Hi, let me introduce myself, I'm almost in my 40's and have been shooting ever since 7th grade elementary school, where I learned photography "the hard way" - developing film, working in darkroom and such.
In 2002 I believed that my strong side was IT and computers, but last couple of years I think that my photography skills might be stronger than my IT skills, even though I haven't had any photography education, so I made a very basic website based on a prestashop template. This resulted in 3 paid wedding sessions in 2012. Then in 2013 I had 5 wedding sessions, in 2014 I had 7 wedding sessions. Not enough to make a living out of it, so I was forced to find other ways of making a living. Got a job in the IT department at a small airport, and even though it was kinda well paid, it sucked the life out of me. That was when I decided to go all-in on photography, so I wrote a new website, entirely from scratch, all by myself, with a better portfolio, doubled my prices, and since then I had 9 full day shoots in 2016 and 13 in 2017.
Until 2014 I was shooting with D700 and a few primes. Today I'm shooting D3s and D750, and for location shots I'm often using a 600Ws monolight with a big 110cm octabox.
It's funny how photographers just pop out of kinda nothing... Last year I got my portfolio accepted at the danish association of photographers (dff-photo.dk) and won a prize in one of their yearly photo competitions in february 2017. Now I really believe that wedding photography is the right path for me.
I'd love to share my story with you, if anyone would like to comment on my work, it would be greatly appreciated.
Here's a link to my website, it's in danish, but I think you will get the picture.. :) My website has links to 3-4 wedding stories, and I try to upload maybe 50-80 photos per wedding, for other clients to see.
I'd love to hear from you all
Judging from the shots you've posted, you're excellent. And you have a distinct style - subtle tonality good use of diagonals, very nice command of the decisive moment. I'll take a look at your other work later, but for now I'm super impressed.
David, thank you very much for your comment, I'm working on using natural light in my favour, and just spicing things a little with ambient flash light.
I'm still using a big 110cm umbrella monolight sometimes, but find it to be cumbersome and heavy to carry around, and the time spent on finding the right natural light is sometimes much more well spent, than having the couple looking at me, trying to set up the lighting, which can be fun to look at sometimes (when it tips and falls).
Well, I'm working on it..
Really interesting story. Well, my story too quite similar to what you have posted here. I too work as a Senior Software engineer and started shooting since 2008 when i bought Sony W810(As i remember it should be W810. now it is owning my Brother and still operating it well)
Anyway you have done a very good job. I saw your website and pictures. Those are really great shots and should say You have clicked the shutter at the right moment. Keep up the good work.