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<\/a><\/p>\nIn the months that followed, we did just that. In April 2010 we set up a website, at the time Verity didn\u2019t like the idea of wedding photography so it was going to be just me. I\u2019d realised that my degree in Film Production didn\u2019t leave me particularly qualified for much other than self-employment or a career in teaching. After a couple of solo weddings V came along to a lovely little elopement and got the bug. That\u2019s when Sansom Photography was born and when we both realised that we\u2019d stumbled upon a job that we loved. Of course, we loved having an excuse to buy camera\u2019s and lenses, not to mention the fact that our \u2018job\u2019 was paying for our hobby \u2013 that\u2019s the dream right?<\/p>\n
Over the next 7 years we would shoot over 300 weddings and along the way get caught up in everything that comes with this incredible industry. From shooting local budget weddings to photographing incredible weddings around the world, attended by celebrities, politicians and even royalty. The funny thing is that by the time we got to where we THOUGHT we wanted to go we had lost the passion that we once had for photography. It didn\u2019t happen overnight, yet it felt like one day we woke up and realised that we just weren\u2019t taking photos outside of work anymore. Our job was just that \u2013 a job.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the problem with an industry like wedding photography, it starts out as a hobby or a passion, then becomes a job. Obviously having a career you love is great, but realising that your hobby looks very different when it\u2019s your day job often takes a while. Even when you do it can be difficult to manage.<\/p>\n In 2017 we had a big year lined up, with talks at the incredible Mystic Seminars in Portland and the equally fantastic Wedd Camp in Romania. We were also shooting abroad for engagement shoots and weddings and ended up taking more than 20 flights in 6 months. By the time the wedding season was cooling off in 2016 and we were finalising our talks for the following year we realised that we just weren\u2019t excited about what we were doing anymore. We\u2019d started traveling abroad for work in 2015 and by the time we wrapped up the wedding season in 2016 we had only had one or two \u2018local\u2019 weddings the whole year. The rest of the time was spent in hotels worrying about equipment, backups and whether the pet sitter was looking after our cats and dog back at home. Everyone\u2019s looking for different things when it comes to their work\/life balance, but there are a few things that we did that really changed things for us.<\/p>\n It always felt like such a painful thing to do but outsourcing our editing was an absolute game changer for us. Weddings went from a 4\/5 day edit to half a day to go over and fine-tune the edits. We took a step back and looked at what each wedding would cost us to have someone else edit it, then looked at the time we would save. I\u2019ll be totally honest here and say that Verity has always done all of our editings! When we did the sums she was essentially getting \u2018paid\u2019 less than minimum wage to edit the weddings. We\u2019d spoken to Daniel and Davina Kudish<\/a> a few times and \u2013 like many in the industry \u2013 had learned an incredible amount about editing through their techniques. We got in touch with The Image Salon<\/a> and within a few weeks, we were completely happy leaving them to edit everything we shot.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve spoken to plenty of photographers who don\u2019t agree with outsourcing their editing and I always say the same thing. Nobody is stopping you editing, outsourcing just gives you the freedom to choose what you want to edit. You can work on the photos that really excite you and spend more time on your award entries or blog posts. All of that whilst safe in the knowledge that your deadlines will all be met and that you won\u2019t have to spend hours twiddling with sliders. For us, that meant that Verity started really enjoying editing again, spending time on what she wanted to and working on photos that she chose. Ultimately as wedding photographers, there is always going to be a certain amount of \u2018standard\u2019 shots. From groups to detail shots. That\u2019s not to diminish the importance of those images at all, in fact, I would argue that the shots we see week in, week out actually get more attention now than before. It\u2019s simply to point out that, given the choice, we would much rather put our efforts into the shots that make us excited about photography.<\/p>\n We love the fact that our \u2018job\u2019 has taken us around the world, to places we would never have expected to go. That said, we realised that shooting and working abroad is very different from taking a holiday abroad. We were in a hotel room on another continent arguing about where we should hide our 4th backup hard drive when we decided that we would limit the amount of travel we did. That allowed us to enjoy the travel that we did do but, most importantly, it gave us back the days either side of the weddings that we would normally spend traveling. For us, that meant time in the countryside and time with our pets!<\/p>\n Oh, and in case you were wondering we ended up stashing the hard drive behind a canvas print in the hotel.<\/p>\n Everyone\u2019s different, so while we decided that we would focus on working closer to home, for you that might be a conscious decision to work AWAY from home. The most important part is taking a step back and looking at what you are doing at the moment, what makes you happy and what doesn\u2019t? Forget everything else, forget the external validation. Ultimately by deciding to focus on what makes YOU happy your business can only win. Clients can always tell when you don\u2019t want to be there!<\/p>\n For so many people wedding photography is a bit of a \u2018ladder\u2019. You start off with the budget weddings and work your way up to the big money gigs. The problem for a lot of people is that they go where the money is, it\u2019s hard not to right!? In the UK that often means working in London. That\u2019s not to say there aren\u2019t big budget weddings all around the UK, but I\u2019d wager a guess that the average spend in the capital is somewhat higher than the rest of the country. That means there are more potential brides there than anywhere else and let’s face it, when a couple love your work and have their deposit ready to go it\u2019s hard to turn down!<\/p>\n After 7 years in the industry, we found ourselves taking the 4 hour trip down the motorway a few times each month. I remember going to a local photographer’s meet up and finding that most of the photographers there thought we were actually based in London because we worked there so much. It was then that we realised how our website had organically evolved over the years, our blog accumulating weddings from all over. We were essentially putting out the message that we worked in London a lot!<\/p>\n So we started again, we went over our blog, cut down the number of southern weddings and altered our website to make it more obvious that we were based in Yorkshire<\/a>. We also started getting a lot more selective about the weddings we would take on outside of the North of England. We made ourselves some rules. It sounds silly but once we\u2019d set the rules they were surprisingly easy to stick to, it just became a company policy so to speak.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nIt was around that time we realised we needed to make a change. For us, the awards and international recognition just wasn\u2019t what we wanted anymore. We wanted a steady income, time at home and, most importantly, time off!<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nTake a shortcut<\/h5>\n
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Decide what you want<\/h5>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nDon\u2019t be afraid to start again<\/h5>\n
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