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Meet Cherrie
I love to travel and have been doing it since I was 17. I love polka dots. I love dresses. I love shoes. I love the colours purple and pink. I have been having a love affair with the American South for as long as I can remember and one of my favourite books is To Kill a Mockingbird. I looove coffee, but can’t really drink it because it presses my fast forward button. If you want to see me talk at warp speed, give me a white chocolate mocha. I’ll not only love you for it, I’ll love you for it in fast forward! I normally stick to tea, though.I love watching sci-fi shows. Nerd pride. I waited 28 years to find the love of my life and now that we’ve found each other I couldn’t imagine life without him and I can’t remember what it was like before him. I love hugs. I love to read. Photography, travel and history are my favourites, but I’m really not as boring as I sound. I read crime to be more exciting. I spell favourites with a ‘u’ because I am Australian even though it might look a little weird to people who use American English. I like to create new verbs out of existing words. Like right now, I am biographing myself. I also like mixing words, like Purplicious and Pinktacular! I like to name things. Like our car, it’s the ‘Enterprise’, or ‘Space Car’ because it’s so advanced everything is a button… just like I imagine things in the future would be. You want a white choc mocha? Easy, press a button! My camera is named ‘Henri’ after Cartier-Bresson, because I think it’s better than just plain old ‘Canon 5d’. I love animals, especially dogs and coo over them like most people do with babies. I also coo over babies. I love photography and I love weddings and I am blessed to be able to call my passion my profession.

December 7, 2012

Second shooting: why I still do it

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Second shooting. It’s not just something you do when you’re learning. In fact, second shooting has all the benefits of shooting, let’s say, a wedding… but, most times, without the pressure to deliver.

Most photographers in this industry start off second shooting or assisting for someone else and then usually, as their skill set increases and they’ve learnt more about how a wedding day works, the move on to solo projects. So, why do I still second shoot?

There are many benefits to second shooting, the biggest being the opportunity to practice, practice, practice. Admittedly, when I am not on a shoot or working on shoots, I get quite bored and feel a huge need to go out and shoot something. As wedding photographers, we aren’t always fully booked (especially in Sweden), or maybe you don’t want to be fully booked, or maybe the wedding season where you are isn’t very long, as is the case here in Stockholm. For me, second shooting can fulfil this itch and I usually can test out ides I maybe can’t do as first shooter… like finding new angles.

Networking is also a huge benefit gained from second shooting. As a sole trader who works from home, I don’t technically have an office I can go to every day and stand around the water cooler chatting with colleagues. Second shooting can open up so many doors and allow you to meet so many interesting people. It can feel a little scary asking someone to allow you too second shoot for them, but what’s the worst that can happen? They say no? Doesn’t matter. Ask someone else.

When I moved to Stockholm I knew NO ONE. Not a single soul in the photography business… it was quite lonely. It took me 3 weeks to gather up enough courage to send an email to a fellow photographer I admired, asking if I could buy her a coffee and certainly not expecting and answer. Not too long after, she actually replied and we hit it off straight away and even invited me along on a shoot with her. Since then, and that was 3 years ago, I have met so many amazing photographers and made so many great friends and now have “water cooler” moments almost every day.

Overall, though… one of the best reasons to second shoot is to help each other out. I’m not into the huge competition some photographers seem to have with each other, and I prefer to give as much as possible in order to help out where I can. After all… if someone hadn’t extended me an olive branch, I might have had it a lot harder, here. So… I still second shoot whenever I’m asked to. Choosing to shoot is always better than not shooting at all.