Posted January 28, 2018 07:20:18 When a wedding photographer dies, what happens next?
In many cases, that photographer’s image is preserved for posterity and is often seen as a source of pride in the community, but what happens to that image when it’s no longer available?
For many, it’s a sad and tragic time to have to face this question.
But what happens when someone goes into business for themselves?
Can someone who has spent years working hard to produce a product, like a wedding dress, take the loss of a photographer and turn their business around?
“I am so saddened and so saddened to think that someone who made my wedding dress is no longer around to look at and take pictures,” photographer Kelly McClelland tells me in a phone interview.
McClellands company, McClellan Photography, has been in business for more than a decade and currently has three wedding dress collections and one photography project underway, but she is no stranger to taking on the challenge of creating new products and doing something special with them.
“I was so excited to be asked to be part of a wedding photography initiative and I was really looking forward to doing a wedding,” McClelloan tells me.
“My husband and I were looking forward, but then he passed away in February and it was a very difficult time.”
What would you do with the photojournalist’s work?
“We would look at it and make sure we took the best possible picture and that it was captured in the right way,” she says.
“We wanted to make sure it was the right picture that would fit into the context of what we were shooting, and it really came down to what was the most relevant for our customers.”
What’s your process like?
“When we are in business, we’re in business to make something people will remember and look at for a long time,” she explains.
“Our focus is to keep our customers engaged with what we do, and to keep them wanting more.”
What kind of content can you create?
“One of the best ways we can create content for our clients is through photography.
We have a whole team of wedding photographers that shoot weddings, and we take them out to all of the wedding venues that we can,” McClelland says.
She adds that her company does a lot of photography related content, such as a special website that features wedding photos from around the world.
“They’ve taken all of our images, but they also have some really interesting photography that we have to use for our products,” she reveals.
“You can see a couple of photos that are from our wedding, and then you can go to our website and read more about it and see more of the other weddings that we’ve been in, and see some of the great photographers that we work with.”
Do you have a theme or set of ideas?
“My wedding photographer and I are both big fans of photography and photography in general, so we wanted to use our wedding photography for our wedding products, so that they would be recognizable and stand out,” she tells me with a laugh.
“One thing that we always talk about is that we like to be able to capture all of those little moments that make a wedding special.”
So what are you up to now?
“Currently, we are focusing on our wedding projects and our wedding shoot calendar, but we also have other projects that we are looking into that are just going to be starting to pop up over the next few months,” she continues.
“That’s the thing with wedding photography; it’s always in the back of our minds.”
Topics:weddings,advertising,industry,industries,creative-art,photography,photographic-production,united-kingdom,united States