I am an artist, the camera is my medium and photography is my tool.
Recently, I was approached by a local magazine to provide some insight into my wedding business and one of the question I was asked was this: “What sets you apart from the typical wedding photographer?”. This was my response.
As a professional wedding photographer, if asked what I do differently from the industry standards, the most obvious answer that comes to my mind is my unique wedding photography style. Yet, if i want to be honest, the true answer is “almost everything”. Before diving into what’s behind this bold claim, I’d like to start by clarifying that where I come from on this subject is not a place of rebellion or antipathy. I’m not intentional about not conforming to widely accepted ways of doing business. Neither do I mean it a as statement of exclusivity. I deeply respect that common practices adopted by the industry have long been refined and established by many talented and successful photography business owners before me. However, my approach on this topic is more of a personal life philosophy that extends to the way I do business. In a nutshell, I have a very entrenched vision of how human interactions in life should ideally be, and I apply them in the way I do business.
As in life, in business I mostly care to be true – true to myself and my creative instincts, true to the story I’m telling through my photography, be it that of a human subject, an event or an inanimate object, true to the art of photography, and true to what it takes to deliver on what’s promised to a client. It should come as no surprise that this philosophy does not always prioritize the bottom line.
In an ever-changing industry that keeps leaning more and more towards promoting the easy and the convenient, the challenge of reconciling may artistic wedding photography style and truth in service with profitability is growing by the day. Fortunately, as a creative business owner who has come to the decision that the former is much more important than the latter, I am unburdened by the dichotomy.
My experience has taught me that staying true to my art and true in conducting business keeps both my clients and me happy. However, the qualification here is that these clients have to be like me, seeking the art and the truth in storytelling. These are the clients that are not in search for easy bundles of wedding services that offer all the convenience and none of the creativity and the personalized service. They are the sentimental brides and grooms who are in search of a wedding photographer to trust in capturing all the worthy moments of their wedding day truthfully and artfully. They are investing in a wedding ‘storybook’ to cherish for as long as they desire and they need to choose carefully.
To those clients, easy and convenient won’t cut if they are left with no finely captured memories to let them relive the precious and fleeting moments of their wedding day. As long as these discerning couples are out there, my business model thrives and my philosophy will remain untethered to common industry standards that can only bind me in a never-ending chase of the next smart way of generating volume and boosting the bottom line.
Looking back at the hundreds of wedding couples I have worked with, the lasting connections I have built with many of them and the multitude of heartwarming testimonials they have generously left me along the way, I am more convinced than ever that just like a wedding couple find each other, the right clients will find me if my brand and what I offer matches their vision.
Award winning Dallas wedding photographer | Photojournalistic wedding photography | Intimate wedding photography | Unique wedding photography
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