How Competitive Is YOUR Job?

Recently, I attended a family wedding in which I was not the official photographer. I was a guest. It felt good to be at a wedding and not have to work it. I didn't even bring my huge Nikon camera with me. A small "point and shoot" camera is all that accompanied me that day.

While I was there, several people came up to me to ask why I wasn't photographing the wedding. "I wasn't asked to," was my answer. Plain and simple... I wasn't asked, so I didn't shoot.

There were three photographers who were there in an official capacity, however. With about 700 people in attendance at the wedding, it was a HUGE wedding. Not surprisingly, people kept asking me what I thought about the other photographers. What was I supposed to say in response to that? Everyone does things differently. So all I could say was, "It's different than how I would approach it." Good or bad, it was just different.

Interestingly, while speaking with one of my friends at the wedding, he mentioned that his son was considering a possible career as a wedding photographer. So I asked my friend, "What do you think of that?" He replied, "I don't know. Can you make a living at it?" I thought that was an interesting response, so I said, "Well, I'm still alive, aren't I?"

Really, what he meant was that wedding photography is SO COMPETITIVE that it has got to be a difficult thing to try to make a living as a wedding photographer. He's right on that one. If you go to any wedding website and look at how many photographers are listed in the Chicago area, you'd be amazed. There are literally hundreds of people who consider themselves a wedding photographer. And they are all separate companies too! It's not like some industries where hundreds of people work in the same company. We're talking individual entrepreneurs... all of them!

Granted, most of these people are part-time photographers. Many don't book more than perhaps a couple of weddings a year. Some are lucky to get one a year. Still, they are listed as a professional wedding photographer. It seems everyone who buys a new digital single lens reflex camera (DSLR) is listing themselves as a professional wedding photographer or at least thinking of becoming one.

My friend said, "There's got to be more to making it in photography than just photography." He's right. To make it in this business, you need to know about marketing, sales, advertising and everything else that other businesses need to know in order to succeed. Just believing you can take a good photograph doesn't make you a successful wedding photographer. Oh, and "people skills" are super important in this business too. You'd better be a "people-person" if you want to be a wedding photographer. Nobody wants a "grouch" at their wedding!

So is wedding photography competitive? You better believe it! Only the best survive. Many people come and go in this industry. For me, I started shooting weddings since 1990. I've been a professional photographer for a long time. It's been tough, but it's also been rewarding. Not many people can truly say they like the industry they are in. But I can say that about weddings and photography... even when I'm not shooting it!