Note: Photographers’ Friday is a weekly blog series directed toward professional photographers, and in some instances, serious amateur photographers. All Photographers’ Friday blog posts will assume that readers have a basic working knowledge of digital SLR cameras, but if you’re left with questions or don’t understand any of the information, don’t hesitate to ask. We love e-mails!

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Over the past couple years, we’ve been asked over and over, “So how did you get into photography? How did you get into doing photography together?” Just this past week, I got an email from another photographer named Lindsey, and she asked the same thing — because she’s thinking about bringing her husband into her business. So I decided this was as good a time as any to share a little bit of our journey, and our tips for making a husband-and-wife photography partnership work.

(And super thanks to the wonderful Lauren, who caught what may actually be the first picture I’ve ever seen of Danny and me working together, during Danyelle’s bridal portraits.)
Like so many other photographers, we ended up shooting weddings partly due to circumstances, and partly because we wanted to. For years, I’d been sure wedding photographers had the best job in the world — they got to photograph pretty things and people in love and families on some of the happiest days of their lives. So when my freelance work for our local newspaper began to dry up, and then the promising possibility of landing a job teaching writing at a local college fizzled when the college determined they didn’t actually have the money to hire anyone, I told Danny I wanted to be a photographer. He considered it carefully for a few minutes. I’d been shooting for the paper for several years, but I had always been a writer by choice and a photographer by necessity. Danny had experience shooting product photography for his businesses, and had pursued it as a hobby in high school and college, but as a business unto itself, it was completely foreign to us both.

Then he said, “All right, let’s do this. Together.”

Deciding to make a go of a career in photography together was the easy part. Putting it into practice — and making it successful — is an always-ongoing work in progress, and I think every successful husband-and-wife team out there would agree. So let’s talk about what that looks like.

Do you two work well together?
This is the first question to ask yourselves as you’re considering working together. Personally, Danny and I love working together. But we also meet lots and lots of people who tell us, “Oh, I love my husband,” or “Well, I really love my wife” — and then add, “but we could never work together!” Think through all the everyday life projects you do together. Home renovations, cooking, yard work, etc. Do you work well together under those circumstances? If the answer is yes, great. If it’s no, it’s time for some really careful consideration. The pressures of running a business (and the stress of each wedding day, in particular) is very real, and you need to be sure you’ll be on the same page and have each other’s backs, rather than ending up at each other’s throats.

To borrow from the French — will the business belong to “tu” or to “vous”?
One of the downsides of the English language is that we use the same word — “you” — to mean one person and to mean multiple people. The closest I can come to replicating the French “tu” (singular) and “vous” (multiple) would be “you” and “y’all.” So why is this important in this discussion? Well, because when you’re running a business together, you need to know whose business it is. Will one person have the final say in everything, while the other just plays a supporting role? Will you split the work and the decisions 50/50? Make a plan before you officially team up — the time to figure out what works for you is before you’re working, not when it’s time to make a significant business decision. It will also factor into how you brand your business and present your business to your clients.

Who will do what in your business?
From the beginning, Danny and I knew he would handle the post processing and anything technical/software-related. We knew I would take care of the clients and do all the planning — scheduling shoots, drawing up wedding day timelines, getting together with other vendors — and the (now-daily) blogging. There were a lot of other tasks we’ve split as they come along. We’ve been working to refine our process further this year, and we know this is another part of the business that will always be subject to change. It’s still important to discuss this, though. You need to know who will be doing what to keep your business running smoothly, and to simply get through your workflow for each wedding and shoot. Be open to change, but be ready to commit to tasks for the time being as well.

Do you have the same business goals?
This is so, so important. I really can’t emphasize it enough. You have to make sure you two are on the same page about the direction you want your business to go, from the pricing model to the way you advertise to the amount of time you’ll spend working each week. Figure out where you both want the business to take you, and make a plan to get there. And be intentional in making sure the business doesn’t entirely consume your life: Schedule work-talk-free nights, and turn off your email notifications after work hours so you don’t feel compelled to respond to inquiries at 11:00 pm. If you don’t both want the same things from and for your business, and if you don’t work to integrate your business into your life instead of letting it take over, you’ll be setting yourselves up for arguments and frustration.

Will your business be stronger if you work together?
This is a tough one. Analyze it. Answer honestly. Will the combination of your strengths and weaknesses make your business better or worse? For us, the answer was an obvious yes; a lot of my weaknesses are Danny’s strengths, and vise versa. But that won’t be the case for everyone. If you’re both procrastinators, or if you both like dreaming up big ideas but never follow through with the execution, you might be setting yourself up to only perpetuate your problems.

Will your relationship be stronger if you work together?
Even after you’ve answered all the other questions “correctly,” this is the one that really matters — and in the end, it’s the only one that really matters. If you believe working together will bring you closer and make you happier as a couple, that is fantastic. But if you don’t believe that — or if it becomes clear once you’re underway in your business that it doesn’t — reconsider. No business, no job, no career is worth undermining your marriage. Every husband-and-wife photography team will end up with disagreements about business. They should be quickly resolved though, and shouldn’t have a lasting impact on your relationship. So if, at any time, you can’t answer the question “will your relationship be stronger if you work together?” with a yes, I believe it’s time for a very serious reevaluation.

The whole point is to be a team. Your marriage makes you a team, and photography can make you a team, too. But your marriage should always, always come first.

(This picture is a great reminder of that for me — we were in California because of photography, but we spent several wonderful days just exploring, and building up our marriage. This shot was take during a little excursion through the Santa Monica Mountains.)Happy weekend, everyone.

~ Laura