I’m a wedding photographer. With a non-typical wedding photographer’s background.
Let’s travel back some years.
After finishing my military services in the early 2000′s, I had no clue what I wanted with my life. A proper education was the easy choice, so I ended up applying to some schools in Stockholm. I wanted to study web design and IT. Once the approved applications dropped through my letterbox, I wasn’t sure anymore.
I had – just in case – also applied to a business school in Northern Sweden, and was luckily accepted there as well. So I decided to give it a shot. At least it’d give me a few more years to figure out what I wanted, as well as a good degree.
University was four great years, but I figured out that economics wasn’t what I wanted to do for a living. I finished and got my degree though.
Next stop: Stockholm. To find a job.
And I did find a job. A quite nice one too, where I was paid to be creative. Designing, layouting, writing. Not what I went to school for, but I liked it.
I spent two years at that job. And I learned lots. But most importantly, this was where my interest for photography grew. Over time, I became the in-house photographer and it didn’t take me long to realize that this was what I wanted to do. Full time.
I have always created stuff, but I was never really good at drawing or painting and writing really didn’t do it for me. The camera was ‘it’ though. My thing.
So I started to build my own arsenal of camera gear. Read lots of books and got a proper photography education. And most of all, I shot thousands and thousands of photos.
And quite soon I realized wedding photography was what I liked the most. For a few different reasons:
The creative part.
There’s so much going on throughout a wedding day. From early morning to late night. It’s the perfect place to be creative with photography.
The storytelling.
A wedding day usually starts early morning and finishes late night. I want to tell that story without any words.
The challenge.
There will be only one chance and you can’t fail. That keeps me on my toes all the time.
The smiles.
I’m yet to see angry or sad people on a wedding day. Nervous, yes, but otherwise it’s usually all smiles. Or happy tears. Which is a pretty great environment to work in.
Those are some of the reasons why I like wedding photography.
So I quit my job to do photography full time.
Right now I live in Vancouver, BC, Canada, working together with Vancouver photographer Cole Roberts (whom I met at business school in Swenden – yes, we both have strange backgrounds) at Nordica Photography. What the future holds, I have no idea.