So if you’ve ever browsed my website or looked around even on my instagram page you will see that Taylor Nicole Photography is a wedding photography team. My business is made up of myself and my husband as well as two associate photographers. Keep listening to this episode if you want to know what it means to have a wedding photography team. What is an associate photographer is and how we utilize them. And what it looks like to work with an associate photographer.

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Inside the episode

I am going to keep this episode closely related to our associate photography team. In general every photography business is different and there are a lot of ways that businesses have created photography teams or even studios of multiple photographers. I like to think that I am unique in the fact that my associate team is a fixed team, and when I quote clients for associate photography coverage the client is working with the same photographer throughout their whole experience with us. Some photographers out there book a wedding and then hire the associate for that wedding later on, but not us! That’s besides the point. In this episode I want to break down the process of working with our associate team, common misconceptions of associate photographers and then explain the benefits of our associate team.

Let’s start by explaining our process.

1. When we receive an inquiry I decide which photographer would best fit for that wedding. This is usually based on everyone’s availability and the location of the wedding. So then I respond to every inquiry letting them know which of our team members is available. Let’s say in this example that my associate photographer Alysha is the team member available for this day.
2. So I handle all of our back end communication and planning so after I respond letting them know who is available the potential clients set up a consultation call with me where I take notes on their plans, create a potential photo timeline and explain the process of working with our team.
3. From there when the client books we set up the contract and invoice and move forward with the planning. Usually the engagement session is next. I share the location and outfit guide with our clients and we schedule the engagement session based on the client and the photographer’s availability. In this example it would be based on Alysha’s availability. 
4. Alysha then arrives to the engagement session and meets the couple, photographs their portraits and then after the session transfers her files to me.
5. I edit and deliver the engagement photos and we move forward with the wedding planning.
6. Closer to the wedding day I set up a final check in call with the clients where I take notes on their day, update our photo timeline idea and then pass everything along to Alysha and our hired second photographer. 
7. Alysha and the hired second photographer arrive and photograph the client’s wedding day. After the wedding they transfer all their files to me and I get to do the sorting, editing and delivery to the clients. 

Three common misconceptions about associate photographers

1. They are new to weddings, have less experience or aren’t trained
   • This thankfully couldn’t be farther from the truth for our team! Alysha ran her own wedding photography business for over 10 years and Ashley has been photographing weddings for over 6 years for her own business as well. Why are they associate photographers then? Because the associate role allows them to be with clients and photograph wedding days which they love doing, but leave the editing, logistics and communication to me. They each have multiple sweet kiddos at home so being able to do this job without all of the back end work saves them a lot of time for their families.
   • And I will explain more about this later but we actually go through a team training process each year with myself and the associate photographers to make sure we are on the same page about posing, gear, settings, and visual direction of our brand as a whole. So not only does each associate photographer bring years of their own experience but they are specifically trained for my business and brand as well.
2. They are second photographers
   • Some people assume that Alysha or Ashley will arrive to the wedding day with me as my second photographer, but they will each be the lead photographer for any wedding day that they are booked for. We train a new group of second photographers each year to serve our business, so those trained second photographers will join Alysha or Ashley for each wedding day and for the associate weddings I do not arrive but am the backend, logistics and planning support role.
3. The photographer for the wedding day might change.
   • Unless in the case of an emergency the photographer that I quote each client for will stay the same through the entire process. I never quote someone for a wedding with myself and then decide to send an associate instead. Once a client books and completes their contract I have a contract that officially hires and commits the associate to that wedding date also, so it is locked in from the beginning. If Ashley is photographing a client’s wedding she will also photograph their engagement session too. The only reason a photographer would change is if there were a day of emergency, which I will also explain more on in the next section too.

Benefits of Working With an Associate Wedding Photography Team.

1. First, there is training and consistency in the photographic process
   • I had never thought of creating a training or a wedding guide for my business before I hired and started working with my associates. I didn’t even train my second photographers before this.
   • The act of going through a wedding day and breaking it down to what I look for and the images that I most consistently deliver to our clients was eye opening! It gave structure to the poses that I opt for, it had me put words and reasoning to the lighting conditions that we prioritize and so on.
   • It not only makes my team more consistent but it has actually made me a more aware and consistent photographer myself. 
   • Now all of our wedding clients, whether its me as the lead photographer or my associates, have a very cohesive and consistent experience with us on their wedding days and we deliver a very consistent style of poses and images to each of our clients because of our training together.
2. Next, having a team has increased my editing consistency
   • We deliver anywhere from 500-1000 images from wedding days. One aspect to delivering consistent images is photographing in consistent light settings, so through our training we are able to achieve that as a team and then it’s also just more images for me to edit. I have my programs trained and have our editing down to a science from editing all of our team’s weddings. I love adding the film nostalgia and aesthetic to all of our work to make it consistent. 
   • I would say that having an associate team has helped even more thoroughly develop my editing style than I would have just on my own.
3. We each have built in emergency backups
   • I have a real life and recent example of how this played out. I had a wedding in March that was the day after a big blizzard. This wedding was about a 3.5 hour drive for me and while I was relatively confident I could make it safely to this mountain town my associate Alysha lived under an hour from the town. So I checked in with her earlier that week and let her know about my concerns and she had all of her gear prepared and was ready to be a replacement for myself if I for some reason couldn’t make it. This blizzard hit my area of the state very hard, I ended up with just shy of 3 feet of snow and it was a long process to get to that wedding. I did make it to that mountain town the night before, which I am so thankful for. And I let Alysha know as soon as I made it too. That obviously doesn’t happen often as most of our weddings are not in Winter conditions here in Colorado but having that backup to call on was such a huge stress relief in knowing that our clients would be taken care of by my own team no matter what.
   • This is also why I train our second photographers each year, because if there were a delay in the lead photographer arriving the second could take over and run the timeline seamlessly for us just in case! 
4. Lastly, the team provides more touch points to catch errors and improve client experiences
   • Since I pass along our timelines and client notes to my associates for their weddings if I had missed something they are able to catch that when they review and quickly relay that to myself and I adjust accordingly. I can’t think of a specific example of this as I am very detail oriented but in the middle of wedding season there are a lot of details to keep track of so I do greatly appreciate the extra set of eyes on our plans too!
   • We are a well oiled machine when it comes to wedding season and do our best to cover all of our bases and plan for everything. That way when myself or my team members show up to your wedding day we are ready to run the photo timelines for you so that you get to be present and enjoy your day! 

In conclusion, I hope you enjoyed learning more about our associate experience and the benefits I’ve seen while working as a team. If you’re working with us as your wedding photographers in the next few years I can say that we are so excited to serve you, and if you’re looking for a wedding photographer now I hope this was a great explanation and information source about our team to help your search! You can contact us about your wedding photography here.

xo, Taylor Nicole

All images in this blog post were taken by associates for Taylor Nicole Photography.