Ep.8 | Making Money with Destination Photoshoots

On this episode of Talking S#!t with the Cincottas, we’re breaking down how we turned destination photoshoots into one of the most profitable (and fun) parts of our business. From our very first senior session in New York to weddings around the world, we’ve learned the hard lessons: What to charge, how to pitch it, what clients really want, and the logistics nobody talks about.

This isn’t just about taking pretty pictures in a cool city. It’s about creating an experience, building a portfolio that sells, and making sure you don’t end up broke in the process. We share the wins, the screw-ups, and everything in between.

If you’ve ever dreamed of traveling with your camera—or just want the raw truth about what it really takes—this one’s for you.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

What's up, everyone? Welcome back to the podcast. Today, we're going to talk about how to make money and successfully plan destination photo shoots. It's a hot topic. A lot of people ask us that. We get to travel the world doing what we love. Sometimes it's hard to believe it's a job, but there is a lot that goes into it. And I think we should talk about that today. I would say throughout most of my career, that is a question I get asked a lot about.

SPEAKER_02 0:30

What's the question? Like, how do you, like, how do you get started? It's all

SPEAKER_01 0:34

along those lines. Like, how do you get started? How do you coordinate it? How do you run it? How do you sell it? What was your first destination photo shoot? Yeah. So I actually didn't realize it was a thing. So I stumbled across it once again, right? Just too stupid to really know any better.

SPEAKER_02 0:49

My stupid man.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

I'm a stupid son of a bitch. We had a high school senior and I think the weather here in St. Louis, and this was very early on. I was I would say, okay, you have to rewind. 18 years ago and longer, most senior portraits were in studio. That's what all mine were. Right. And that was normal. When we came on the scene, at least in our market, we ripped the Band-Aid off that. And we were like, we're not shooting in studio. We're on location.

SPEAKER_02 1:21

Like super wide angles.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

Yeah, wide angles.

SPEAKER_02 1:24

Weird angles.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Right. And that's what put me on the map. I mean, that's how we became successful. And that's how we got an education as well. so of course right out of the gate that was not the norm so there was no one really I was just happy to be outside in you know this area shooting that let alone thinking about shooting in New York or Chicago or anything like that and so one day we had a senior who had had to reschedule their photo shoot and the mom called in she's like man well you know we have to sorry we have to do this we have to reschedule our photo shoot she has to be in New York with me where going to, I think it was a doctor's visit up in New York. They had family up there. Whatever it was, doesn't matter. And I was like, we can do her senior pictures in New York. And I just threw it out. I had no idea what I was going to charge for. Nothing, right? And she's like, you would do that? I'm like, yeah you would like it's inconveniencing you well i mean nobody doesn't at the time no one did that right it's all you have to have context and history no one did that everything was like in studio so she's like you would do that you know because you got airfare hotel all this other stuff and i was like so i was just spitballing it and i'm like i'm like yeah we'll you know we'll go up there and uh you know we'll do it and you'll come back here and you'll see your pictures here in our studio and everything else will be the same we didn't charge her an additional session fee i just charged her the normal session fee which was even today same amount$2.99 I used that to cover airfare at a companion pass was my ex-wife at the time and so she flew for free and we had the cost of a hotel so out of the gate I was probably underwater you know$150 you know when it was all said and done from the session fee and we did her senior pictures in New York and then her friends saw that when she got home and And I don't even think at the time, like Instagram was a thing. So her friend saw her pictures when she got home and they were like, wow, who did those? Right. And you know, it was like, oh, Sal Sincotta, Sal Sincotta. And then our name started getting out there. And then all of a sudden that turned into all sorts of people reaching out to us to go photograph their kids in other cities. So then what that led to, which is why I think we should talk about this. And we still live this way today. We're like, where do you want to go?

