A Day In The Life Of A Photographer

My photography day usually starts the night before the shoot. I charge all my batteries, format my memory cards, and check my equipment such as cameras, flashes, and any other gear. Make sure I have everything I need (run out to Hunt's Photography if I don't) and it is where I put it.

I try to get a good nights rest but usually don't as I am already going over the shoot in my head as I lay down.

The day of, I pack all my gear, and head off early. It helps me relax a little more when I am there way ahead of time. I can walk around a bit and find a place to unpack.

Depending on the type of shoot, I either unpack all my necessary gear or just put what I need together and strap on my camera(s). When the client(s) get there I will than get down to the task at hand of capturing whatever it is that they may want. Pose the subjects, shoot, adjust, pose, shoot, adjust...you get the point.

The time goes by really quick, quicker than I expected. (unless it is an event, than my feet know how long it has been)

Once we are done, anywhere from an hour to twelve hours, I pack up and head back home. This is where the eye blurring work starts.

Depending on when I get home, I usually (almost always, as I am excited to see how the images came out) upload the images to an external hard drive.

I will then start the process of editing the images, anywhere from 100 to 1000 images depending on the length of the shoot. I have shot as many as 2000 photos in one day of shooting. That's not to say I used all 2000 images but that's a lot of images to go through. I will import all the images into the Lightroom photo editing software and take a look at all the images. I flag the images I want to edit and go to work. This is a long process. Again, I have spent as much as 8 hours sitting in front of my computer editing images from one shoot. I will say, that was the 2000 image shoot, the International Festival in West Springfield Massachusetts, which by the way will be back for Memorial Day weekend in 2017 and I will be back there again capturing the fun.

I really enjoy the whole process. I like to capture the beautiful images of any occasion and I do also enjoy the editing process. The little tweaks to make the image shine are something I look forward to.

There was one day I had when I was shooting a wedding as a second shooter in Agawam Massachuetts and a lightning storm kicked up after dark. Of course I wanted to grab some shots of the lightning but my job was to photograph the wedding. Once the wedding ended, around 11:00PM,(I started at the brides house at 2:00PM) I packed up and went out to my truck to find the lightning was still going on. I then changed, set up my tripod and stood at the country club taking photos of the lightning. I finally got home around 2:30AM. Needless to say I did not do any computer work that morning.

The days can be long but they are fun and fulfilling.

Thanks for reading,

E

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