We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Erin Marton. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Erin below.

Erin, appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I took a photojournalism class in college that was required for my degree. This was my first experience with learning to use a DSLR camera, and I was immediately hooked. I convinced my parents to let me borrow their camera and began taking it everywhere to practice.

Most of my photography skills are entirely self-taught and based on years of practice. I remember early on when I was learning how to photograph hearing an Ira Glass quote where he talks about how creative people become attached to creative work because they have great taste. But as a beginner, there’s a huge gap between your skillset and your creative vision. He explains that it’s easy to get disappointed by your own work and simply give up because it doesn’t look the way you’ve envisioned. This is a normal part of the process, and you just need to keep going and fight your way through.

This idea fueled me towards the wedding photography portfolio I have now. Whenever I felt discouraged that my abilities were lacking even though I knew what I wanted to create, I remembered that with every hour spent practicing and photographing, the gap was slowly closing, for the better.

The skill of simply figuring out a solution whenever obstacles arose was something I gained overtime. Being a small business owner (and especially being a wedding photographer) is constantly about figuring out how to pivot and try something new. Instead of getting discouraged when something wasn’t working, I’ve learned to pause and create a plan to move forward instead of reinventing the wheel.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I photograph weddings in a romantic, emotional, documentary-style. Much of my work centers around film photography and features candid, authentic moments from wedding celebrations.

Wedding photography first started because people simply wanted some great memories from their wedding days. They were lucky if a family member or friend had the equipment and skills to contribute. Wedding photos from eras past are full of life. They are “perfectly imperfect” as one of my photography inspirations, John Dolan, always says. I want that timeless element of photography to be present in my work. The sense of nostalgia, connection, and warmth that emanates from reflecting on your wedding day.

It’s common now for a lot of wedding photos to look the same. The process for many photographers has become formulaic. The wedding day can easily be seen as a checklist – make sure to get this photo, these people together, and have at least 12 variations of the exact same picture to make sure it’s all captured correctly.

I find that this kind of structure can completely stifle creativity and genuine experiences at a wedding. Each wedding is so individual to the couple, and I treat it so. Getting to know my couples before their wedding is a huge part of my process. By both meeting in person (whether for a pre-wedding shoot or just for a drink) and requesting their thoughts through a written questionnaire, I learn so much about them and their families. Understanding their vision for the day is crucial to how I photograph, because I quickly understand who the key people are and what interactions will occur that deserve to be highlighted.

Being completely present at a wedding is core to my work. Aside from photography, people skills matter deeply to creating honest images from a wedding. I lean into my intuition to know when to be silent and where to stand for the most powerful angle. A big part of a wedding is interacting with the invited guests. I want them to feel like I am part of this experience, because I am. When people feel comfortable around you, photographing them becomes easier.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

As soon as a new couple books me for their wedding, I share digital guides and resources along with an overview of what to expect while working together. I mail a gift to their home and plan a time for us to meet in person. After their wedding, I send a bottle of champagne for them to enjoy while viewing their wedding gallery for the first time. I try to send out yearly holiday cards, and we continue to interact on social media.

It’s a unique business, because each of my client relationships is fairly limited to their wedding celebration. Often, I’m lucky enough that those same wedding clients will ask me back to photograph their growing families. But so far, I haven’t had the same couple hire me twice for another wedding (except one during covid!).

Getting to know each couple on a personal basis and taking initiative to connect with them is both a huge part of my work and one of my favorite parts of the process. I am so fortunate to work with kind and supportive couples who want to be friends.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is that I get to truly live into my calling. I believe that I was created for the work that I am doing today. I feel most like myself when I am creating beautiful art out of people’s memories for them to relive forever.

To be an artist, you need to have a creative life and creative pursuits outside of the art that you are making for work. I need to make other art, just for me. I want my entire life to be a reflection of creativity. For me, this means experimenting with new dishes that I cook at home, painting, playing the piano, baking bread, and often having an uncommonly structured workday to accommodate that I’m most inclined to pursue in the moment.

The feeling of looking back on your day and being proud of what you got to accomplish is priceless. I want to experience that every day, and I do feel this often because of my work as a photographer.     

Contact Info:

• Website: https://erinmartonphoto.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erinmartonphoto/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@erinmartonphoto

Image Credits
Erin Marton Photography