SPEAKER_03 3:50

And

SPEAKER_01 3:51

And so we'd put dates on the calendar and we'd say, we're going to be in New York this week. We're going to be in Chicago this week. We're going to be, and then we'd start promoting that to new customers. Every time someone new called in, you know, I'm interested in your packages and pricing. We'd say, yeah, here's our standard in studio package. Here's our on location package. Also not sure what your travel schedule looks like, but we'll be in New York on these days, Chicago on this day. It's no extra fee. That is

SPEAKER_02 4:19

always a selling point when we're like, oh no, we don't charge you anything

SPEAKER_01 4:21

extra it's nothing extra

SPEAKER_02 4:23

if you can meet us in those cities right

SPEAKER_01 4:25

and then we kind of build shoots up there and that's how it all started so we don't go to other cities and try to shoot kids in those cities or families in those cities yeah it's our existing families that are like well we're gonna go on a weekend getaway to New York we're gonna go on a weekend getaway to Chicago and you pick two or three major cities and you can start local right you can be like you know for us here Chicago's a four and a half hour hour drive.

SPEAKER_02 4:51

You could drive up and drive back down the same day

SPEAKER_01 4:53

if you needed to. Or just spend the night in the hotel, right? Right, but if you

SPEAKER_02 4:56

didn't want the expense of a hotel.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

Right. You don't have to incur airfare or all that other stuff. But what it ends up doing for your business, and I think more people should do this, not only because you get to travel and it's all a write-off, I think more people should do this because it builds your portfolio. So now where the average photographer in your market might just have the same pictures on the same brick walls, on the same backgrounds, on the same... parks you're like showing shit from you know i mean my god we've been everywhere in the world so right my portfolio i've got new york chicago italy you know ireland you can i mean you name it we've we've been uh so many places so now that just builds your credibility you know we get to see the world and i think it's funny now um that when you think about what you want to do when you retire like a lot of people are like traveling we're like

SPEAKER_02 5:50

oh our dream to when we retire is to stop traveling.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

Yeah, right. Is to stay home. We've been, we have been everywhere. I'm sure there's still a couple of things we want to do, but there are a few places. But for the most part, it's not, that's not what retirement looks like. But I have a question. No,

SPEAKER_02 6:06

I have a question for you first. I know you're supposed to ask me questions too, but your first, I know you're from New York, but that first shoot, were you like, how were you scouting that? Did you go up a day early to try and think about where you're going to do your shoots or is it like new york is so big so and you could spend hours in traffic how did you how did you plan that

SPEAKER_01 6:29

yeah for me when we go to any city and i think we still follow this process today it's looking for the iconic locations you don't you're not going to go to new york city and photograph on a brick wall i i can do that here right so what i'm thinking about is how do i get my clients to spend money and by the way destination shoots are probably if i think they're history, they spend 40 to 50% more on pictures than somebody who's photographed locally.

SPEAKER_02 6:58

Yeah, they spend all that money, time, outfits,

SPEAKER_01 7:02

all that stuff. It's once in a lifetime. Yeah, exactly. So they're going to spend that money, right? So whenever I go to a city, I look for the top three most iconic places that represent that city, and I make sure we try to hit those three. Now, someplace like New York, there's so many iconic locations. So you go with the basics. You go Brooklyn Bridge, Grand Central Station. Central Park. Central Park and you know you got it covered and you make a day out of it like okay

SPEAKER_02 7:25

that's the big big question for the city like that

SPEAKER_01 7:27

oh yeah you make you're not doing a two-hour photo shoot like if you're gonna meet somebody in another city most I would shoot in a day is probably two okay so that I can spend you know all morning with one couple or you know and that's it it's seniors couples families whatever the case may be but I spend all morning with one client all afternoon with another and then the client I'm with in the morning we're gonna grab lunch together client I'm with in the evening I'm gonna to try and grab dinner with them, right? So it's so much, that's why the sales are so much larger because it is so far beyond a photo shoot. It's an experience for everybody involved. Now a city like New York, because that's my hometown, I'm taking you to what I think is the best pizza place, just stuff like that. So it's a much more memorable experience for them.

SPEAKER_02 8:12

Sorry, what was your question?

