Updated Website, New Gear, Champing at the Bit!
16th May 2022
Aberdeen wedding photographer excited to be booking weddings again!
Well, it's been a funny couple of years for all of us - not a single industry has come through unchanged or unscathed and the wedding industry here in North East Scotland is no exception.
When the pandemic first hit, none of us could have envisaged quite how long it would last and how profoundly it would affect our lives and our livelihoods. It took me a fair while to accept that bookings were drying up - wedding enquiries were fast becoming a once-a-week thing rather than a few a day. I was lucky in that I quickly found a part time job delivering food packaging in the beautiful countryside around Moray, Aberdeenshire and even further afield. Suddenly, I was a key worker (supplying food processing plants) and had a good reason to be out and about in a big van. It was often a bit surreal - driving around between small villages and towns and barely seeing another vehicle on the road.
I also had Hairy Dog Photography, a small sideline business specialising in luxury dog photography in and around Aberdeen to keep me going. I was able to safely meet lots of lovely dogs and their owners all over the region for outdoor photo sessions, sometimes just with the dog and an owner, sometimes for a full on family photography shoot with the family pet. This kept my spirits up and also meant I was able to keep my hand in with photography. I quickly realised that those of us (wedding photographers) who were going to come out of the other side of this, were those who could find it within themselves to push through, not those who hung up their cameras and spent all day online complaining about a lack of income :-)
Meanwhile, other work kept creeping in, despite everything. Lots of very small weddings - some so wee that I was needed to be a witness more than once, the odd headshot session here, the occasional socially distanced corporate BBQ there... There was light at the end of the tunnel!
When the government backed loans were first offered to previously successful businesses, I balked - surely this was a time to tighten the belt, save some money and wait it out. But over a few months, my opinion changed. Perhaps it would be better to emerge from the Covid wasteland with a fresh outlook and a fresh set of equipment to match? So I went for it and retired a few of my older lenses, upgraded my cameras and bought a custom built PC which flies like the Millennium Falcon and could certainly do the Kessel Run in less than 12 Parsecs...!
So far, I've absolutely no regrets - everything works perfectly and I can trust all my equipment 100% as well as my experience and knowledge. For the first time in over a decade, I've dropped my prices - something I vowed I'd never do but the enquiries are starting to appear in the inbox again and I'd far rather be working than waiting for things to get back to a normality which may never exist again.
It's all been about adapting - in the first wave of lockdown, I came up with a few brand new "Short Coverage" packages to match the requirements of my customers - I've always loved intimate weddings and made quite a speciality of being able to get a fantastic set of photos in a room of 12 people so that came quite easily to me! And now, I find myself adapting again as wedding venues finally open up properly again. I'm champing at the bit because I've missed weddings so much - great big, no-holds-barred celebrations of love! I literally cannot wait to be a part of all these joyous days again and get back to what I do best!!
So if you or someone you know would like to take advantage of the new, lower pricing, please do spread the word, have a look at some recent work on the Emerson Photography Facebook page or just have a meander round the revamped website, thank you!
Well, it's been a funny couple of years for all of us - not a single industry has come through unchanged or unscathed and the wedding industry here in North East Scotland is no exception.
When the pandemic first hit, none of us could have envisaged quite how long it would last and how profoundly it would affect our lives and our livelihoods. It took me a fair while to accept that bookings were drying up - wedding enquiries were fast becoming a once-a-week thing rather than a few a day. I was lucky in that I quickly found a part time job delivering food packaging in the beautiful countryside around Moray, Aberdeenshire and even further afield. Suddenly, I was a key worker (supplying food processing plants) and had a good reason to be out and about in a big van. It was often a bit surreal - driving around between small villages and towns and barely seeing another vehicle on the road.
I also had Hairy Dog Photography, a small sideline business specialising in luxury dog photography in and around Aberdeen to keep me going. I was able to safely meet lots of lovely dogs and their owners all over the region for outdoor photo sessions, sometimes just with the dog and an owner, sometimes for a full on family photography shoot with the family pet. This kept my spirits up and also meant I was able to keep my hand in with photography. I quickly realised that those of us (wedding photographers) who were going to come out of the other side of this, were those who could find it within themselves to push through, not those who hung up their cameras and spent all day online complaining about a lack of income :-)
Meanwhile, other work kept creeping in, despite everything. Lots of very small weddings - some so wee that I was needed to be a witness more than once, the odd headshot session here, the occasional socially distanced corporate BBQ there... There was light at the end of the tunnel!
When the government backed loans were first offered to previously successful businesses, I balked - surely this was a time to tighten the belt, save some money and wait it out. But over a few months, my opinion changed. Perhaps it would be better to emerge from the Covid wasteland with a fresh outlook and a fresh set of equipment to match? So I went for it and retired a few of my older lenses, upgraded my cameras and bought a custom built PC which flies like the Millennium Falcon and could certainly do the Kessel Run in less than 12 Parsecs...!
So far, I've absolutely no regrets - everything works perfectly and I can trust all my equipment 100% as well as my experience and knowledge. For the first time in over a decade, I've dropped my prices - something I vowed I'd never do but the enquiries are starting to appear in the inbox again and I'd far rather be working than waiting for things to get back to a normality which may never exist again.
It's all been about adapting - in the first wave of lockdown, I came up with a few brand new "Short Coverage" packages to match the requirements of my customers - I've always loved intimate weddings and made quite a speciality of being able to get a fantastic set of photos in a room of 12 people so that came quite easily to me! And now, I find myself adapting again as wedding venues finally open up properly again. I'm champing at the bit because I've missed weddings so much - great big, no-holds-barred celebrations of love! I literally cannot wait to be a part of all these joyous days again and get back to what I do best!!
So if you or someone you know would like to take advantage of the new, lower pricing, please do spread the word, have a look at some recent work on the Emerson Photography Facebook page or just have a meander round the revamped website, thank you!