If you gonna have your first overseas pre wedding photoshoot deal than you might be thinking how to prepare it, how to shoot, and what ridiculous things that you must be prepare.
If you thinking for what I’m saying above than I surely you are in the right page because here in this post I’m going to share everything that I know from the beginning of having an international couple and preparing my overseas pre wedding photoshoot for a location that I never been there before, are you excited with this?
Hi photographers my name is Bima and I run destination wedding photography business since 2009 and do it together with my wife, so every single photo shoot just feels like our honeymoon. I tried so many ways about running photography but there is no better way except put my wife in and do it all together.
Why Overseas Pre Wedding Photoshoot?
I don’t know what’s your family background but if I could share a short story of me than I’m not coming through medium to high class family so our parent’s monthly salary is not enough to ask their kids for going abroad, so what me and my wife did is saving our money just to buy ticket to Singapore for honeymoon.
My dream is growing till I wondering that it would be awesome if I could get international couple and convincing them that I able to shoot for their overseas pre wedding photoshoot even I never meet them and visiting their chosen location before.
I know it sounds crazy but I know someone will accepting my offer!
Not only me, even my friend also telling me that I’m out of my mind because there are two client’s requirements that I want to get, first they must be international couple and second I only want to shoot for overseas pre wedding photoshoot. I’m not thinking it just for taking me into someone that looks so cool, I don’t really care about it but if I could doing those two things than I will learn worldwide wedding photography industry better, and that’s the point.
First Couple is Signing in!
I was receiving an email from lovely Singaporean couple name Jasmine and Kevan and I was jumping from my seat because I know that this dream is getting closer and what I mean here is my first requirement which is get an international couple is done.
Singapore is just like my second hometown and I love this country, I love all the people, the transportation and off course their authentic food, I think I’ve been there for 8 times or more. Since I already have a schedule to Singapore so I wondering that I can meet my future couple, Jasmine for saying hi and it would better if I can meet her in person.
My heart beat was increasing because this is the first time that I will have an international client meeting back in 2014 till both me and my wife finally meet Jasmine in such beautiful cafe around Raffles Place Singapore for get some lunch. We were so happy and she looks so beautiful on that day, we finally can meet each other, talk about Jasmine’s photo expectation just like what I share in my previous 12 wedding photography tips.
On that day we just discuss in more further about Jasmine and Kevan’s wedding in Bali, so they going to do blessing ceremony in a nice Church around Kuta Beach, get some family photo session in Double Six Beach than got a BBW seafood dinner in a nice beach-front resort.
When My Overseas Pre Wedding Photoshoot Has Just Come!
Time goes by till one good email from Hong Kong has just come into my inbox just to let me know that they gonna accepting my overseas pre wedding photoshoot offer. Back on that day I was receiving around 100 enquiries around 18 months, not that much for a wedding photographer because I know someone got better than me but I can guarantee that 90% of those email is asking for doing overseas pre wedding photoshoot such as in Maldives, Hallstatt, Venice, Bali, New Zealand, and Vietnam.
I receive 100 emails but only 2 become a real photo shoot and both of them are asking to go to Maldives, it’s like 2% conversion!
2% conversion and that’s was my achievement from getting stuck for over than 18 months for not having any single deal at all. Surely I’m happy and finally I could telling my wife that finally we can achieve for what we dreaming for. Nina is a person who love beach so much and I told her that one day I will bring you to Maldives and put your feet on a crystal clear sea water with a nemo fish swim around your feet.
How to Prepare Your Overseas Pre Wedding Photoshoot When You Never Been There Before?
When you decide to be a wedding photographer than I surely believe that you also expecting to receive an international enquiries, am I right! Don’t worry because as long as you have a dream about that and do whatever you can to reach your dream than one day it gonna be happen.
As I said before having an international enquiries and working for worldwide couple is not about showing how cool you are even you will also get that pride. Running business for international client will let you learn more about business, ethic, customer satisfaction beyond the others, so it’s like a double impact both for your own business and your self.
Because I know you guys have a dream to receiving enquiries for overseas pre wedding photoshoot than here in this post let me share few good things that could help you as well when you have this chance for your own.