SPEAKER_01 8:13

No, so my question to you is because the biggest thing I see photographers get tripped up on is the logistics of it all, right? Like how How do you sell it? How do you charge for it? How do you coordinate it? How do you stylize it? Give us a little insight into your conversations with clients. How do you sell it to them when that phone call comes in?

SPEAKER_02 8:36

Well, selling it is actually the easiest part because you're talking to them about like, here's where we're going to be. Are any of these cities meaningful for, for you? Like in a lot of times with us being in St. Louis, a lot of times Chicago is meaningful for that, for that couple. So it's an easy drive for us and it's easy for them, but it gives them something different from their wedding pictures. So that's another thing, but the city that that's that close

SPEAKER_01 9:00

to us. If we're talking weddings.

SPEAKER_02 9:01

Correct. Yeah. Um, so wedding specifically, another way to sell it is talking about, um, like you want pictures that are completely different than your wedding. So if your wedding is in St. Louis, let's go to Chicago and get you a completely different look for your walls, for your walls in your home. You are, you have to always plant that seed for them. But for seniors, it's pitched in a way that it's like a once in a lifetime opportunity and your pictures are not going to look like any of your, of your friends. I love that shit. Especially in a small town like O'Fallon, like everybody's pictures, you either go to St. Louis or you do some like field in the summer.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

Well, and a point of clarification, when we say we're going to be here, be here, be here, we're not really going to be there. no those are the places we want to go those are the places we want to go and if we can book enough business then we'll be

SPEAKER_02 9:47

there yeah and sometimes we'll even um like let's say we're going to be up in new york we will stretch it to like boston because we can easily get to a city like that right yeah and still have our trip in new york

SPEAKER_01 9:59

yes they're thinking about it strategically right if if i can get a client uh to pay me for work and that's going to lead to potentially other work or just we're going to enjoy time away and right uh see the world that kind of stuff it it's worth it

SPEAKER_02 10:12

yep so as far as like planning goes uh it's really not different than a session here like they get the normal 17 hat style email that's like your session is confirmed for this date this time the only thing i don't do is we don't have a meeting location picked until we're there and i'll usually tell them i'll text you the night before with an

SPEAKER_01 10:33

exact address usually meeting us at our hotel yeah for the first

SPEAKER_02 10:36

stop especially for seniors if um if i'm the one coordinating hair and makeup for those they'll come to our hotel room for hair and makeup so we can have them try stuff on and get to hang out with them a little bit while they're in the chair.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

What about logistics from the, you know, transportation getting around the city? Yeah. How do you handle

SPEAKER_02 10:54

that? So we learned years ago that while an uber is very convenient it's actually really really inconvenient so if you've got a client let's say it's a senior let's say it's a couple you're realistically not going to all fit in the same uber so that's problem number one so then you're split into two ubers going across town in a city like new york city you're going to get lost you're going to be waiting on each other

SPEAKER_01 11:19

you'll be spending a shit ton of money on ubers

SPEAKER_02 11:21

yes also that but then when you get out so you meet in the morning for your hair and makeup and then you go on location but they have multiple outfits

SPEAKER_03 11:30

right

SPEAKER_02 11:31

so where is all that being stored every time you get in and out of the uber you've got to carry all your suitcases and then you can't get your your clothes iron or wrinkled right so they have to be like very meticulously laid no place to

SPEAKER_03 11:41

change

SPEAKER_02 11:42

right exactly so we recommend or we highly suggest in the first initial once they say yeah i want to go to the city that's when i'm telling them book a driver here's why and i explain all that to them and i've never had pushback on

SPEAKER_01 11:55

that because it makes sense And

SPEAKER_02 11:57

that should not be the photographer's cost either.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

No, no. They're absolutely paying for that.

