At the beginning of 2020, I had a diary full of weddings booked in for the coming year and beyond. By the middle of April, most of them had either been canceled or postponed due to the worsening pandemic. I was suddenly faced with the prospect of no work and a very empty diary. It's a familiar story for all the wedding photographers out there in the UK.
After I'd come to terms with the impact this would have on my business, I put my mind to turn the situation into a positive and began to think about the types of photography I could still offer during the pandemic. Good wedding photographers are highly skilled in several fields of photography which can easily be transferred into the commercial world. Throughout a typical wedding day, a wedding photographer might be shooting documentary reportage, couple and family portraits, wedding details, flowers, food, interiors, and exteriors. I realized that there were several types of photography that I could still do, even if weddings weren't taking place.
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Perhaps the most obvious next step for a wedding photographer is family photography. We are very familiar with interacting with parents and children on a wedding day and depending on a photographer's style this can work well for family shoots. I approach a family shoot in the same documentary style as I shoot weddings, aiming to capture moments and the relationships between people that create empathetic photographs that will be cherished. Although family shoots weren't possible in lockdown, once restrictions eased I was able to offer shoots outside. It's easy to distance and clients and photographer feel safe.
The next stage of pivoting my photography business was to shoot business headshots. As a wedding photographer, I am used to shooting bride and groom portraits and with a little tweak here and there, the leap to headshot photography isn't huge. Youtube is your friend for studying studio lighting techniques or just using natural light can be very effective. The principles of lighting and composition are the same whichever method you use. Throughout the last year, I found that headshots were in demand with lots of job seekers and companies looking to refresh their brand. In between lockdowns, studio headshots were popular but once these became impossible due to government restrictions, it was still possible to shoot socially distanced, natural light headshots outside.
I have been interested in food photography for a while and had worked on some techniques while shooting weddings. I shot a wedding for a groom who is a chef and a big part of the celebration for him was the food, which he wanted to be documented. I have given access to all areas of the kitchen and that was the beginning of my love of food photography. But instead of concentrating just on food, I decided to promote a complete photography service to restaurants and cafes, photographing the food, the people, and the environment. This way I shoot a variety of subjects and it's proved popular with local businesses.
Finally, I have also had the opportunity to shoot interiors and exteriors throughout the last year. At weddings, I always take a few minutes to get some scene-setting shots, whether it's a detail of the venue, a still life of flowers, or an environmental landscape. Before I shot weddings I did a lot of garden photography and still life and was pleased to be able to rekindle this passion with several commissions from a local garden designer.
These photographs represent my journey from wedding photography into the commercial world and how I managed to pivot my business while weddings were not taking place. Now that restrictions are starting to ease in the UK, I can't wait to get back to shooting weddings but I now have other types of photography to offer going forward. Diversification in this uncertain world can only be a good thing.
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