[Ania Photo]

Hello,

I can tell you that finding a photographer to shadow with will be really hard in any economy(I know this from the experience of working with them). Most photographers are not too crazy about training their competition.

I know you want to get into weddings but my advice would be to focus on building a different portfolio (like children photography if you are interested in that) then you might start finding those people referring you to their friends or them asking if you would be interested in shooting a wedding.

This is how I got into the wedding photography market with no portfolio of weddings. In fact, the first wedding I ever did was my bosses and I had never been to a wedding before that. From their word of mouth grew my business (it only takes one good referral).

I do know that it is scary the idea of photographing a wedding with no portfolio or practice, but in reality it is super hard to do so especially if you don't have friend or family to help out.

I would not suggest craiglist.

I will add that if you can work with another photographer that is great. You can call them up and ask but I suggest setting up a meeting (this also give you a change to ask for advice). Also know that you may not have the second shooter option. You may have to carry the equipment, and that is fine. It gets you the chance to watch and see how someone else does it so that you can figure out how you will do it. Also, you will become more comfortable with the format of weddings.

Oh, one more option are photography studios like Bella Photography that hire a number of photographers to shoot the many weddings they have a year.

I hope this helps, if you have any other questions I can help you out with feel free to ask.

Stefanie