We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Leah Black a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Leah, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start big picture – what are some of biggest trends you are seeing in your industry?

Being and adventurous wedding photographer is truly an evolving and growing industry. As inflations rises and social media trends push towards unique weddings that are more intentional I have seen a huge shift of couples looking to have and elopement with either just themselves or even a microwedding (typically less than 15 guests). Typically when a couple chooses a smaller wedding the focus shifts from material aesthetics towards a true once in a lifetime wedding day experience. This look different depending on the couples, but that is also the beauty. For some couples they LOVE the idea of a truly adventurous wedding day and may decide to taking a helicopter to a glacier in Alaska to say their private vows or even do their first dance at a hidden waterfall. For some the ideal day might be renting a backcountry cabin accessible by 4WD only and then hiring a private chef to cook a meal after you spend a day exploring mountain passes by jeep or SUPing on an alpine lake. And others the simple beauty of renting out a group campsite and having a sunrise ceremony followed by a camp inspired brunch with their closest family and friends is what speaks most to them. I have loved seeing this trend of intentionality around your wedding day experience evolve as it really starts to showcase the unique personalities of each couple while also creating a wedding day experience that you will never forget.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I always tell people that getting into adventurous wedding photography was one of those happy accidents, yet it also feels like it is what I was always supposed to do. Between my freshman and sophomore year of college I got to go do a medical internship in India for a month and a half. This experience was intended to help me to of course build my resume to enter into the medical field, but what it really did was deeply inspire me to travel and develop curiosity around various cultures across the globe. Ultimately I did end up going into the medical industry initially, but my husband ended up buying me my first “fancy” camera to help me build my website and blog for a private practice and also capture our personal travels. Long story short, this camera that was intended for just travel and my budding private practice slowly shifted into people asking me to take photos for them. Full transparency my thoughts were a strong “heck no”. It felt like so much pressure to capture phots of families and couples on one of the most important days of their lives. However, after someone being extremely insistant that that wanted me to I immediately feel in love with capturing love stories, specifically in the outdoors. I honestly didn’t know that I needed a creative outlet, but also that a creative endeavor could be a career. Now after so many classes, workshops, and continued learning I am even more in love and completely obsessed with the honor it is to document someones love story. On a personal level becoming an adventurous wedding photographer has brought me so much fulfillment and joy by being able to help couples plan out their days as soon as they book (location scouting, permit assistance, vendor recommendations, etc, ect…) all the way to the delivery of their photos where most couples for the first time get to relive the best day for the first time.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

A good product is a good product. However there are lots of people who can make good products. Therefore the biggest difference I found between a creative hobby business versus a profitable creative endeavor was the business side of the industry. How you market, set up your website, and workflows are crucial to success, at least in my personal opinion. If you can, invest in a good graphic designer and website developer that can set you up for success on the front end right away and don’t forget about investing in a good back end side of business. I personally have been using and loving Dubsado for my client management which has been incredibly helpful in keeping me organized and aspects of my business as automated as possible. I still have not fully used this program to its capacity, but I am very excited to dive deeper into all this program has to offer. One resource that I am also wishing I would have learned about sooner was SEO. I recently purchased “Fuel your Photos SEO” course but I have heard there are lots of great courses out there for specific industries.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

YES! The first book I recommend for someone to read is “Start with Why” by Simon Sinek followed by “Discover your Why”. This really helped me understand my mission and reason for pursuing adventurous wedding photography. Once you have your “why” dialed in I highly recommend a book called “Building a Story Brand” by Donald Miller. This helped me better understand my customers and how to create my brand that spoke to them and also was a reflection of who I am serving. THEN I recommend a book called “Sell or Be Sold” by Grant Cardone. As someone who has had no “formal” education in sales this book has really helped me understand what it actually means to sell and how selling is truly and aspect of every day life and how to use the principles to achieve your goals and help people.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.leahblackphotography.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/leahblackphotography
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/leahblackphotography

Image Credits
Image Credits: Leah Black Photography