SPEAKER_02 12:04

Yeah. Stylizing, I think you need to keep one outfit. Okay, let me speak specifically for engagement couples. I always tell them to do what they would do. They have their casual, they have their dressy, and then I'm pushing them for a third because we're in another city, we're spending more time with them, and I really want that sale. And nine out of ten times, that big, iconic, signature sale Alson caught a shot is in the dress that I pushed them into. And I'm usually helping them find it. I'll, I'll use our account for rent the runway and rent this over the top dress for the, for the female, same for the seniors. Although with seniors, we have access to like more, um, I don't know, like younger dresses that they're more apt to wear than a bride. Like brides usually have a vision with what they want their look to be.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

Yeah. And brides have met us for bridal portraits in other cities as well. And they borrowed

SPEAKER_02 12:54

our, they borrowed our veils. Like

SPEAKER_01 12:55

the,

SPEAKER_02 12:56

people want, they want drama in their pictures.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

Well, and I think that's the point is you have to, you have to create something iconic, uh, wherever you decide to go. And it can't just

SPEAKER_02 13:06

be the scene that's iconic,

SPEAKER_01 13:08

right? You have to think large in that scene, right? When I'm, when we're doing this, I'm thinking minimum, I want to sell a 30, 40 print canvas acrylic, right? I'm thinking 30, 40. So when I'm, whenever I'm photographing, yeah, I'm going to get the tight shots and all that other stuff. But Every scene that we're at, if we're at Grand Central, I'm shooting huge. I want to show the environment. If I got the Brooklyn Bridge in the background, I'm shooting huge. I want to show the environment. And I'm thinking about how I'm going to sell 3040s. To your point, it can't just be the bridge. It can't just be, you know, Grand Central. It's got to be what you're wearing in said scene. Yep. The

SPEAKER_02 13:49

big flowing dress.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

And you cannot leave that to chance. Or your clients are going to show up with fucking wrinkled clothes. Always. I'll never forget early on. We had a couple meet us in Chicago and they showed up legit. The groom showed up in flip flops, cargo shorts and a Cardinals jersey.

SPEAKER_02 14:09

What are they doing in Chicago?

SPEAKER_01 14:11

Like, yeah, with a Cardinals jersey. Just well, because of the rivalry, I'm sure. But but like, where am I? How am I selling that to them? Right. I'm not. You look like a slob. And that was very, very early on in my career. And that's when I learned we had to control wardrobe whether it's renting stuff to your point tapping

SPEAKER_02 14:31

into our closet

SPEAKER_01 14:32

yeah or just showing navigating with the client like show me what you're

SPEAKER_02 14:37

wearing yeah and I'll even even so let's say I don't rent for them I'll send them links of stuff like buy this

SPEAKER_03 14:43

yeah

SPEAKER_02 14:43

it buy it this is terrible buy it don't take the tags off and return it

SPEAKER_03 14:46

yeah

SPEAKER_02 14:47

it's a one-time use thing we will be very careful I promise yeah but that you want them to feel like you're capturing this moment of them like they're celebrity and i think color plays a huge part in that too so if you can paint that picture for them like don't just say wear a dress for the scene like you need a big long train red dress and talk about why like why that color is going to pop

SPEAKER_01 15:13

yep um

SPEAKER_02 15:20

um there's I mean if you want to talk about logistics still like logistics with travel I mean it's not even just take your client sessions off the table you've got logistics that we've learned over the years with like workshops and going over there for just our portfolio shoots and you know I'm I'm terrible with time I always think we have so much time for stuff and it's just been beating my head into a brick wall for years to realize that you don't have enough time you always need to bake in at least an hour in like wiggle room into every section of your day. Yeah. Because everything's going to go wrong.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

Right. And if you're ahead of schedule, that's great. It's not, it's going to go wrong. It's just things take more time than you think. That is, that is your Achilles heel for sure. You'll be like, we can do this, this, this, this. I want to do everything. I'm like, how much time do we have? Oh, we're with them for an hour and a half. Oh, okay. What? We're going to seven spots. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 16:16

And they're all 30 minutes apart.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

Yeah. Um, that's the other thing I would say is just, You don't want to rush your client through a destination city that you've picked, but you have to be very, to your point, like... look at the traffic patterns, right? You know, if you're in New York city or Chicago on Saturday, it's completely different than being there on a Thursday at four in the afternoon. Like these are different traffic patterns. Like I love being in Chicago on the weekend because downtown Chicago is fucking empty where we go shoot. Now you go New York city, Even there, like you can be in certain parts of Manhattan and it's just empty, relatively speaking, right? So I think you just have to know and understand like it's going to take us this long to get here. And

SPEAKER_02 17:09

always make sure you are factoring in a time for snacks.

