So far in this blog, I’ve looked at my reasons for starting a wedding/events photography business and have touched upon some photographers whose work I admire. 

However, in this entry I want to talk about the trials and tribulations of setting up a business as someone who is on the autistic spectrum. How can you demonstrate your talent when you don’t have a portfolio? It is not enough to have a website with stock royalty free images. These mixed in with some travel pictures of my own do not show off my talent at all. 

There are a lot of websites out there giving flawed advice in starting out in the wedding photography business. One example of such sage advice is ‘building a portfolio for wedding photography is easy for anyone’ which is hyperlinked to a dead end article asking ‘if you are tough’ and stating that ‘working with a few established wedding photographers is not a plan’. The truth is that building a wedding portfolio may be easy for SOME PEOPLE but certainly not easy for me. 

In a nutshell, how do you even start a portfolio if you don’t know anyone? You need a venue, models, wedding dresses to even get a basic picture (pun intended). 

So, starting a business is a challenge in a league of its own for me and I have the additional obstacle of not having contacts in the events/wedding industry, and a tranche of unhelpful online advice. How can I start building a successful business? The first step is a good web presence, with a solid logo. 

With the help of Holly Connolly https://www.connollymediamarketing.com/team I have put together this website and she has enabled me to start understanding SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) where my blogs can show up in Google when people type in words relevant to my business. So I have a great web foundation to start with. 

However, maintaining a blog presence online is like watering a plant, it needs weekly updates yet it has been a few months since I updated my blog. There is only so much research I can do in the work of wedding photographers before running out of material, especially when I haven’t started building a comprehensive portfolio of wedding shots.

So this is why in the next few blogs I wish to talk about my experience setting up this business. I believe transparency is vital in establishing a client base. So join me as I inject some humour from my personality into this blog and make a very plain and informative story of setting up a wedding photography business entertaining!