1 – Preparing Your Collection Package
I know that in some countries making a great photo shoot package become one good things to talk, you may sometimes feel confuse about how much will you charge for your own service, don’t worry it is a common challenge for every single photographer in this planet. But if you want to deliver great collection package that could serve international couple than you must consider about few things.
Calculating Your Basic Photography Expenses
When we talk about basic photography expenses than we gonna talk about common cost that you will spend weekly, monthly, or annually for running a photography business. I also can telling you that this gonna be fix or variable cost and here we talk about few things such as:
- Your fees
- Your assistant’s or make up artist fees or monthly salary
- Final album, I suggest you to always put an album
- Office or studio rent fee
- USB and boxes
- Monthly utilities like electricity, fuel, internet, food, and etc
2 – Preparing Your Travel Expenses
The second step of preparing your overseas pre wedding photoshoot is about calculation your travel expenses. When you get used to travel around the world than you must be familiar about calculating some travel expenses requirements but if you never do it before than I suggest you to try to travel to your dream country to get fun and get the inspiration.
Since this travel expenses will rely on your photography business than let me breakdown several things that you must be concern.
International Flight Ticket
Just like when you traveling for holiday, international ticket will be your highest cost among all the expenses but as long you work for business than there are two ways to solve it.
- Ask your client to pay it
- Put it as a bundle on your photography package
During this period I use the number 2 option so I charge my couple who hiring me for an overseas pre wedding photoshoot at a higher rates that compliment with all of my travel expenses. This gonna be tricky but it helps your client to pay once for all of your needs. Generally I don’t want to let my client think too much because I know that they already have their own challenge for preparing their wedding an photo session so I will make it as easy as I can just to let them think in a simple way.
You may browse any kind of companies both for budget and full services airlines, you also can check to the nearest travel agent on your town or do it as I did through online browsing with this form below,
When you already get your photo shoot schedule and location I highly suggest you to issued the ticket immediately because when you can book earlier than you can get in a better price which gonna save couple of hundred bucks from your whole collection package, and yes this gonna be more profit for your studio.
Accommodations
You may browse any kind of hotel or accommodation platform that you already trusted for your own previous travel needs and compare up to 2 platforms will help you to get a better rates. In fact I’m kind of conventional person so during past 7 years I already trust 2 platform that belong to my best travel accommodation so far.
- Airbnb – I personally use this platform if consider to stay in a unique accommodation or just having a short transit
- Agoda – I will use this platform during the day when I have a photo session because I seriously need a full services accommodation to have a high quality of sleeping and some joyful service.
Generally I’m an easy going person so till now I don’t mind to spend couple of hours in a burger king restaurant or even sleep at the airport bench just to wait my flights but if I have a better chance that I can use better place to lay down during transit so I will book a cheap accommodation just to take a shower, put all the luggages and close my eyes on a fine bed.
In fact I have a special requirement for my self and I push my self to be able to afford it as well by booking 4 or 5 star hotel during my photo shoot. During the job I will give 120% of my effort of capturing moment, I work so hard on that day without any single excuse. If you ever read my previous story about bad experience of visiting Maldives than you will know that I keep doing a photo shoot even I get a full body pain because of chicken pox virus.
On that day I still put my snorkel set on my own and diving into the sea which is mean I try so hard to stay strong during this really painful condition and high fever just to realize my couple’s dream for having an overseas pre wedding photoshoot in Maldives. Lately following that day I able to make a photo that give me a lot of appreciation both for competition and during my photography workshop, take a look for this glorious image
So since I will give the maximum effort on the photo session than I have to pay back to my self for giving a chance to recover after getting tired. Here in this 4 to 5 star hotel I will take a nice comfort hot water shower, complete meal for breakfast and dinner, and sometimes I will reserve for a nice spa both for me and my wife.
3 – Browse in a Detail About the Locations
Good thing that we live in a digital era so there is seriously no problem when we going to shoot at some places that we never been there before. Seriously it just like how you preparing a holiday but here we going to do professional job as a wedding photographer.
Google is my number one pal to check everything that I need to know before touch down on that location. I will check everything both for my photography and travel needs so I will let my self just doing for what I love and searching everything such as:
- Weather – it seriously gives an impression about what is the best day and time to do an outdoor photo session
- The city – I will exploring the city where I go to give me a first time impression about its location and I will more than happy to walk a whole day from the traditional market in North Point Hong Kong till exploring Male City with its superb nice local people.
