I shot my first wedding back in 2008. I was shooting landscapes for fun at the time, and a friend from college asked me to shoot her wedding. I was like “What? I shoot rocks. I shoot trees.” But she was certain I’d take great wedding photos, and referred me to a friend, and things sort of snowballed from there. Today I shoot six or eight weddings a year, and save some weekends in the fall for family portrait sessions.
The thing I love most about SmugMug is the organizer, where I upload my images. There are no storage limits and the photos live there forever. One time a wedding client reached out five years after his wedding and asked me to resend his photos. If I’d had them spread out over hard drives like I used to, it would have taken me two hours at least to find that shoot. But when it lives on SmugMug, I can just immediately send them the link.
The tools are great, and I’m really impressed with how fast the process is to upload. My clients are excited to receive that link with all their photos, and the faster I can get it to them, the happier they are.
I use SmugMug as both my portfolio and my storage for client shoots. I organize my photos by subject, and my family shoots by year, just to make them that much easier to find. It’s especially helpful because my family shoots are almost all repeat clients. Some families I’ve been shooting portraits of every year for like ten years. Even shooting just a few weekends a year, that’s Christmas money, new lens money. It’s perfect.
