Event Photography

My Start as an Event Photographer

When I started my photography career in 2006, it wasn’t fully clear on the direction I would take. What should I specialize in? What did I like to photograph and what did I want to avoid? While I wasn’t fully clear on my direction when I started, one thing that became clear quite quickly was that I wanted to photograph people.

While I love nature and being outdoors, that wasn’t going to be the primary focus of my photography career. It was also clear that product photography - taking photos of food and stationary objects was not my passion. It was clear I wanted to take photos of people.

Just as I was finishing photography school, I was asked to photograph a family friend's wedding. It was very nerve racking to be hardly finished school and already photographing my first wedding. Leading up to the wedding, I felt the pressure of documenting such a big event. The wedding was a success in the end and the photos turned out great. I really enjoyed the experience and found I didn’t feel overwhelmed in the moment. I felt very comfortable and confident as I was photographing the wedding. The couple were really happy with their photos and all-in-all it was a great success.

The success of the wedding gave me confidence to do more and sure enough, it led to another wedding and shortly after that, another wedding. The photos from my third wedding ended up being featured in REAL WEDDINGS MAGAZINE, which was a real honor! There was a 3-page spread dedicated to the wedding and showing the photos from the wedding. This publication really confirmed for me that I was on the right path.

As I photographed more weddings, I found it seamlessly transitioned into photographing commercial events, birthday parties, bar mitzvahs and more. It became clear to me that I enjoyed photographing events and really shined as an event photographer. 

Over the years I have photographed hundreds of events. I have photographed weddings of all shapes and sizes. I have photographed 1st birthday parties, 95th birthday celebrations and everything in between. I have photographed commercial events, fundraising events and so much more.

While all of these events are different, the common thread is documenting the people as they mingle and interact with each other. This is what I enjoy most, capturing the people. I love how a photo of a person laughing can capture the essence of a whole party. I love how the feeling and emotion of a moment can be captured in one photo. While decor shots and detail shots can show what the event looked like to some extent, it’s primarily through documenting the people enjoying the event that you really get a sense for what the event was like.

I have always enjoyed the spontaneity and constantly changing nature of events, and the challenge of trying to document it through photography. For me, this challenge is the best part about being an event photographer.