- Authentic Food – what’s better than having a local food no matter where you are, in fact having a nice street food is one good thing that you can do to make your self feels at home
- Local People – when you want to go to some new location than knowing the local people will give you an information about how to respect them, knowing their habit, till saying a local greetings to all of them, trust me it’s not completely related to photography business but it is worth it to learn for your own knowledge
- Travel Scam – it always good to prepare your self for a scam because it helps you to stay alert no matter where you are while in the same time you have to respect the locals because you’re no more than a visitors
In fact sometimes I also buy Lonely Planet books right before I travel for overseas pre wedding photoshoot.
4 – Preparing Your Proper Gears
Preparing your wedding photography equipment is really essentials and since you’re going to go for an overseas pre wedding photoshoot than always consider to bring a back up. For over than 5 years I’m using Nikon system so down here I will give you some impressions about some gears and accessories that I personally bring for having an international photo session.
Cameras
If you gonna do an overseas pre wedding photoshoot than I highly suggest you to bring at least 2 cameras, first, it helps you to shoot in various angle without changing lens to often and second, it gonna be your backup if you suddenly have a bad situation during the day.
If you also using Nikon than I could suggest you to buy Nikon D800E or similar and Nikon D750 FX-format, these two cameras are come in a full frame censor that will help you as well to shoot in a good way and produce extraordinary files that looks so perfect since the beginning right before you do a post production work.
Lenses
I usually bring at least 3 kind of lenses for every wedding that I have no matter I shoot in my country or in overseas destination. Since I bring 2 cameras than I don’t want to waste my couple’s time for waiting me changing my lens. I will shoot in a fast way and put 2 kind of lenses on my 2 cameras. If you consider to bring at least 3 lenses just like what I said than my suggestion are:
- Wide Angle Lens – You will really need this lens on overseas pre wedding photoshoot because you will be in such wonderful venues that come with superb scenery and there is no better lens to capture the moment together with the landscape except wide angle lens. My suggestion is Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED
- Tele lens – I love for capturing moment with tele lens, it helps me to give great dimension and superb depth of field effect for the result. In other hand I can make a great shots with clean and sharp image from a far distance.
- Fixed Lens – I’m a fixed lens maniac too and since I shoot wedding 10 years ago than I always have a 50mm fixed lens series, my suggestion is Nikon AF-S FX NIKKOR 50mm f/1.4G
Accessories
Generally I only bring a simple accessories for my overseas pre wedding photoshoot because bring to many accessories inside the bag will just make your luggage heavy and when you do it the same way over and over again than you will have shoulder problem just like what I had few years ago.
My accessories suggestion are:
- Flash or Speedlight – You will really need it both for off-camera and on-camera flash system
- LED Dimmable Continuous Light – When you are a person who don’t really know about using flash on off-camera flash technique than I highly suggest you to bring continuous light because it will be easier to see the light direction
- Externdal Hard Drive – Always back up your files on external hard drive following you change your card or just finish from your photo session and copy it again at least on 2 file storage, it helps you as well to give double protection of your RAW files
- Backpack Camera Bag – When you do overseas pre wedding photoshoot which is mean you will travel in such unique situations, you may walk on a fine pedestrian ways or you may trekking up on such extreme spots like coral, white sand beach, and etc. To let you work easier on this situation than there is no one better than a backpack.
5 – Held an Online Meeting
The last overseas pre wedding photoshoot tips that I want to share in this post is having an online client meeting, it’s really essentials to prepare your photo shoot and let both of you and your couple stay calm and relax before the photo session.
Life is getting easier too because now you can choose to held a client meeting with various ways such as:
- Whatsapp video call
- Skype, and
- Zoom
My suggestion is always held a meeting that provide good audio and visual sights so what I mean here is don’t do meeting with a chat. When you do a client where you can see the faces and in the same time you hear the voices than it gives you better impression about the real human meeting. I personally held this kind of meeting about 2 weeks before the photo session and following that moment I always make an regularly update with a chat to my couple.
I hope this tips will help you so much to preparing your first overseas pre wedding photoshoot but if you still have a questions on your mind than please let me know and drop me a message on the comment form below.
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