Clients, enjoy the photos- sorry if you don't understand/care about the text :) I officially started shooting weddings in the summer of 2005. I was interning at a studio in Hollywood and met the person who would teach me almost everything I know about weddings today, Laura Grier. I was still in school, California State Long Beach, studying away to get my degree in Fine Art Photography, and was looking for a fun, creative way to make some money on the side of my other almost full time job at A&I Photographic....
I've been getting a lot of questions from people recently about how/when I started.... I can't tell you that it hit me one day that I was supposed to do this, or that I've always wanted to shoot weddings, or even that weddings are what I'll be shooting 10 years down the road. I can tell you this though, it was years of trial and error, experience, and about 5 photo jobs down the line.....To give you an idea of my timeline, I started shooting for Laura in 2005 and didn't start my own photo business until 2007. I 2nd shot for 3 years while still going to college for photography, worked at a pro-photo lab called A&I for 3+ years, interned at a some pro photographers-studios, and worked for the art department of a CondeNast Magazine all before deciding to do this full time.
The industry needs to start being honest. Businesses don't grow over night and photography is a learned skill. The most important thing about your work is the happiness of your clients. Let's all start focusing on our own work, shall we? In order to dive back into how I felt about weddings when I first started shooting I recently dug out a bunch of prints from the first wedding I ever photographed. I don't have many of the images because they were on film and the negatives were not mine to keep since I was 2nd shooting but I was able to snag a few prints for my portfolio at the time and I'm so glad I kept 'em.
I've learned a lot since then- pretty sure most of these were shot at around F8 but I don't think I did so bad?