SPEAKER_01 17:13

Yes, you must eat. The most important thing. Your clients will get hungry for sure. There's, yeah, I think there's money to be made there. I think you just have to start letting, you know, so how do you start doing this? You have to add this to your website you know we'll travel

SPEAKER_02 17:29

yeah I always find that so tacky oh really on websites to be like yeah like has camera will travel and it's like I know you're

SPEAKER_01 17:37

being cute I'm not saying add some fucking cheesy tagline but you have to allude to the fact that you travel somewhere and you're about us and you're do we I think it's I think on our website it's New York I haven't checked in a while oh yeah it's New York Chicago worldwide

SPEAKER_02 17:53

St. Louis New York Worldwide,

SPEAKER_01 17:56

somewhere in there. There's a worldwide.

SPEAKER_02 17:58

There

SPEAKER_01 17:59

is. Like Mr. Worldwide.

SPEAKER_02 18:00

You are Mr. Worldwide.

SPEAKER_01 18:02

Little pit

SPEAKER_02 18:03

bull. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

No, I think I've found travel photography very rewarding. It's helped me build my portfolio, you know, and there's, you know, this is the other thing, like if you want to get started in it and you can't, you know, you can't maybe find any clients or something like that, the way I would go about it today would be I'd either go on an international workshop.

SPEAKER_03 18:25

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

Or I would go to the city I want to go to and just go there for photography and hire local models that are out there. We've done that over the years. Something that was really big for us is every year I wanted a creative recharge. And we would pick two weeks every year and go to a city or even a country and shoot. And for a while we were traveling with Michael Anthony and his wife, Jen, um, we would travel with them, pick a city, we'd share an Airbnb and we would shoot every single day for like a seven day, five to seven day window. And we'd come back and our portfolios were through the roof. Um, you'd be surprised that now you come back if you're a wedding photographer and you start showing that work at bridal shows, even though those brides are getting married locally, you now look like this, you know, world traveler and they want you to shoot their wedding.

SPEAKER_03 19:28

Right.

SPEAKER_01 19:29

And it's a showstopper. When I'm at bridal shows and I'm showing those types of images, I mean, I will stop brides in their tracks and they'll just sit there and stare and they'll go, where was that? Is that real? Yeah, I get that a lot. Is that real? Yeah, that was shot in Italy. And then you get

SPEAKER_02 19:49

to tell them the story behind

SPEAKER_01 19:50

it. You give them a story. Have that connection. Yeah, and then all of a sudden, man, it's leading to business even though They're just getting married locally. Right. And so I think people really understand or miss... underestimate, I should say, the importance of building your portfolio that way, just as a creative recharge for you, right? I mean, you get bored here in St. Louis. It's like, fuck, if I got to take one more picture of the St. Louis Arch, right, I'm going to kill myself. And I think every photographer in every city they're at, there's this cliche spot that they have to go shoot and they feel the same way as I do, right? They're like, oh, okay. You know, even if you're a New York City photographer, you're probably like, oh, Ah, Grand Central Station. Exactly. God, never been there before.

