The Unexpected Freedom I Found in Second Shooting Weddings

IT FEELS SO GOOD TO BLOG AGAIN!!!!!

I truly don’t even know how long it has been since my last blog, maybe almost a year? HOW CRAZY!!! From blogging almost once a week to our life changing, flipping upside down and having to readjust…..everything…to find a new normal!!

This past year has looked a little different for me with stepping into a part-time job at TJ MAXX (that I really am there full time hours) and navigating a different rhythm of life and business than I was used to. Me + Justin decided to pull our kids out of public school and enroll them in a private school on the other side of our town, it just made sense to get a (what I was thinking was a small part time job) close to their school to be near them during the day, turned into God actually using that job as a stepping stone in our life. Last summer when we made this decision and pulled the kids out of public school, in the same month Justin also switched jobs due to HUGE amounts of stress which was a huge change for us, the school we wanted to put the boys in actually closed down so then we had to hunt for a new school with just 2 weeks until the new school year started and they weren’t enrolled anywhere, we had more going out than coming in financially than we ever had before and we didn’t understand why everything felt like it was falling apart while simultaneously coming together at the same time, but now a year later we can look back and see the hand God had in all of it for us.

We finally found the perfect school for the boys and got them enrolled just in time for school to start. I started working at TJ Maxx a few days before school started to get used to a new routine before we hit the ground running with a WHOLE new routine. I have been there almost a year now and I truly love it there with what I do (NEVER as much as shooting weddings though! :) ) Justin is now working at a job that is so good for his mental health and is THRIVING there. And life feels like it is starting to be normal again instead of navigating a boat on the ocean in the middle of a hurricane.

While I definitely fell behind on sharing consistently, I’ve still spent so much time around weddings, mostly second shooting alongside other photographers! I have met some amazing ones this past year, but Coby is who I second shoot with the most, and I just can’t believe that we haven’'t met sooner! We really are two peas in a pod!!! We met through another photographer and just clicked, and we have now done so many weddings together.

And honestly? I didn’t expect second shooting to give me so much freedom through all of this that the past year has thrown at us!

Somewhere between photographing quiet in-between moments, observing how other photographers navigate wedding days, and creating without carrying the full mental load of leading a timeline… I started feeling creatively present again, and I don’t think there has been a greater gift than that while trying to find your footing in life again.

I don’t think I realized while lead shooting my own weddings the mental load it was taking on me throughout this past season of life. I was stuck in a very robotic, uncreative way of doing life and my business, and that wasn’t good for anyone involved! Being able to second shoot with Coby has helped me notice what I love about wedding photography again! For the first time in a long time, I felt creatively present instead of mentally ahead. Not having to manage timelines, family dynamics, lighting changes, staying ahead, making decisions constantly. While yes I still help with these things while second shooting, for some reason it just feels….lighter and easier?

Seeing how other photographers work on wedding days just like me has really opened my eyes to realizing nobody’s wedding days are flawless. Watching different personalities lead differently. Seeing there’s no “one right way.” It made me feel so much more normal to see other photographers share the same “struggles” as I do, and to see we really are all just human and trying our best!

I never stopped leading my own wedding days, I just really scaled back the amount I was taking on because I was actually drowning with not enough hours in my days to keep up with everything that was on my plate authentically. I am actually SO excited for this next year in my business because now that our life has calmed down some, we have more of a routine, and I have found some of the MOST AMAZING and encouraging friends through wedding photography, it’s time to start opening up some more availability in my bookings to get back to what I was doing before!! Im definitely entering this new season with more trust in myself and more room for creativity and connection on wedding days! I have seen the version of myself that shows up on wedding days when I’m second shooting and it’s almost like I see the day in a whole new light. Guests’ reactions seem more visible, the details that most overlook seem easier to find. And that is the version of myself that I will start carrying into my own wedding days now! Almost like a new side of Sam has been unlocked, for the better! haha.

Somewhere along the way, I think I forgot that wedding photography was supposed to feel creative and meaningful, not just productive.

This season of second shooting has quietly brought me back to that.

So I thought I’d share a few of the moments that made me pause lately. The quiet ones, the joyful ones, the in-between ones… the kinds of moments that reminded me to slow down and simply notice again! INone of them in order, just a few of my favorite moments (I have a million more) from all of the weddings I have second shot this past year!

Thanks for reading

XOXO, Sam