Field Lovers

As of right now, I don’t have any foreign destination weddings planned for 2013. I did have one penciled in for Morocco but the venue provided a photographer, so I’m sticking around here. And that’s not a bad thing. I’m taking off May and June since our son is due in late May and don’t know what kind of time commitment having a newborn is going to require. Sure I’d love to spend 100% of my time with my new son, but photography also pays a lot of bills, so there has to be a balance. While Destination Weddings are fun, they don’t typically pay as much as they should. Sure you’re getting to travel somewhere, usually fun and beautiful, but if you think about it, it’s also requiring you to be away from your family and local surroundings for several days. Assuming the couple pays for your flight, hotel and car, you still have to manage food for all those days as well as parking at the airport, etc, etc. Doing a wedding/gig shouldn’t cost the photographer money. And if you’re gone for a Thursday-Sunday, those are all days you’re not able to book any other gigs either. So do you charge them 4 full days? Tough call. This was Canada last year. As much as I make fun of Canada, I had a pretty good time. This was one of my favorite engagement photos of the year, especially because seconds after taking this, the owner of the property came up and asked why I had two kids in his field of barley. “Why would you want pictures of people kissing in a field of barley?????” and he sped off.