SPEAKER_03 20:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

You know, like, so I'm sure every photographer has that spot. So I love these creative like retreats as a way to practice new techniques. Maybe I want to try new lighting, but I wouldn't do it on my client until I feel confident doing it for, you know, a model or my portfolio and just kind of building stuff out that way. So you can now go, one, have a huge portfolio, but feel recharged, you know, from a creative

SPEAKER_02 21:01

perspective. I remember one of our first events portfolio trips was Iceland. And we went over there and we didn't have budget at the time to hire models. So we just modeled and we put on wigs and we were way off in the distance. So you never knew it was us. We were like walking away. So you never knew it was us. And I think we did 35 photo shoots. And

SPEAKER_01 21:24

I appreciate you saying us as if I were a model, but no, no, it was

SPEAKER_02 21:28

you and your ex, but like our team at the time, we had two girls on our team

SPEAKER_01 21:33

and

SPEAKER_02 21:33

we just swapped it out. Cause we didn't and have

SPEAKER_01 21:35

budget for models. I had no budget. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:37

And I remember we had two suitcases each. That's what we were allowed. And I had to fit. I had this popped up in my Facebook memories the other day. It was 38 dresses I had to fit into. I think I had three suitcases. But

SPEAKER_01 21:50

how much fun was that?

SPEAKER_02 21:52

I wouldn't change that trip for the world. Like that really that opened our eyes. And I think that was that was when we realized how much we wanted to do these trips for like image comp.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:02

Because it didn't matter who the subject was. You could write. You could change the way a person looks and it didn't have to be a couple for ImageCom.

SPEAKER_01 22:11

Right. Yeah, that was a lot of fun. Those were some of the most fun early days. That was

SPEAKER_02 22:16

before Iceland was super touristy and now like everything's off limits in Iceland and the people hate Americans.

SPEAKER_01 22:23

I was sad to see our last trip there.

SPEAKER_02 22:24

Yeah. I do want to say something about destination weddings specifically. So you've got destination engagement sessions, destination senior sessions. Those are all photographs very similarly but when it comes to a destination wedding what you have to keep in mind especially if you if you want to like niche down into being a destination wedding photographer you have to know that you're photographing these events where people are coming they're spending a lot of money and time to come over to the couple's wedding they need to be photographed differently yes you need these big dramatic images of course but I think you also need to slow down and capture every single detail and you need to capture the broad Bride and groom with every single person who's there.

SPEAKER_01 23:07

Yeah, that's a great point. We've missed the mark on that plenty of times early on in our career. Because we're such

SPEAKER_02 23:12

creative photographers and that's not always what these people

SPEAKER_01 23:15

are looking for. Well, today, stateside table shots, that's a little bit more old school, traditional. Most couples don't want that. But to your point, if a couple has brought you to a destination and then they have 50 guests who are there, those are 50 people who are very important to them. Very important. That's very different than being at a stateside wedding and it's like 300 guests, right? Exactly. They don't even know. Did we just become best friends? I know, you

SPEAKER_02 23:44

like totally stole my words, but I think I stole your words.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

No, so I think that's very important. So we've learned that the hard way. We've missed the mark on a few of those and had to apologize because, you know, it's just...

SPEAKER_02 23:56

It's not the

SPEAKER_01 23:57

formula we're used to.

SPEAKER_02 23:58

We have a very specific wedding formula.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

But I do want to circle back because we talked about how to charge for it but that is not how we charge for destination weddings per se no so I want to regroup there for destination weddings our packages don't change so like let's say you have a three package system which we do if somebody wants us for destination they have to pay for the top package so we tell them that we tell them we don't charge you anything extra but you have to pay for that top package plus travel plus travel is the key so that's airfare hotel and

SPEAKER_02 24:33

it's economy

SPEAKER_01 24:34

You want to upgrade to first class, that's on you. You can't expect your client to do that. Now, I will tell you, this again is just lessons learned. Do not allow your customer to book your airfare or book your hotel.

SPEAKER_02 24:51

I don't know if I agree on the hotel part. If it's part of the venue, especially if you're

SPEAKER_01 24:57

off-site. If it's part of the venue where the couple's staying, that's fine. But now you're getting into a weird... conversation, right? Because if you just have a policy where we book our own hotel and travel, you don't have to enter into that gray area. how do you navigate that your way?

