7 Pieces of Advice Every New Wedding Photographer Needs to Hear

Photographer Pye Jirsa of SLR Lounge recently put together a video that every budding wedding photographer should watch. It’s basically his version of “7 things I wish I’d known when I first started out as a wedding photographer,” and it answers some of the most common questions (and dispels some common myths) about this popular genre.

Pye has been running a successful photography business for over a decade—to say nothing of running a successful photography blog alongside it—and in that time, he’s acquired a little bit of wisdom and identified some of the most common myths and misconceptions that beginners struggle with when they’re just starting out.

This video is about dispelling 7 of those, specifically:

• Myth 1 – How to Watermark Your Images – 1:22
• Myth 2 – How to Address Stolen Images – 3:44
• Myth 3 – Share Images with Other Vendors – 6:33
• Myth 4 – Don’t Get Distracted by Trends- 9:05
• Myth 5 – Social Media is NOT Reality – 11:18
• Myth 6 – The Truth About Photography Sponsorships – 12:05
• Myth 7 – Getting Rich as a Wedding Photographer – 17:23

Pye’s goal with this video is to share the “blunt and honest truth about wedding photography and our industry” and, with any luck, help new photographers avoid some of the most common challenges and mistakes that every new artist/small business owner has to deal with when they’re starting out.

The advice that Pye shares is both too detailed and too valuable to summarize adequately in a paragraph or two, so if you want to dive into this subject either bookmark the video for later or set aside 23 minutes and check it out in full right now. And once you do, let us know what you think in the comments down below; did Pye hit all the right notes, or is he missing a common myth or two that need to be addressed?