are you trying to get into wedding photography but nobody wants to hire you
because you don't have any experience you never did any weddings before what
if I told you there's a way for you to get the experience that you need while
still actually getting paid to do it? stick around! a lot of people have been
asking me on the channel hey Jonathan how can I get paid to do weddings but I
don't have experience! actually they haven't been asking me that on my
channel this is a fairly new Channel and I don't have a ton of subscribers yet
well you can help me with that by hitting subscribe now and the
notification bell ...back to the question I've seen people ask that question many
times and this is something that I struggle with a lot when I was just
starting off as a wedding photographer I wanted to get into weddings I want to
start doing weddings but at the same time I was a little bit worried if I was
to actually be hired what am I going to do?
sure I checked out online I looked at tutorials, read articles, looked at videos
but looking at videos online is very different from actually applying
something and making it become a skill. so I really was not that confident in going
out there and leading the wedding photography at somebody's big day what if
I miss something very important that couldn't really be recreated like
the exchanging of wedding rings what do I tell the bride and groom? do I tell
them that sorry I missed your shot can you please just exchange rings again?
I wasn't paying attention or I didn't know what I was doing this is my first
wedding! or maybe I was looking at one of the bridesmaids first let's take a look
at the problem first thing is that nobody knows who you are! wait please don't leave
hear me out it! You can't be referred to by past clients or current clients because
you don't have any! even if you had a friend was to put you on to somebody who
is actually getting married and they mentioned your name
they'd be like ...who? okay I'm done I promise! the next thing is that you are not
confident as a wedding photographer hmm I wonder why is that! maybe it's because
you never did any weddings before some people can fake it really well and
look like they know what they're doing ...I am NOT one of those
people. I need to know what I'm doing ...you just submit your pictures and we tell
the angry bride asks you what happened to the other half of the wedding did you
fall asleep? where all my pictures? the next thing is that you don't have
experience as a wedding photographer... that actually sounds like the point before
but it's different! you don't know what to expect when you're shooting a wedding
for the first time sure you've been to weddings before but you most likely
would have been attending weddings you wouldn't have been thinking about it
then as the photographer you'd have been a guest so you would not have been
thinking of this shot is coming up next this is going to happen next so you need
to be in this position thinking about that versus what time dinner is going
to be served and that's something I'm always thinking about ...the next thing is that
you don't have anything to show for it okay let's say a friend actually puts
you on to somebody and they want to have a conversation with you ...what if they ask
you what was the last wedding that you did? can i see some of the pictures? where
where was the venue? was it indoor or outdoor?
do you have a page? I can take a look at Facebook page and Instagram page? or your
website where I can see more information about you and your photography brand? or
what did they ask you something like we want to make sure that we don't miss any
family members in the family portrait session of the wedding we have a big
family and some people are visiting from different countries what can we do to
ensure that we don't have any mistakes that nobody gets left out what what are
you gonna say? yes! okay now on to the last point nobody knows you... definitely
said that already okay so how do we fix this? how do you get that experience? get
known? build a portfolio how do we do this without actually booking our
wedding yourself as the main photographer? the mean shooter? it's by getting hired
to be the second shooter the shooter! number two
well not number two the second shooter let's stick with that so what is a
second shooter? basically you work alongside another photographer at
weddings where this photographer would already have a client and hire you to be
the person that gets different types of shots this can range from getting the
creative shots at the wedding getting the spur of the moment or can be a
huge wedding way he or she can't be in all the places at once and need somebody
else to cover different parts of the event in some cases a second shoot that
could be hired to cover the main aspects of the ceremony reception
what is that getting a different perspective the type of shots that was
important to the bride and groom at some of the weddings I did as a second
shooter as well as some of the weddings where I hired a second shooter was
getting the two different perspectives when the bride is walking towards the groom
in the ceremony I would position myself to get the
Bride reaction when she sees the groom for the first time and I would have the
second shooter get the groom's reaction just over the shoulder the bride when
they see each other for the first time know this approach the pressures off a
lot you are not the point of contact with the client
I was not leading the wedding photography this way I was able to take
a step back and focus on learning and experiencing what it's like from
beginning to end so that when I'm actually booking my own weddings I would
know what I'm getting into and it was very helpful for that and I
got paid to learn! sure it wasn't the same price that I would make if I booked the
wedding myself but it helped me to do that much sooner and to charge a premium
price as well I thought this was a quickest way of getting the experience
that I needed getting a portfolio quickly and make some money while I was
actually doing that but how can you get started quickly I'm sure that you know
at least one wedding photographer or know somebody who knows a wedding
photographer reach out to them and let them know that you want to get into
weddings and you are photographer show them what you can do already and
negotiate your price well let's say you don't know anybody take a look on social
media and you must find some wedding photographers in your area and then
can see in their portfolio how often they do weddings and simply reach out to
them but separate from the money separate from making some money on the
side how can being a second shooter actually benefit you what it did for me
the first client that I met with apt I did a few weddings as a second shooter I
was able to easily answer the questions that they had and ask a lot of the
relevant questions because I needed information about their wedding before I
can quote them properly I was able to advise them on things that they should
be doing and arranging for the wedding and to make sure that they get the most
out of their wedding photography but even more than that I got to actually
bond with them and build that rapport build trust and really got that chance
for us to get comfortable with each other and I was able to do that because
I didn't have to think about the technical aspect of it and I could
have done that now because of the little experience that I got as a second
shooter. I didn't have to think about everything wedding photography that I
didn't know about. At the time I was by no means an expert but I knew
more than enough information to get start booking my own weddings. I'm
hoping that you can use this information and get started yourself now if you ever
did weddings before as a second shooter or have some questions related
to being a second shooter let me know in the comments down below. so how about you
get started? what's stopping you? get paid to learn then book your own weddings! and
what's the worst thing that can happen? you make some extra money on the side...?
I'll see you in the next video!