SPEAKER_02 25:15

Okay. So we have a client, a bride and groom getting married up in Naperville near Chicago next month. And she's got a, um, a room block at the hotel where they're staying. So typically that means the rooms are going to be cheaper. I try to tell her like book us a room because we don't need anything fancy. And I'm not looking to book a hotel that's significantly more expensive just because we book our own travel. And then I have to get her, I have to charge her for that. So I just tell her to book our room for us

SPEAKER_01 25:45

and then send me the confirmation number. See, here's the problem I have though. I have photographed weddings internationally before you were at the company. And the groom was a cheap fuck. And in order to save a couple of hundred bucks, he put me in a hotel that was a motel. And honestly, when you drive down like a major interstate and you see those motels on the side of the road, where the door is to the outside and it's sketchy, it made that look like a five-star accommodation. So once that happened to me, I was like,

SPEAKER_02 26:25

mm-mm. I only agree

SPEAKER_01 26:26

with this. Hold on. Also, airfare. If they buy your airfare... Oh, that'll never happen. But I know. We own our business. I'm trying to educate photographers on this. You're talking to me, though. So what ends up happening is two things. One, they're going to pick the cheapest flight. The cheapest flight normally has multiple connections, which just completely devalues your time. Not only does it have multiple connections, it's usually leaving at some ungodly hour of the morning, which maybe you don't care about, I don't know, or going out at some ungodly hour of the night. That's not how we travel.

SPEAKER_02 27:04

It's also usually tied to them and their contact information.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

Well, that's the other thing. So if we had a

SPEAKER_02 27:10

flight

SPEAKER_01 27:11

that was delayed, slack, canceled and I couldn't reschedule the I couldn't rebook the ticket because I hadn't been the one who paid for it was in his name or something like that so those are things to watch out for for photographers is that you know yeah in the case you're talking about with our wedding in a couple of weeks up in Naperville we have a good relationship so I

SPEAKER_02 27:32

trust that she's not going to

SPEAKER_01 27:33

be like also stateside it's like whatever that's where you're staying but the international destination weddings like you're going to Mexico you're going to the Virgin Islands or something like like that and man you better make sure you're staying in a really good in a good place right yeah I was in some sketchy

SPEAKER_02 27:50

how many times have we shown up someplace thinking we have a reservation booked by someone else and we go that's the other thing too yeah we've had so I always even if it is stateside and I know we could just get a Hilton down the street I always make them send me the confirmation number

SPEAKER_01 28:05

yeah yeah that's true

SPEAKER_02 28:06

and with sorry with flights also you've got you have to remember that if you're doing this full-time and you're traveling constantly, you want to collect points for all this stuff. So you want to make sure that

SPEAKER_01 28:16

you have, I want the point.

SPEAKER_02 28:17

Yeah. You want to make sure that your credit card is being used. You want to make sure that your honors number is on the room that you book. So you get the points for it. You, especially if you've been doing it for a while, you can go to whatever loyalty program you're part of. You'd check into the hotel, you get the complimentary upgrade. You don't have to pay anything.

SPEAKER_01 28:32

Right. You know, and the other thing is, uh, you, you know, like kind of when do you arrive? What we like to do is, um, not stateside where, where we're driving, I guess. Um, Naperville is we're driving up there even though it's a destination yeah we'll go up the day before though let's say it's New York um or California and the wedding's on Saturday guys I'm not getting there you know Friday night there's you're out of your freaking mind Thursday night we're getting there Thursday night this way if something goes wrong we still have Friday so you got to kind of bake that into what you're doing uh we don't charge them for that um but just keep that in mind

SPEAKER_02 29:09

right and how do you communicate that when when you're talking about like what what they need to cover as you say um you specify a hotel for x nights right for two nights usually it's the night before the night of the wedding right

SPEAKER_01 29:23

and you're explaining to them why

SPEAKER_02 29:24

yeah and if you like if you want to stay an extra five days in the city that the wedding's in you cover those you do

SPEAKER_01 29:29

not pass that whole thing on for sure um yeah those are some of the i would say tips and tricks you know um a lot of times if they have a rehearsal dinner um

