We are so excited to share today’s blog article with you! We recently interviewed Cathy and David, a Chicago-based dynamic duo specializing in wedding photography. Not only are they business partners, but these two are a romantic item, as well. Learn all about how they met, how they operate and how they take such amazing photojournalistic style pictures.
In Their Own Words: “We want you to remember more. Our goal is not to make our clients look like models. We want our images to capture who you are and what makes you different. Photos are more than just empty two-dimensional moments. Every picture holds limitless memories of interaction: dialogue, tears, love, support. It reminds us of a whole lifetime of moments. And while we make sure to capture those “key moments”, we believe that every moment is important. We focus on the great in-between stuff — the unscripted and unpredictable. After all, a wedding isn’t just the bride and groom, or a cake or some flowers. It’s family and friends and laughter and tears and singing and dancing. And we want you to remember all of it.”
An Interview With Cathy & David
How long have you been married?
We’re coming up on seven years in May. 🙂
How did you meet?
We met in poetry class. Romantic right? 😀 Cathy had pink hair at the time, and that definitely got David’s attention. We were both graphic design students and both of us were getting our minors in creative writing and photography.
What’s the best thing about working together?
We’re both pretty clingy, so it works well for us. Plus we get to work hard together on something and we both understand the struggles we go through. It’s nice seeing one another all the time and also wonderful getting to have the same vacations. 🙂
What’s the worst thing about working together?
We see one another all the time. As in, every second of every day. We have to work hard to have conversations and space is something you must get used to or else you’ll drive one another crazy. 🙂
What do you primarily shoot?
Weddings and sessions. David is trying his hand at realty and food photography. Cathy occasionally does boudoir. We also love to take photos on our vacations together. We also do family photos for past clients and people who know that we offer them.
Was there ever a time where either one of you shot solo?
Yes. David shot a wedding by himself (only once) and hated it. Not having that backup and having to get the shots Cathy would normally take was more than David wanted to ever experience again. That said, David does most engagement sessions by himself and Cathy does the boudoir by herself.
When and why did you decide to work together?
After Bobbi+Mike shot our wedding, they encouraged us to give it a go and gave us our first memory cards. We realized it was something we could do and something we would love to go for. We loved seeing a husband and wife team working together and thought it looked like fun. So about a year later, we shot our first wedding and we’ve been working hard ever since. We started our business in Bloomington, Ind., but decided Chicago was more our scene, so about two years ago we moved our business up here. We now live in the northwest suburbs on a lake where we can take walks on our beach and enjoy our fire pit after a long wedding in the city. The silence is relaxing. It’s very much us.
How do you keep the love alive instead of everything being all about business?
Dancing in the middle of the day. Lots of vacations. More vacations. Travel. Food. Cooking. Movies. TV. Road trips.
What’s one thing that you both have not agreed on when it came to business and how did you decide what to do about that?
What photos to show on our blog — trying to decide which are our best. We solve this by having half the photos be what we both love, 25% being Cat’s and 25% being David’s.
What are your top pieces of advice for couples wanting to pursue photography together?
1. KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING! Don’t worry more about establishing your brand than you do actually shooting. You want to make sure that your skill is mastered before you try to sell yourself. Don’t get me wrong, having a great brand helps establish trust and garners attention (my degree is in marketing and design after all), but brides want to see awesome photos, so make sure your portfolio is the best it can be before you start hardcore advertising. Learn and become an expert of your camera. There is no quick fix or easy way to shoot weddings other than hard work and practice. When starting out, shoot like crazy. Constantly shooting can also help you figure out each of your strengths and weaknesses and what each of you should focus on at a wedding. Cathy focuses on photos that require her to be unseen and David focuses on images that require him to be in people’s faces.
2. PUSH ONE ANOTHER TO WORK HARDER! Cathy and I use one another for inspiration and to keep one another going. We push one another to work harder and stronger and looking at RAW photos together can really help you critique one another’s work. Being able to critique one another is key, so do it often. Decide what you want to do in post as well. What you do after you take the picture is just as important as when you do.
3. HAVE A UNIFIED VISION! Take workshops that challenge you both as a photographer and make you cry. More importantly, don’t be afraid to take different workshops. You can then teach the other person what you learned which can help build up the ability to work together. Share your inspiration. Show one another what you love. It’s so important that you have a unified vision of what you want your final product to be, even if you love different things, otherwise it will look like two different businesses took the same photos. The final product should look cohesive.
4. HAVE YOUR OWN DUTIES! Set aside different duties as a husband and wife team. Cathy culls and edits. David does albums and correspondence. Trust one another to do the job right, but hold one another accountable. Having morning meetings to discuss duties can really help with this. And lastly, don’t make your business about what you think people want or what someone else is doing. There are a lot of husband and wife teams out there. A lot of them use their names for their business, but that doesn’t mean they are anything like one another. And what works for one of them might not work for you. So be yourself, be unique and show on your site what you love to shoot.
What are your top three do’s and don’ts for shooting together:
- Don’t compete for shots. Get the opposite of what the other person is shooting.
- If there is a problem, wait until you can discuss it in private.
- Kiss often (if you’re a couple). 🙂
Cathy, what’s your favorite thing about David?
Honesty.
David, what’s your favorite thing about Cathy?
Strength.
Favorite lens you can’t live without?
35 1.4L. It’s the natural viewing angle of the eye and a much more interesting lens than the 50.
Find Cathy & David on the Web: