Join expert Vanessa Joy on The Professional Photographer Podcast as she shares the latest trends and seismic changes impacting the wedding photography industry in this engaging episode. In a social media-driven era, wedding photography trends have begun to mirror the nostalgic memories of clients’ childhoods, creating a unique challenge for photographers trained in traditional methods.
So back in the day, you know, of camcorders- Yeah, right ... right, videographers would come to the wedding, and they wouldn't really direct very much. They'd kinda just stand to the side and shoot whatever you were shooting, and, you know, fine. Every once in a while, they would do something with the, the client.
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But now since phones, now you have another type of video. So a big thing with wedding trends is couples see TikTok videos and wanna repeat them for their wedding day. Mm-hmm. And to be honest- Yeah ... I don't even want a part of that. So go hire a content creator- Yeah ... and they can do that style. I really don't think it infringes upon what we do as wedding filmmakers and wedding photographers.
I think it's just another genre of content creation, photography, video, whatever it is, that is something else. Now, do some people just hire a w- wedding content creator and not photo/video? Yeah, probably, but they weren't gonna be the people that- Yeah ... probably would've really spent much money on it anyway.
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So what are some of the timeless, maybe in business parlance, best practices or good habits we should be in to have a strong wedding studio? Yeah. The client experience is the biggest one. Mm-hmm. I think it's very easy for photographers to say, "Okay, I wanna take pictures. I'm gonna be a wedding photographer," and then there's this whole other side of the business that maybe never even comes into play.
But having a great business that, one, you're making money. Yes, obviously. Yes. Let's make money. Unless, you know, you're a nonprofit or charity. Right. That's fine, too. But, you know, make money, but have a great client experience because it's not just taking photos and delivering digital images that's going to give them that full-service photography studio experience.
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They'll be on some USB drive or, God forbid, a DVD, right? Oh. I was burning photos onto DVDs 10 years ago. Yeah. Now where are they? Who can even play them? Their kids can't. Yeah. They won't even know what it is. But they know how to open a wedding album. Mm. They know looking on the wall at a framed portrait that, you know, they're gonna fight over one day when the parents aren't around anymore.
Yeah. Like, it's our job. That right there is our job, like to educate them, to show them how to best preserve it- Yeah ... and, and what they can do. And that, that never goes out of style. The wedding album has never gone out of style. Yeah. It never will. That's the second time today talking about trends that the importance, almost reverence for physical items has come up for that exact reason, because it's gonna end up in a drawer otherwise.
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Oh. How would you talk to them to give them that pep ta- pep talk that they need to, "Come on, friend, we, we gotta make a business here." Yeah, you know, you have to throw sales out the window. It, we tend to think of sales as a dirty word, it's a used car salesman, it's awful. But it's not. It's learning how to sell, but really, it's learning how to communicate, and we're not taught that enough as photographers.
In fact, I really, I hired a coach of, like, full transparency. I paid $20,000 for this man to teach me how to actually sell, and when he did, it was like all these light bulbs going off. Like, it's not just selling, it's, it's learning how to communicate, learn, learning how to motivate people. I teach photographers all the time, and I've learned how to better motivate them because I learned how to sell and learn how to run the business.
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It's, I'm not trying to sell something- Awesome ... because it is not sellable at the m- at the moment. But that concept of learning how to communicate and sell so that we realize we're, we're really doing our clients a service. We're not selling them, we're doing them a service, and then ultimately, when we serve our clients in that manner, we have a successful business.
Yeah. That they're happy. They're not having buyer's remo- remorse 'cause we're a sleazy salesperson. Mm-hmm. We are giving them a full service in a way that also profits us- Yeah ... as a photography business, which lets us keep going, create more memories for more people, and show them how to preserve them. The thing that I was taught about sales, and I'm curious what you think, it's really about asking great questions and listening.
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Oh, right? 'Cause now it's time to get the print, it's time to put something- Yes ... on the wall, and you can remind them- Right ... why they want it- Yeah ... in the first place. Oh, you told me- ... that photography was a priority. You told me that you imagine sharing this with your children later, that you want to decorate your home.
So you be curious, and then you make, you hold them accountable. Is there anything else in the business side that's a trend or a best practice that you just could wave a magic wand and wish everyone- ... would follow more than they should? Because really, if we're not making money and making profit more than anything, they're not gonna stay open.
