My Life

Since I choose wedding photography as my career path, I have been ask on how I manage my time & thought I only work on weekends. In fact , I work even weekdays. Thus, I thought I would be great to share my life as a wedding photographer, and give you guys an idea of what a typical day of wedding photographer is like. Wedding photography career is a path of non stop learning & self upgrading as technology change fast, it’s difficult work to maintenance the passion, quality of work, balance of life & etc . I hope this short article from me can enlighten all my friends, clients or anyone who considering this career by providing a better understanding of being a wedding photography. Comments welcomed!

Typical Weekday
9:00AM – 10:00AM: On my computer & start work by getting online and checking my emails, facebook inbox, twitter accounts. Highlight all mails to be follow up or replied.
10:00AM – 11:00PM: Breakfast & newspaper reading time.
11:00AM – 12.00PM: Respond to sales inquiries and client requests.
12:00PM – 6.00PM: Post produce images from recently wedding assignment or preparing for meeting with clients , vendors or industry peers, call and follow up on prospective clients, post social media notices on our Facebook/Twitter pages regarding any updates on the blog or our work, study other photographer works & blog.
6:00PM – 6:30PM: Stop for a while, cleaning house / car, jogging or gym.
6:30PM – 7:30PM: Dinner time after taking shower.
7:30PM – 8:30PM: Continue post production of recently wedding assignments, preparing DVD, disc buring.
8:30PM – 9:30PM: Work on administrative tasks such as accounting, documentation, sometime meeting clients during this period as they are getting home from work.
9:30PM – 11:00PM: Spend some time with the family, rest for a while.
11:00PM – 12:30PM: Plan for the work of the next day / week, blog write up, marketing planning & some learning before sleep.
12:30PM – 2:30PM: Continue post production if I have energy.

Above schedule applied during peak season, we are a bit flexible during off peak season.

Typical Weekend (Wedding Shoot)
Prior Night: Charge all necessary equipment, pack the cloth for the next day if special room is allocated for us, Prepare equipment by cleaning and packing up all needed lenses, camera bodies, lighting, stands and tri-pods, etc.
5:30AM – 6:00AM: Check all the equipment, and have light breakfast ( bread & soya bean).
6:00AM – 6:30AM: Meet with second shooter and drive out to wedding location. Most of our in state wedding locations (within Klang Valley) take around 30-45 minutes to drive to.
6:30AM – 9:00PM: Main photographer (Me) shoots bride and bridesmaid preparation while second shooter will cover the groom and groomsmen.
6:30AM – 9:00PM: A quick portrait session of bride, bridesmaid & their parents.
9:30PM – 10:30PM: Game session of bridesmaids , groom & groomsmen.
10:30PM – 11:15PM: Tea ceremony after gaming, family portrait & leave to groom’s house.
11:45PM – 12:45PM: Reach groom’s house, tea ceremony, family portrait & try to grab a quick bite of something on the run.
12:45PM – 1:30PM: Drive out to bridal party and couples shoot location. We only have 30 minutes , so we need to do it quick.
1:30PM – 5:30PM: prepare slide show for displaying during reception dinner.
5:30PM – 6:00PM: Set up for hall decoration shoot.
6:00PM – 8:00PM: Set up in our positions for the ceremony and shoot candid while we are waiting for the procession to begin.
8:00PM – 11:00PM: Shoot the ceremony from all angles during bride & groom marching in, toasting, cake cutting, first dance, capturing key reaction shots (i.e. crying, smiling, etc) from family members and close friends of the bride and groom .Main photographer takes main position covering the primary subjects while secondary photographer shoots reaction shots of the bridal party and guests.
11:00PM – 11:15PM: Setup and shoot one last large group formal with everyone on the dance floor.
11:15PM – 11:45PM: Open dance, join them!!
11:45 – 12:00PM: Pack up all of our gear (while hoping nothing was lost or stolen), say goodbye to our bride and groom.
12:00AM – 1:00AM: Drive home.
1:00AM – 2:30AM: Arrive at home, put equipment away, and continue backing up all images to ensure that we have duplicates of every image shot at the event, take a shower and sometime we take dinner during this time.
2:30AM: Collapse in bed & dream about the wedding.

After a shoot in Singapore.

Playing around with clients after shooting.

This is the way I enjoy life