Best Place in US to start a Wedding Photography business

[medina photography cherry]

This may be a stupid question and one that no one may know the

answer to.

 

Are there some places in the US that would be better than others for

starting a wedding photography business?

 

For instance I live in NJ (outside Philadelphia) there are probably

1 million (ok exageration) photographers around me, as opposed to

saw somewhere in the midwest.

 

Thanks

Rob

[mdickerson]

I think I can identify another city to stay away from: Los Angeles.

 

Problem one is that you have some truly top notch talent to compete with.

 

Problem two is that for every photographer that is better than you, there are five more that are worse, but take your business nonetheless because they are better at running the Hollywood hustle. I think it is a state law that every time the bill collectors or fraud investigators catch up with one of these people, two more must be born.

 

Problem three is that you have a sizable population of young "creative" people in greater or lesser stages of desperation, who try photography (among other things) when their micro-budget TV pilot or screenplay or whatever doesn't sell.

 

I imagine any city anywhere would have the same problems, but I think they are made worse here by the presence of the TV, movie, video game, and music industries.

[steve_gibbs1]

Rural, remote Idaho...

 

-is not a good place either. Marriage numbers are huge here but there are

WAY too many photogs and over-all, not a very large population. Local pay

wage is low, commercial rent is high.

 

I dont think it matters where you are. It is a rediculously competitive field

where there are no real industry requirements and the final product is so

subjective.

[art_haykin]

Virtually every city over 100,000 will have a fairly affluent, conservative community where traditional weddings are the rule rather than the exception. These demographics can be researched rather easily. Forget San Francisco and Eugene, Oregon. *~*

[Jerry_]

Los Vegas. If they have 24-hour-a-day wedding chapels, you could offer 24-hour-a-day photo coverage...

[vincetylor]

Wherever you go, there will be others ahead of you. When we started selling fine-art prints several years ago, there were already several artists doing the same thing ahead of us. I doubt if I were to have asked the very same thing you have asked above, about where to go to start taking and then selling landscapes, that anybody would have recommended Hawaii since there are MANY already doing this very thing. Nevertheless, we probably sell as many prints I would guess as anybody in Hawaii. The question you should be asking yourself then is where do I really want to LIVE? Then buckle down and get to work. Just choose a place that makes you happy and offers at least some opportunity. In fact, can you do the hula??

[medina photography cherry]

Thanks guys. I actually live in a very afluent area. I like what you said Vincent, find where I want to live. From the looks (outside looking in) the Fort Worth/ Dallas area looks pretty good. Well with a wife and four children it probably isn't going to happen unless I hit the lottery. Anyway, I was just curious as to what others thought about it.

 

Thanks