Photographing weddings isn’t like your normal 9-5 job. You can’t just decide one day to up & leave & do something else. Here in Ireland especially, a wedding photographer can get booked on a certain day two years in advance – that means no matter what is happening in your life, in two years time, on a certain day, you know where you have to be…no matter what.

So where as with 2020/2021, Covid & all that, some people decided to leave their ‘normal’ jobs & try something else, I pondered the opposite. And after what will be 19 years by the time I actually finish up next year, and well over 600 weddings, I am no longer taking bookings and will be moving on from photographing them.

There’s no major reason, I’ve just decided it’s what’s right for me now, so I’m moving on, after 19 years. Some of that is as above, having to commit to days so far in advance. My dad passed away last year, and that one wedding that was right in the middle of the removal/funeral is the first & only event in over 22 years as a professional photographer that I’ve had to find cover for, and I don’t want to have to worry about anything like that again…missing that wedding still hangs in my mind even with everything that was going on…I’m that kind of person.

Another reason for moving on, is that I always said from day 1 back in 2007 that if I ever got tired of weddings, I’d move on as it’s not the kind of job you can just turn up & do for the sake of doing. When I shoot a wedding, 100% of myself goes into covering the day. I’m not tired of weddings and am still enjoying photographing them in 2024 and will definitely enjoy the rest of the year & the few into 2025 I have. But there are signs I see, not on the photography side, certainly not on the couples side, it’s other things, things out of my control on a day. I’m just getting ahead of where I see those things progressing.

So after 19 years, over 600 weddings, from 3 hour short cover days to 18 hour mammoth days, it’s time to move on! Thanks to all my couples over the years that have trusted me to document their wedding days. From a rainy Mulranny in April 2007 for Susan & Aidan’s wedding, my first, to everyone in between & up to & including the weddings I still have to do…thank you all.

mark – strandhill photographer

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