Should You Hire a Wedding Photography Intern?

The ups of hiring a wedding photography intern are obvious. I mean, who wouldn’t want college students working in your studio for free? But there is so much more to it than that. This brief article will identify a list of things you might want to consider before starting an intern program.

First, a little background. We are wedding photographers in Grand Rapids, Michigan and have only had an intern program for five months. We have actually just hired our second intern though we have a third lined up to begin in the fall. However, despite its infancy, our intern program has been extremely rewarding and we believe it’s because we didn’t start one too early. We took the time to work through the following points which we believe have been critical to its success.

The first question we asked ourselves is if we were ready to have an intern. And for the longest time, our answer was no. The bottom line is that our goal was to build our own business and then have interns help us sustain it. For some time, we were so immersed as wedding photographers in Grand Rapids, Michigan that we didn’t feel like we had our own act together when it came to our systems and workflow. Honestly, we were embarrassed at the thought of welcoming someone in to witness our chaos.

Which leads to the next consideration? What would we be passing on to our interns? Chaos? Or a good example of a well run photography studio? So we nailed down our products and vendors. We documented all of our systems and workflow and evaluated it for inefficiencies. And once we felt as if we knew what we were doing, we kept doing it over and over until we were confident that we had something that worked.

And that’s when we brought in our first intern. She was a student at a university who was thinking about becoming a grand rapids wedding photographer. We clearly spelled out that we would not be teaching photography or editing, but that she would be implementing our workflow systems. As such, we benefited from freeing up time. And she would benefit from learning what wedding photography really involves.

One of the most important things that we have done in this process is to continually document our systems into a manual which literally spells out exactly how we do everything. This has been a tremendous resource for helping our intern remember how to do everything. But more importantly, it’s the resource which will make it easier for our next grand rapids wedding photography intern.

Another consideration that we’ve wrestled through is the criteria for selecting our photography interns. And more specifically, the issue of how much experience they have. We recognize that anyone pursuing our internship will likely have some experience and may even have a website. But some of the intern candidates have actually been marketing themselves as professional wedding photographers, and that’s where we drew the line. It just seemed odd for them to present themselves as professionals online and then to be interning for us by day. So we’ve chosen to hire interns who are considering a career as professional wedding photographers, but by no means consider themselves to be such already.

And one final consideration is what we do not have our interns do. For us, we’ve chosen that we will do all of our own shooting and editing. We encourage our wedding photography interns to become students of their own style and to learn to do that themselves. But what we do offer is a realistic perspective at what it really means to be a grand rapids wedding photographer so they can make an informed decision about pursuing it as a career.

I’m sure there will be many more lessons and considerations. But for now, these have been the most critical and the most helpful in developing our wedding photography internship program. I hope they will serve you as well as they have served us.

Please Contact grand rapids wedding photographers

By Matt Copps

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Learn All About All The Other Latest Wedding Photography Trends

One thing you may find quite a surprise is the degree and breadth of all there is regarding wedding photography kent. You can take what we have shown and use it to great effect in your own situation. Even so, be careful thinking there is no more excellent information, either. There are certain areas that you need to learn more about if you want real achievement with this. Anybody can simply learn the choicest points that are known to produce results. The relative effect of photography our wedding on your situation can be remarkable and cause issues of all varieties. We do recognize very well that your situation is really important and matters a great deal. We will commence the rest of our conversation right away, but sometimes you have to stop and let issues sink in a little bit. This is significant information that can help you, and there is no questioning that. Our final few items can really prove to be powerful considering the overall.

Weddings have frequently been a personal event, but in recent years couples have grown ever more competitive when it comes to having a wedding that is truly unique. There are so many new trends developing it’s a rare find to see a traditional wedding these days. Even wedding photography incorporates its own set of trends nowadays.

Gone are the times of formal portrait shots from a pre-arranged list of family combinations. The latest in photography trends all highlight a need to move away from traditional posed portraits.

One of the key trends employed by wedding photographers at the moment is photojournalism. This kind of photography has the advantage of allowing the wedding day to flow naturally instead of being bound by a schedule. Rather than actively participating and posing shots, the photographer plays the role of an observer, simply capturing events candidly as they happen. This can result in pretty, natural photographs. Nonetheless there is the danger of missing those key moments, particularly if the paparazzo is inexperienced in photojournalistic shooting.

The dread of missing key moments such as the first kiss, the cake cutting or the first dance can be overcome by selecting to mix photojournalistic style with some traditional shots. This can easily be attained by preparing with the photographer previously which shots you really must have. The snapper can then pose those particular shots, then take a more relaxed approach to the rest of the day.

While photojournalistic photographs can produce reasonably dramatic effect, some styles of wedding call for a far more relaxed approach to photography. Creative candid photography is starting to become very popular for beach, garden and destination weddings. This sort of style is achieved when the paparazzo makes an effort to set up particular shots, but doesn’t force the posing generally associated with traditional photography.

This article is just the basic foundation of what is out there to learn. It is tough to really discover all there is to know about photography our wedding because we know how busy you are. If you are operating from a sound base of information that is accurate, then you will be happier with your results. Most just cannot find the time, and they feel at a loss for what to do.

Are you attempting to find a great wedding photographer to take your wedding photo? Go to the website and review the online studio to see a wide selection of different styles.