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ayesane
Guest
135 f/2 HAS to be your next lens purchase Ross.. not good on a crop (I knaa, I bought one) but it is possibly the greatest lens ever designed for IQ on FF.
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135 f/2 HAS to be your next lens purchase Ross.. not good on a crop (I knaa, I bought one) but it is possibly the greatest lens ever designed for IQ on FF.
It probably will be due to the increase in length and the ridiculous sharpness. I am a fan of primes speed and IQ
I'll probably wait till May time though, meant to be buying a house in the next couple of months!
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ayesane
Guest
your lass coming the neet? out I should keep quiet?
Aye, nor she knows I'm getting it!
My Left Foot
Winger
Congrats on the 5D iii. As for full frame being just for pro's etc I think that's a load of bollocks
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ajax_andy
Guest
Congrats on the 5D iii. As for full frame being just for pro's etc I think that's a load of bollocks
Haha thanks and yeah I did also say if you have the cash then why the hell not
I'm just jealous because the only way I can afford this kind of thing is by busting my ass 75 hours a week in order to pay for it
Do you have a day job or are you full time wedding tog?Haha thanks and yeah I did also say if you have the cash then why the hell not
I'm just jealous because the only way I can afford this kind of thing is by busting my ass 75 hours a week in order to pay for it
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ajax_andy
Guest
Day job working 37.5 hours a week... then on average 20 hours a week doing the photography business on top, with up to 35-40 during wedding season.
Basically if I aint working or sleeping I'm either shooting, editing or doing general admin stuff
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ayesane
Guest
nearly as rich as you....
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ayesane
Guest
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ajax_andy
Guest
Haha I wish!
So far it's cost me about £10k to set up the business and once I have all my money in from bookings coming up later this year + a further few business costs I'll just about have broken even.
So neither minted nor broke... about where I started a 18 months ago but with lots of nice equipment to show for it.
Next year should be the real money spinner though as reckon I'll be turning over £10k - £15k with little outgoings compared to the last 18 months
mackembulldog
Striker
Is wedding photography a decent enough earner??? Id always thought it wasn't and that if you feel you can do it, anyone can...
What the brother in law paid for his wedding photographer was a right piss-take, considering, all he got was a DVD of shitty looking shots (imo)
What the brother in law paid for his wedding photographer was a right piss-take, considering, all he got was a DVD of shitty looking shots (imo)
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ajax_andy
Guest
It's ok... I'm kind of just building up the business so fairly cheap still compared to some, but am aiming to put my prices up a little every year to eventually earn enough from it... I don't just plan on doing weddings though tbh, I'd find that a bit boring and so the plan is to branch out in to doing more commercial stuff once I quit the 9-5 day job.
Prices at the moment for me are:
Bride getting ready to (and inc) speeches - £550
Bride getting read to (and inc) 1st dance - £800
All day and night (max 14 hours) + wedding album - £1200
All the above get a disk of high res images in their package, and all but the 1st get a pre-wedding shoot too. Albums cost £300, prints from £5 - £12.50 depending on size.
I reckon if I can up my prices and just have 2 options:
6 hours - £1000
12 hours - £1600
wedding albums are extra on top of that then get 10 bookings for each package a year that'll net me £26,000 a year + commercial and family shoots on top taking me well in to the £30k a year bracket.
Of course I may never get there but that's the rough plan and aim I have for the future
the_local_jacko
Central Defender
Good on you mate. I think theres many of us who envy the position of making a living from our hobby. Im interested to know how you got the whole thing in motion? Did serve an apprenticeship as a second shooter, do some workshops/ private tuition or just throw yourself into the deep end?
mackembulldog
Striker
Yeah this... Ive often thought about trying to sit on the tails of a 'proper' wedding photographer
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ajax_andy
Guest
Tbh I just kind of threw myself in at the deep end. I'd never even held a DSLR until I bought a Canon 450D in Oct 2010, never done any reading up on photography or classes etc. I'd had a Sony Cybershot for a few years and after initially just taking it on nights out etc started taking pics on holiday etc of scenery and got some surprisingly good results.
