What is it to be a Wedding Photographer?

The question is not about how to become a good wedding photographer or what skills one should have to become a good marriage photographer. It is about what it is like to be a wedding photographer and I will answer this question to the point.

1. Being a wedding photographer (candid) means you day starts at early in the morning and ends late night with the last request for 'one more photo, please'.

2. Being a wedding photographer (candid) means you will have food only once everyone is done, by which time there may not be anything left for you to eat. You may have to seriously compromise on your food timings and habits, if you are a health conscious person.

3. Being a wedding photographer means hours and hours of post processing over at least 2-3 weeks and correcting them to the perfection, which often go unnoticed and unaccredited for and all you get to hear is- why do you charge so much just for one day of shoot?

4. Being a wedding photographer means to be on your toes all the time and entertain each and every requests of guests for their photos even when you have to simultaneously cover the bride and groom as well.

5. Being a wedding photographer (at least in India) means people looking down upon you and thinking that this is the only job you have to win your bread and butter and not giving due respect to this profession.

6. Being a wedding photographer means you also need to be their constant guide (or rather directory) for all possible poses and still manage to take some candid shots.

7. Being a wedding photographer also means people expecting you to do anything (impossible) on this earth through post processing, anything. You know what I mean. :p

8. It's living up with the challenge that if you miss any important shot or precious moment, you will never be able to recreate that later for your client. Once gone, its gone forever.