It’s January 3rd, and I’m sure there are plenty of people out there that have made resolutions and already broken them, while I’m still writing about my 2016 Wedding Photography Goals. A few days ago I blogged about my first three goals, and today, I’m going to hit the next three.
2016 Wedding Photography Goals Pt 2
4. Stop Spending So Much Money!
Anyone that has looked into photography gear knows it’s an expensive world, but for professionals, it’s even worse. For me, a new lens or camera body will cost me $1000 to $5000. From my experience, though, that’s not how I normally burn through so much money. I tend to buy smaller things here and there- $100 for a new battery, $300 for a new softbox. All the small purchases add up. I feel like I’ve reached the point where I don’t need much more to perform. Of course, there are things I’d like to have, but as far as creating beautiful images or videos, I think I’m set. This year, my goal is to spend less than $1000 on gear. We’ll see if that happens.
5. Faster Turn Around
For those of you that don’t know, photography is my second job. I’ve been teaching for ten years now, and photography started out as a hobby. Over the years, though, it has grown and it really is a second job. The only problem is that I am limited on the time I can work on it. I can’t edit all day like other full time photographers. I have to wait till I get home from school and until my kids go to sleep, or the weekend, or vacation time (like now). Sometimes this makes my turn around a bit slow. I’m looking to improve my wedding turn around time to two weeks. To do this, I’ve got a few ideas. One, I don’t need to take on as many photos shoots. If I’ve taught all week, and then I have a family photo session on Saturday, I’ve found that I don’t have a lot of motivation for editing. I tend to focus on that shoot for the day. Second, I’m going to do less editing. Right now, I’ve been delivering 600-1000 images for weddings. That’s a bunch of images, probably too many to be honest. Now, I’m going to be doing more in the 200-400 range. This should free up some time.
6. Help Others
I already feel like I’m a pretty nice guy, but there’s more I can do to help others. I need to do more for the other wedding vendors. I could easily get photos from the events to these vendors to help them showcase their business, but I haven’t been. It’s not that I don’t want to, I just forget or by the time I get them done, it’s 3 months after the wedding. To fix this, I think emailing out these photos will be something I do a day or two after the shoot, maybe even before I start editing for the bride. I also want to help train/educate people about photography. These days everyone has a camera (phone), but most people have no idea what they are doing. The end result is mediocre to horrible photos. I’d like to help fix that. I’m going to continue my blogging to educate people like I have in the past, but in the future, I am aiming to have classes or create an educational video. The last group is those that are truly in need. I know photography is expensive, and it’s sad that some people truly can’t afford a photographer. I’d like to help these people out. There’s an organization called Help Portrait that does a yearly event where people can get free portraits. I’ve always wanted to help, but every year, I find myself already busy. This year, I’d like to block off that time, so I can help. Throughout the year, I’d also like to offer a certain amount of discounted or free portrait sessions and a free wedding to help out.
I’ve got one more set of goals to wrap up my 2016 Wedding Photography Goals. It will be coming out in a few more days. Thanks to those of you that have read so far. Feel free to give me your thoughts or ideas for other goals.
