Pure Joy (and a Sigh of Relief!)

[tarakc]

Back in November, I worked my first solo wedding gig.
I'd played second shooter for a few different photographers before, but when I started out on my own a girl I went to school with contacted me, and I was stoked to be offered my first paying gig.
As time went on, the formerly laid-back bride became more and more stressed about photos and contracts, all of which I took in my stride.
It rained on the day of the wedding.
I snapped, snapped and snapped all day, set up and took shots that I was proud of, battled rain, a pregnant maid-of-honour, an overtired (hungover) groom and a groomsman who kept coming on to me (flattering at first, annoying immediately!)
Because the happy couple live 8hrs away, I had 2 days to pull a rough cut of photos together, which they loved and told me to do with as I wished to produce their album.
I spent 45 hours (25 over what I was paid) on their album AND individual framed prints, with the bride texting me every day about how they 'better be good'.
The bride is in the area, and I dropped of the photos today. Halfway through the hour-long drive, the panic finally hit. What if they weren't good? What if after all my time, effort and confidence I'd produced sub-par results? I'd lose a lot of ground in my business building, a LOT of potential referrals and the better part of my reputation!!
I nearly turned around and went home, but because I'm tough () I kept on.
The bride.....LOVED THEM!!! So much that in the past 6 hours I've booked 2 more weddings and a newborn shoot, purely off referrals! So much so that she called her mother home from work to see them while I was there!!

I'm sorry to go on, but the pure elation of such a fantastic review when I was fearing (and fully expecting) to be shot down has me doing happy skippy little dances!!
It was all worth it!!

[Naois]

That's awesome! Congrats!

[Biomech]

Congratulations! Weddings are pretty stressful from the photographers POV, always worried that people won't like them. People keep telling me that normal people aren't critical like I am and tend to love even the crap ones :P

[lonni]

Congrats, thats fantastic.

[tarakc]

Thankyou guys!! The big thing is I severely undercharged for my time when it came to both the day and all the post work on this one, but it's given me the confidence to up my prices a bit (I made $750 for a hand-complied, matted book-bound album and 30 prints, and $150 for my time) Basically, I put around 50 hours work into their album, and after album and print costs only made about 10hrs worth of 'wages'.
I had my partner (an IT tech) tell me yesterday that he understands, because when he's working on a server or a computer he's worried he'll break it! I told him this is a bit different, because a client will never say to him 'my computer works, but I hate it'

Biomech, the thing about loving the crap ones is right with a LOT of people! Mostly they just like seeing themselves in photos they don't deem 'Happy Snaps'!

Thanks again guys!!

[NgaiHill]

Congrats on getting that first job under your belt. Lovely photo too. So whats keeping your feet on the ground, or are you still floating? Best of luck with your future bookings.

[candleman]

congrats.
great to hear about good referrals!

EVERY time I deliver images in person I get nervous as hell... so that feeling wont go away.


So you gona post more pictures up or what?

[Gulf Coast Girl]

Congratulations!!!! That's got to be a wonderful feeling. It sounds like you put a lot more work and effort into this than the bride will ever know. In the end... the referrals you got and bump to your reputation are worth WAY more than any money you may feel you lost on this job. Well done!!!