Decided to buy the DSLR and the journey began. I started just doing some 'model' shoots using my wife at first and then after a couple of months posted on Gumtree asking if anyone wanted an assistant to help out with weddings. A couple got in touch and said 'instead of getting experience assistaing why don't you shoot our wedding for free?'... so I did that and then did a shoot with a model who was looking to update his portfolio, then just other bits n bobs like a couples shoot (they'd posted on gumtree asking for someone to do one) and then another wedding.
Each time I just learnt a bit along the way but obviously after only a year I had made loads of mistakes but luckily everyone had been happy with the pics they'd received. Then last year (mainly because I was very cheap) I got to do a shit load of stuff and shot everything from Architecture photography for Northumbria Uni, Model Shoots, Weddings, British Superbike Riders and loads more. I didn't make much (about £4k) but got a great amount of experience and it boosted my portfolio beyond what I could have hoped.
Here's a link to some of last years work if you're interested:
http://andyhudsonphotography.blogspot.co.uk/#!/2013/01/2012-highlights-from-amazing-year.html
So really I just jumped in and luckily didn't sink... although I'm the kind of person who's driven by a fear of failure, so I in some perverse way always work better this way. I wouldn't recommend it as the right way for everyone to do it, but if you can handle it there's no better way to learn and improve than having to deliver no matter what.
This year so far I'm on course to make twice as much doing about half as much work, so hopefully I can keep building up steadily towards that goal of being a full time tog.
Hope that makes sense and I haven't just waffled on for ages about nothing
Oh and just to confirm I've never been an assistant or done any classes.
The internet is an amazing source of information and pretty much everything I've learnt has been done so via forums such as Digital Photography School and Talk Photography.
I posted loads of pics when I was 1st learning for critique and got loads of feedback about what was wrong with them... it was hard to hear at first but I quickly learnt to embrace it as it helped me learn an incredible amount.
mackembulldog
Striker
Tbh I just kind of threw myself in at the deep end. I'd never even held a DSLR until I bought a Canon 450D in Oct 2010, never done any reading up on photography or classes etc. I'd had a Sony Cybershot for a few years and after initially just taking it on nights out etc started taking pics on holiday etc of scenery and got some surprisingly good results.
Decided to buy the DSLR and the journey began. I started just doing some 'model' shoots using my wife at first and then after a couple of months posted on Gumtree asking if anyone wanted an assistant to help out with weddings. A couple got in touch and said 'instead of getting experience assistaing why don't you shoot our wedding for free?'... so I did that and then did a shoot with a model who was looking to update his portfolio, then just other bits n bobs like a couples shoot (they'd posted on gumtree asking for someone to do one) and then another wedding.
Each time I just learnt a bit along the way but obviously after only a year I had made loads of mistakes but luckily everyone had been happy with the pics they'd received. Then last year (mainly because I was very cheap) I got to do a shit load of stuff and shot everything from Architecture photography for Northumbria Uni, Model Shoots, Weddings, British Superbike Riders and loads more. I didn't make much (about £4k) but got a great amount of experience and it boosted my portfolio beyond what I could have hoped.
Here's a link to some of last years work if you're interested:
http://andyhudsonphotography.blogspot.co.uk/#!/2013/01/2012-highlights-from-amazing-year.html
So really I just jumped in and luckily didn't sink... although I'm the kind of person who's driven by a fear of failure, so I in some perverse way always work better this way. I wouldn't recommend it as the right way for everyone to do it, but if you can handle it there's no better way to learn and improve than having to deliver no matter what.
This year so far I'm on course to make twice as much doing about half as much work, so hopefully I can keep building up steadily towards that goal of being a full time tog.
Hope that makes sense and I haven't just waffled on for ages about nothing
Oh and just to confirm I've never been an assistant or done any classes.
The internet is an amazing source of information and pretty much everything I've learnt has been done so via forums such as Digital Photography School and Talk Photography.
I posted loads of pics when I was 1st learning for critique and got loads of feedback about what was wrong with them... it was hard to hear at first but I quickly learnt to embrace it as it helped me learn an incredible amount.
Thanks Andy
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ajax_andy
Guest
something i keep telling Ayesane he should do.
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