My wife, Allison, and I started Callaway Gable over 11 years ago, shortly after she took a pregnancy test and realized we were unexpectedly expecting. We were terrified, wondering how we were going to take care of this future human. I was a sometime actor and Allison was a model and part-time teacher. Making a real living and planning for the future was always at the back of our minds, but not with the intensity that came with this overwhelming news. So what did we do? We got drunk. Well, I did, while Allison watched. When I finally woke up the next morning, we put a plan together to pursue a professional career in photography.

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While many of my fellow thespians worked as servers and bartenders to make ends meet, I booked odd photography jobs, mostly headshots, non-profit annual reports and live music. It wasn’t great money, but it was a chance to experiment and hone my craft. When we found out we were going to be parents, Allison joined me. I taught Allison how to photograph and she showed me how to pose and work with people. Together we started pursuing the new bars, restaurants, lofts, and movers and shakers of the burgeoning and revitalized downtown scene in Los Angeles where we lived. Within a few months, we started booking more sophisticated work with complicated light setups and bigger budgets. It was happening, people!

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Then the quintessential moment that inevitably happens to all photographers happened to us. A client asked us to shoot her wedding. Little did we know that we were about to stumble upon a wedding photography approach that has become our blueprint for over a decade of success. 

What is the blueprint? It is important to note that this process hasn’t changed much over the years, and what works for us may not work for everyone. It starts by photographing the wedding like a commercial shoot. Inspired by fashion, we use off-camera light and tight apertures, resulting in portraits that look different and more expensive. They have a fashion magazine feel, and this is important: Our clients want to look their most beautiful on the most important day of their lives. This means we need to take control and direct them, pose them and find their best angles. Flowers, food and the venue are given equal importance, captured as if it were a product or architecture shoot. After the wedding, we quickly turn around a gallery of the details for the planner and vendors to use to promote their work. Today, when any of our wedding planner friends have a wedding with details, we are on the top of their list. Referrals like these are key to having a long career in wedding photography. Moments are shot dramatically and creatively like a lifestyle shoot. While we cannot control naturally occurring moments during getting- ready, ceremony and speeches, we can control the light and often where things are happening. In post, we do minimal editing, preferring to stick with vibrant colors and crisp blacks and whites, just the way we delivered our commercial imagery.

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So how can you create your own plan for longevity? It’s all about relationships, not trends. Foster your relationships with vendors, especially planners and venues. Deliver detail photos in a downloadable gallery within a day or two of the wedding. During the wedding, create Instagram posts, tagging the planner and all of the vendors; they will love you for that. Offer to photograph wedding planners and their teams for their websites. Wine them and dine them. These relationships will pay off for years and years to come.

Stay away from trendy treatments, copying  and over-editing. Let your photos speak for themselves. If you feel that your talent is lacking, do what we did—use engagement shoots to master off-camera light and other techniques. Experiment at an engagement; execute at the wedding.

Also, cull and color-correct your own photos—this is the fastest way to improve because you can immediately see what works and what doesn’t. Use resources like WPPI, Rangefinder and workshops to improve your technique and business practices. You’ll also make invaluable new friends.

Under-promise and over-deliver. Stay true to yourself. Be you. Don’t look at what everyone else is doing. Be a good human. Be kind. Run your business like a business. Don’t complain or whine. Love everyone. Be in service to your client and check your ego at the door. If you do this, you will have a long career in wedding photography, and anything else you put your mind to.  And charge more—you are worth it.

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