Lessons
Class Introduction
04:14 2Why Do You Want to be a Wedding Photographer?
05:15 3What Gear Do You Need to Start Your Photography Business
21:29 4What Do You Need to Learn About Photography Before Starting
24:29 5How to Gain Wedding Photography Experience
09:44 6What To Expect When Shooting a Wedding
20:17 7How to Prepare to Shoot a Wedding
22:04 8How to Transition From a Photography Hobby to a Business
13:30Lesson Info
Class Introduction
Hi guys. I'm susan stripling and this is the wedding photography starter kit. This is for all of you out there who've never shot a wedding or thinking of shooting your first wedding or considering being a wedding photographer or maybe our brand new in business. Hopefully this will give you a good primer as to what the world of wedding photography is light and hopefully you enjoy it. So without further ado, let's get started. I want to give you a little background on me so that you know who I am and where I'm coming from and why I'm here teaching you wedding photography. Like I said, my name is susan stripling. This is me. Those are my daughters is beautiful photograph by creative live instructor su bryce, who is amazing. I have been a wedding photographer for fourteen years. I did not go to school for wedding photography. There will be a lot of people out there who will tell you o to be a wedding photographer. You have to go to college for it, or you have to have a degree in it, and I'...
m here to tell you that you definitely don't most of my friends and I in the wedding photography world, actually, you're not formally educated as photographers, I have a bachelor of fine arts in theatre and a minor in dance which prepared me to do pretty much nothing eso while I was doing pretty much nothing, I was temping I had been waiting tables I was a stay at home mom to my oldest daughter when she was very young uh colleague of my husband at the time was getting married and she didn't really have the money to hire a wedding photographer, and she was looking for someone to just take pictures at her wedding. She wasn't looking for a professional to be very clear, this was the type of client was never going to hire a fifteen hundred dollar wedding photographer or a five thousand dollar wedding photographer. She just wanted a friend with a good camera to take some pictures for her, and she knew that I liked to take pictures of my daughter. I'd taken some pictures here and there with a point and shoot camera for their company website, and she asked me, hey, do you want to shoot my wedding? And I said, yeah, it sounds like a great idea and then I promptly went home and said, what did I just agree to do? I just I volunteered to shoot somebody's wedding I'm not a photographer, I have no idea what I'm doing well, I had six months between that date and the date of the wedding to start educating myself about photography and I got online and I started reading and I went to the bookstore and I bought books and in those six months I learned that I didn't really know what I was doing and that the best thing that I could do when I went to that wedding was not to try anything too complicated so I went out with a very limited amount of gear with a very limited set of skills, but I knew I knew where my limitations were, so I shot the wedding as best I could I delivered the pictures to her she loved them, her friends love them. Some of her friends called me and said, hey, we're getting married too we shoot our wedding and I said no, no, no wait this was like just a favor for jess here I'm not actually a wedding photographer and they said, well do for us what you did for her and we're gonna be super happy so that's sort of where that got started I did a few weddings for friends and friends of friends and then I thought maybe this would be a really fun part time job so I signed up to display at a bridal fair at the time I was living in tallahassee, florida, and I went to the bridal fair and I picked up enough clients to fill my first year of business did about twelve weddings ish my first year and the first year, I was just thinking this could be a fun part time job, I thought, oh, I'll just work on the weekends and it's gonna be great, and I really quickly learned that even on a part time level, this wasn't just a job that you did on the weekends. This is a full time job and a very small component of it actually happened on the weekends. So after about a year, year and a half of doing this part time, I sat down and I looked at my skills and I said, you know, I'm getting much better at this. I think maybe this could be a full time job. I think there might actually be a career here, so there was about a year we're in, I was taking it from part time to full time, and I'm going to talk to you sort of about what those steps were to take it from one place to another, and then after I'd been in business for about two and a half years, started working really hard on my skills, improving my ability as a photographer, and like I said, I've been here for fourteen years, and I have no plans on stopping any time soon.
Ratings and Reviews
Laura Bellamy
Honestly, I thought this was a great and pretty informative, all-encompassing course. Great for beginners, but even as a slightly more seasoned photographer, I found a lot of this super helpful. Much of it wasn't news to me, but a lot of it I found just hasn't been on my radar recently. I think it's always a good idea to return to basics every now and then. There is always more to learn, and I feel I can definitely learn from someone with a great deal more experience than myself. As soon as I can afford it, I'll be buying more of her courses, I respond to her very well!
Sean
Fantastic Course. Susan is well prepared, very informative and very entertaining. She puts it all out there. She is 100% a PRO. She was fun to watch and she makes beautiful images.
Larissa Jean
I honestly love this class. I'm just starting out as a photographer, and like she said, a friend's wedding just sort of fell into my lap. I had no intentions of trying to photograph any weddings this first year of learning, but I was persuaded by the fact that my friend really just wants photos to look back at. This class is helping me get prepared, it's making me feel more confident, and it's teaching me things that I didn't know or was very unsure about. If you are new in your photography venture like I am, I would highly recommend this class!
Student Work
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Wedding Photography