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From Generalist to Specialist: Picking your specialty and crafting your unique offerings. My journey to becoming a wedding photographer

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Updated: Jan 21

When I started my freelance photography journey in March 2023, my offering was broad and varied. I thought I would cast a wide net in the hopes of catching something, anything. I showcased everything from interiors to christenings, architecture, travel, headshots and pets. My website was a jumbled collection of “this and that”, no clear offering and direction, but showing willingness and ability to cover anything I could!



In September 2023 I received an SOS from a friend to cover a wedding for December. I had thought it would be a good few years until I cracked into the wedding industry, after all, I was still early days in my career and it’s a lot of pressure on someone’s big day. However, I spoke to the couple and explained it would be my first wedding, they were charming and delightful, and keen to hire me. I was thrilled.


The wedding day came around and it was an absolutely wonderful day, a beautiful and joyful occasion, I loved being a part of it. New Year followed swiftly and with no other weddings in the diary, and knowing many couples book their photographers months in advance, I continued to advertise my broad photography services. After all, one wedding doesn’t make a portfolio.


Fast forward to six months since my first wedding and I have covered an additional seven weddings. Four more of my own, two as a second shooter and one as an associate, with several more in the diary for 2024 and 2025.


With this snowballing and referral effect of weddings, alongside how much I enjoyed being a “wedding photographer” I knew it was time to edit my website, remove old content and refine my offerings.


But why not stay broad?


There are many pros to being a generalist photographer- a wider market, more opportunities, more variety in your day to day, and covering a range of skills and situations. However, there are lots of pros to being a specialist too! Here are my top 3 reasons why I think it’s beneficial to narrow down your services (with a focus on wedding photography).


  1. Confidence. Your couples will come onto your website with confidence that you are an established and skilled wedding photographer. They won’t get sidetracked with irrelevant content or confused about what you actually offer.

  2. Attracting the jobs you want! Your website and social media is your storefront, it should showcase not only what you have created, but what you want to create in the future. It should be designed to attract clients for the jobs you actually want, honing your skills in your chosen area and spending your time on jobs you enjoy!

  3. What you can charge as a specialist vs a generalist. As a rule of thumb, a dedicated and specialist wedding photographer can (and will) charge a premium over a general photographer who dabbles in weddings. Couples will pay a premium for hiring an expert and a specialist in the wedding industry.



Bride and her father arrive at wedding ceremony

Now, having said all that, I do still offer more than just weddings, less than 18 months into my freelance photography career and less than 10 weddings under my belt, I’m certainly not at a place yet that I would be turning work away, but I have narrowed down my offering to weddings, events and couple/engagement photoshoots. I replaced the imagery on my website with weddings, I deleted old irrelevant content from my Instagram page, I used testimonials from weddings and have created dedicated pages on my website to outline my wedding services and prices. My other offerings have been delegated to smaller sub-pages on my website, but are still there to direct clients to, should they enquire.


My hope that as I continue to cover more weddings, I will grow into a dedicated wedding photographer and specialist in my chosen field. This won’t be an overnight change, but curating my offering and website was the first major step in deciding what kind of photographer I actually want to BE.


So what are your thoughts on generalist vs specilaist? Let me know in the comments below or drop me a message 😊


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