HOW I STARTED MY WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS

When people said they got to where they are in life or career “by accident”, I always envied that. How does an incredible career or opportunity just fall into someone’s lap without even trying? But everytime I’m asked about my business, I realize that maybe growing a successful wedding photography business didn’t happen by accident, but photography itself becoming what I do for a living was definitely just that.

It was the summer of 2015, fresh out of high school at the ripe age of 18. While wrestling with the decision of what career I would dedicate my life to and picking a major, I enrolled in community college while I still lived at home with my parents. I decided that instead of continuing to bag groceries at Raley’s, I wanted to do something a little more fun and creative. I had been playing around with my first camera for about a year or so (the Canon Rebel that I split with my parents as a birthday gift) and apparently thought that my portfolio of friends on spring break and artsy landscapes was impressive enough to get me somewhere. So I called up a local husband and wife team and asked them if they were hiring. They answered with “we don’t necessarily hire people as employees, but you can come over and meet us and we can see from there.” So I did, and they took me under their wing. I began shooting weddings with them, as a third or often fourth photographer/ assistant for about 2 years, they eventually gave me my own work as an associate to their brand, where I would give them a percentage of each booking I took.

At this point, I had transferred from my community college to San Francisco State pursuing a bachelors degree in Communication Studies, a choice I made to allow me to keep my options open for career, which at the time I would have told you I was going to become a teacher, then maybe go into radio or broadcast journalism, which then turned more into film… as I began to realize that becoming an adult would require me to give up a lot of freedom and creativity, the parts of life I longed for the most. Meanwhile I began to fall deeper in love with photography, started gaining a clientele of my own and more experience specifically in weddings. I started to find a more creative style that I liked and made the scary leap to leave the associate team I was a part of and start my own business…right in the middle of commuting to 8am classes, during 18 unit semesters and having other part-time jobs in the city like working at a dress shop on Union Street. I still don’t know how I did it, with nothing more than a coffee addiction. I would be in class “taking notes” on my laptop, which looked more like answering emails, editing galleries and building newer and better iterations of my website. Before I knew it, I was walking across the field at the Giant’s stadium getting my Bachelors of Arts in Communication Studies and shooting 30 weddings in the same year, and each year after that, turning my college hustle into my full-time career.

I never would have told you I wanted to be a wedding photographer, but it found me, through my love for creativity, passion in figuring out how to build and run a business and freedom in making my own schedule. It is a combination of so many things I love and value and I am beyond grateful that it found me, merely by accident.