SPEAKER_02 29:40

international we definitely cover

SPEAKER_01 29:41

the international we cover and it's

SPEAKER_02 29:43

included

SPEAKER_01 29:43

yes but domestically we don't we don't cover that that would be extra hours of coverage but you know what you find is that when you go to the international destinations the family treats you like you're part of the family there is no

SPEAKER_02 29:57

vendor meal like

SPEAKER_01 29:58

you're part of the wedding you're eating I've never been to a destination wedding where the couple has treated us like outsiders never we're treated like they're all their friends and family one of my favorite weddings destination weddings was up in DC and, um, they, there was the break in the middle of the day and they took us back to their suite. Yep. We, they took us back to their suite and we sat there and we were eating like, it was

SPEAKER_02 30:25

just the four of us. Yeah. Like no, none of their bridal party, nothing. Just the four of us went back up and like sat down and we're like,

SPEAKER_01 30:31

yeah, but they had, we had like wine, chicken skewers, chicken skewers. I think we had like filet mignon by, I don't know. Like it was so like, that was amazing.

SPEAKER_02 30:40

That was a fun wedding.

SPEAKER_01 30:41

Yeah,

SPEAKER_02 30:41

for sure. That was actually the, wedding that gave us the idea to get each other ready

SPEAKER_01 30:45

yes ready on our wedding they got ready with each other yeah that gave us the idea I if I had what you know weddings like that I would shoot weddings forever agreed yeah it's uh the other weddings kind of burn me out

SPEAKER_02 30:57

Damien and Marianne's wedding in Italy was another top one for me yeah

SPEAKER_01 31:01

well same thing right same thing we were family friends and family

SPEAKER_02 31:04

and we got to do like we took we drove up the four of us in their hair and makeup artist Bruce we drove up to um Rome so we were in Tuscany for the wedding and then we drove up to Rome and we did creative shoots along

SPEAKER_01 31:15

the way. Kind of a day after. Yeah. We

SPEAKER_02 31:16

got, remember we got to ride the, the bird scooters down the street with the Coliseum right next to us. Like that was such a cool experience.

SPEAKER_01 31:24

If you've never been to Italy or if you have been there by the Coliseum, you know, you have bird scooters that you drive through town. Well, so here we are in Italy and we're just driving through that whole historical area on scooters. And you're just like, this is where Julius Caesar was. This is where they massacred Christians.

UNKNOWN 31:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:42

History. This is where Catholics were like myself were just murdered for being Catholic. But anyway, so you're, you're just kind of driving through there and you have this surreal moment, but you know, that was another destination wedding and with people who have now become friends of ours and, um, their peers, their photographers in the industry. So yeah, those are the, those are the ones that I love the most. Uh, and again, I would shoot weddings forever if I could have those types of weddings. We filmed

SPEAKER_02 32:12

to hold behind the scenes of that trip it's on your youtube channel

SPEAKER_01 32:16

oh yeah it is you should link to that channel yeah um the but i think the the average wedding kind of burns why we

SPEAKER_02 32:25

don't do

SPEAKER_01 32:25

them yeah you know we're we're at a point where we're doing less than 10 weddings a year i think it's 10 too many uh honestly i'd rather be doing my commercial work yeah all that other stuff but wedding photography has been good good to us it helped build the brand and uh now the clients we get specifically for weddings they're much more um cultivated would you say no

SPEAKER_02 32:49

curated

SPEAKER_01 32:50

curated yeah um is the right word they're much more curated and there's it's a better relationship because we're we're very selective on uh what weddings we shoot for i gotta make sure our

SPEAKER_02 33:02

vibes are right

SPEAKER_01 33:03

gotta make sure the vibes are right yeah for sure all right everybody so uh hopefully this gets you excited about you know maybe possibly taking over some of destination work and at least gives you a roadmap on how to navigate it a little bit so uh but hopefully that inspires you get out there man travel the world eat lots of food

SPEAKER_02 33:22

oh yeah the food

SPEAKER_01 33:23

get a belly we'll see you in the next video