There's an old saying that goes, "Do something you love, and you'll never work a single day in your life" and whilst I'm one of the lucky people who gets to live by that mantra, there's an obscene amount of work that goes on behind the scenes to make sure I'm constantly bettering myself and the business to provide the best possible photos I can for your big day.
So, this week I wanted to offer a little peek into a general day at JD HQ, and why I absolutely adore what I do for a living.
Now, let's start off by saying it's not all, snapping pictures, attending weddings and stuffing my face with some awesome wedding food, in fact, as I often tell people, taking photos is the easy bit, the most time-consuming part of shooting any wedding, is the editing after the big day!
For argument's sake, let's start with a typical Monday, which generally starts around 4:30am.
So the first order of business for the day is getting up at silly o'clock to get Rachel to the train station, I make a point of doing this every morning, purely as I like to make sure she gets there ok, and it saves her money on parking.
Once I'm back, it's time to feed the dog, have a cuppa and some breakfast. Then it's off for a shower, and a quick trip to the gym before the rest of the world wakes up. When I eventually arrive back at home at around 9 am, I squeeze in a second shower, then I nip Cleo out for a quick walk around the block to make sure she gets her daily exercise in too.
Then it's time to take on the arduous commute up the stairs to the office (Second Cuppa in hand), ready to start work for the day ahead.
First things first, Spotify. Music is always helpful, and it goes a long way to keeping me focused (I'm particularly a fan of Gerry Cinnamon at the minute!), as I trawl through my emails and social media to double-check if there are any messages I might have missed or glossed over on my phone. On a good day, it can take me half hour, on a busy day, I can sometimes be answering messages and sending emails for a good hour and a half.
Next, Editing.
It's fair to say, editing takes up a hell of a lot of my time, and there's an ungodly amount of time and work that goes into every wedding I do. Each photo gets meticulously picked over and retouched to make sure it's up to my exacting standards, with each photo taking me anywhere between 10 and 20 minutes to complete.
Just to put that into perspective, when I attend a wedding, I usually take up to 2000 photos, when Rachel comes with me, she does about the same, so there are around 4000 photos to process.
That's not to say those 4000 photos are all going to be edited, as a good 80%/90% of them won't make the cut. There are numerous photos where people have their eyes closed, or there's pictures where your Aunty Doreen has had a few too many G&T's and is flipping the bird to one of your other guests in the background. For obvious reasons, I don't send these images through as they're not how I think you'll want to remember your big day.
Nevertheless, I still look over every single image that gets taken on the day, then each picture gets retouched to a point where I'm happy with it. Some take more time than others, but you're only as good as your worse photo, so I like to make sure each picture I send over is perfect.
A lot of photographers batch edit their pictures, which saves a lot of time, but the downside is that you can end up missing some of the tiny details that can ruin a picture, which is why I go through each and every photo individually.
Now let's say, I've finished editing, then what?
Well, those of you who have received pictures from me in the past know that I personalise the wooden USB sticks that your completed images are delivered on with your name. Now, you'd be forgiven for thinking outsourced that job to someone else.
I actually do this myself. Around a year or so ago, I invested in a laser engraver for this very reason, so the memory stick you receive is personal to you, which I think is a nice touch vs getting the exact same memory stick that every couple receives. It takes time to generate the design and engrave the wood, but the finished product is something I'm very proud of.
Editing and processing any wedding I shoot can take me a good amount of time, and it does take a while, but I want you to ultimately be over the moon with your pictures, which is why I'm so meticulous with the processing stage.
And that's a brief look into what goes on, on a day to day basis.
Let's not forget, that during that day, there's always a steady flow of emails, calls and messages to deal with too, which I like to make sure get dealt with in a timely manner too.
The truth is though, I live and breathe my work. If the phone rings at 2am in the morning, I'll always answer. It's never as simple as starting at 9am and finishing at 5pm, and I'm more often than not still answering messages, editing, and dealing with things till the small hours of the morning.
Honestly, though, I wouldn't have it any other way as being involved in your big day is a privilege and an honour that I take very seriously.
I reckon that's enough rambling for a week, so let's round things off here.
I've got the lovely Ben and Lauras Harry Potter themed wedding next week, so I can't wait to write their blog and share some of the magic they've got planned!
Until next week.
Peace, Love and Photos.
Jono x