There was a time early in my life when I had hair down to my bum, refused to wear shoes (because they were separating me too much from Mother Earth) and I was busking my way through the then dirty, surfy streets of Australia’s Byron Bay with my mate, Arch. Using only patchouli to cover the smell of my 20-year-old-ness, Arch and I busked the whole soundtrack of The Lion King night and day for loose change that would get us Big Macs and coolers of beer. I was living, man. And, shit, was the world lucky to have me.

At the time, I was unsure what I wanted to do beyond finding the next case of beer to drink. But I’m glad I had that time of aimlessness (that extended well beyond 1996) because once I found what I actually wanted to do, I latched on with determination and passion like my life depended on it.

Making the Leap to Full-Time Wedding Photography

In the not-too-distant future from my days in Byron Bay, I found my way into a public service job that paid my bills and found a flicker of passion in my free time in painting. Foraging a thirst for creation and a layman’s fine-art background, I created a large body of work and started exhibiting at galleries across Australia. Around the age of 32, I thought that I’d found my destiny in painting. Painting was my “career” in my mind and playing music was where my evenings were spent. 

In the way that many of our industry happenstanced their way into a career in wedding photography, the inevitable happened when I was gifted a camera and my medium changed all but overnight. Although I was still painting, I found the third source of income in cash jobs for photographing weddings in my free time around 2007. When it came down to both weddings and gigs for my band vying for my weekends, the decision between one or the other had to be made, and I’m surprised to say it was Googled best man speeches and dance floor cut-ups that took the cake.

Kenny Kim Shares the Pivotal Moments That Helped Build His Wedding Photography

I proceeded to quit my public service job and shoot every gig that was thrown my way. I was hungry to learn, and so 8.5-foot-high, unlit ceilings in community halls, Jewish hora dance floors with 250 people on them, and spontaneous drunk guest wedding speeches were the best place to learn. I was shooting upwards of 60 weddings a year in every ballroom that would have me, and I was learning quick and failing often. The benefit, I think, in not having any kind of a background in photography (especially not wedding photography) was that I was looking at these events and documenting them without a preconception of what it had to look like in the end. I was just showing up to people’s parties and documenting them in the way that my eye saw naturally.

In 2010, I had my first international speaking gig at the What If conference in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Jesh de Rox had become a friend and given my name to Steve and Jen Bebb who were organizing it all, and it was then that I was handed my first gig as a speaker. In 2010 speaking conferences weren’t as common as your mailman coming every day, and at the time it felt like a really big deal to be asked (it’s still a big deal to be asked—thank you, Bebbs, if you’re watching. And hi, Mum.)

In 2012 I shot the wedding of Tara and Paul at Alder Manor in Yonkers, New York, and it became for me a wedding that got me a lot of traction on the interwebs. After five years of spraying and praying for my work (so to speak), I had been given this gig with a woman who was the ultimate dream bride as far as the next stage of my career was concerned. Tara said to me, “I really don’t have any expectations from you at all, but I like how you see the world. I just want you to see my wedding day.” I internalized that amazing compliment as complete freedom to see the world how I see it, and at the time it gave me the encouragement I needed to trust my gut and my eye. It was also my first confirmation that how I saw naturally without influence was resonating with people other than myself. 

Creating a Wedding Photography Experience That Truly Caters to Your Couples

After that, and because the internet has no borders, I got more inquiries internationally and started traveling more and more. At the time, it was an ultimate career dream. I had come a long way from singing “Can You Feel The Love Tonight?” in the heat of the Aussie sun.

As my career was changing around 2012, I began attending conferences, speaking at things, and entering photo competitions for the AIPP and WPPI. The awards won me notoriety, which gained me respect, which got me work. Friendships made at WPPI gave me industry connections, which helped me gain awareness of so many other people’s work in the industry and vice versa. In an industry like ours, I’m always amazed at the size and depth of it (both big and tiny). The friendships I made in 2012 are ones I thankfully still have today and ones that helped shape my career.

Last November, I was standing in front of one of my idols, Sue Bryce, in a Californian desert, telling her how to pose her arm on her wedding day (gulp). No amount of Jewish dance floors or comp awards or speaking gigs could’ve made me feel any differently than packing my jocks in that moment. I wonder sometimes, though, if that deep gut fear and lack of complacency helps us in our careers at times. If I still thought I was God’s gift to Elton John, maybe I wouldn’t have tried as hard as I did in that moment.