As photographers, we love to daydream about having a personal project besides our daily work. It is a fantasy that very few can accomplish.

Back in 2011, my sister Tamara and I were together shooting 100 weddings per year. It was an insane amount of work. We were not only shooting but also were doing all the post processing and delivery. I knew I wanted to start a personal project but didn’t know how to begin. I had zero time or energy to develop something new.

One day, we were shooting a wedding at a Cancun all-inclusive venue. Tamara and I arrived early and went to check out the location for the reception. I walked into a ballroom and saw a scene that I will never forget. I found a group of three men holding a ladder with a fourth man standing at the top of it, changing a light bulb. The ceiling was at least 6m (20ft) high! I wasn’t even ready to start shooting, but I took the picture. My aperture was only F2.2 and my shutter speed was 100. These are very risky settings for almost any situation.

It is one of my most favorite images, and little did I know that it would become the beginning of a project that has been in the making for nine years. I have loved working on it.

The Wedding Vendors in Cancun

The wedding industry in Cancun is huge, and it supports hundreds of thousands of families’ economies, including ours. So I started taking pictures to celebrate the hard work of the people involved in these jobs.

Every opportunity I have, I document a scene or a situation — something that catches my attention with the vendors involved in weddings. I am so proud of all of them, of their dedication and commitment.

It is a project that doesn’t have my entire attention because when we are documenting a wedding, our focus is 100% on our clients and what is happening around them. But I’ve been able to catch some images that fit the stories, and I am very proud of them.

Tamara and I make sure our dear couples receive these images too. As they know, when they hire us, we love to document real moments, and the vendors become an essential part of the day.

Are You Ready to Start Your Own Project?

A personal project doesn’t necessarily have to take away all your time or require your full attention. You can start creating small projects within your working station, during your walk to work, at any event, or at any time during your daily activities. It has helped me tremendously to stay inspired and focus on what really matters: people, their relationships, and their stories.

Editor’s Note: A version of this article first appeared on Citlalli Rico’s blog.

Citlalli Rico is a Mexican artist and photographer based in Cancun who has been documenting weddings for 17 years and teaching photography for 14. Her Spanish language seminar at WPPI is about Capturing the Natural Beauty of Weddings.