I vividly remember leaving a wedding in 2014 feeling like I’d absolutely crushed it.

I vividly remember it because it’s genuinely the only time I’ve ever left a wedding feeling like I’d crushed it. Nailed it. Smashed it. Whatever you want to say.

That wedding turned out to be one of the only weddings in my entire career of 500+ weddings where I received a complaint about the photos.

True story.

Usually, I leave weddings with a sense of scraping through and hoping that what needs to be there is there when I get it into the cull and edit.

I’m talking about this subject this week because amongst my friends and some of the stuff I’m sensing on instagram, we’ve reached the ‘swimming through treacle’ stage of the season earlier than usual.

It was always going to happen this year, with people overbooking, taking on too much, without much foresight and just trying to recover financially from the last two years. Me very much included.

I’ve shot 23 of my 46 events so far this year. It’ll be more than 46 if you include some of the pre-events I’m shooting for some of my Indian wedding couples, and the extra couple of winter bookings that usually happen.

You may be shooting more than that or less than that and still feeling the burn. I normally shoot 25 so I’ve shot what I’d usually shoot in a year, before the end of June.

I just don’t want you thinking I’m sitting here writing these newsletters from a position of comfort! Anyway…

My wedding on Saturday felt difficult from start to finish. It was such a great wedding – wonderful people, high energy, incredible styling, next level entertainment and everyone had the time of their lives.

But I felt the creative struggle all day. At no point did I feel like I was nailing anything.

I’ve been doing this for enough years to know this feeling always comes, every year. It’s fatigue, burnout, whatever you want to call it… That’s what it is.

For me, knowing it’s not the wedding’s fault, and it’s not me being rubbish at photography either, helps me a lot.

It helps me lean into that feeling and know that I just have to keep doing what I do, both subconsciously (instincts) and consciously (effort).

Because, usually, the thing that’s affected most by fatigue and burnout is instinct. That subconscious ability to be in the right place at the right time.

So I imagine it a bit like one of those old school weighing scales where you put weight on each side to balance it out… if one side is subconscious/instinct and the other is conscious/effort then at the times when my instincts are affected by burnout or my mood, I need to put more weight on the effort side.

This is also why when you’re fresh as a daisy, weddings feel easy, and your instinct floats you round all day and nothing feels difficult.

What is difficult is feeling like you’re nailing it in the thick of crazy season.

Just have faith that through the cull, edit and delivery phase you’ll pull it out of the bag just like always.

Have faith.

Faith in yourself.

Faith in the process.

And give it all you can give it at every wedding. At the times when the effort feels greater, just know it’s because your subconscious instincts are fatigued and you’re taking more of the strain consciously.

Our couples deserve us to balance out that instinct-effort scale.

For me, knowing I’ve given a wedding all I can give it is all I can ask of myself. Which is why, on one of only two short 20 minute breaks I got on Saturday, when I heard the band strike up playing Sweet Caroline, I downed my coffee, loaded as much chocolate cake as I could into my mouth, and ran back to the dancefloor with my stormchaser flash on a pole and loaded the effort side of my mental scales with weights.

I’ll never regret coming home with an image like the one below. Even if two pieces

Max effort. Keep clicking. Thanks for reading.

Adam

PS – I have a big mouth so it was approximately 1.5 slices of chocolate cake.

PPS – It was worth it: