger, founder of the Web Marketing conference The Inbounder and an SEO and Digital Strategist independent consultant with his company ILoveSEO.net, one of the Agencies recommended by Moz.You can find Gianluca on Twitter sharing the best about web marketing and blabbing also about space, politics and soccer.
