Beach Wedding and a Budding Idea.

My sister-in-law, pictured here looking gorgeous, got married this past weekend at a secluded, Hawaiian North Shore beach house amidst a small gathering of close family and friends. My job? To follow the actual photographer around and take photos for my mother-in-law, aka The Mother of the Bride. I did this because because we all know that MOBs are hella busy on their daughter's wedding day, tending to the bride(zilla), and they need some family member to take tons of photos of their only daughter's special day. & also because we all know that MOBs are highly impatient and in no way capable of waiting for the actual wedding photog's edited photos to grace their in-boxes a ridiculous 2 weeks post-wedding. P'shaw! So here are my first attempts at photographing a wedding. [As a note, I'd love to share more with you, peeps, but I don't want to post the bride or her party all over the blogosphere. I'm sure she'd love to do something like that herself, so I'm posting just one of her and a couple shots of her flowers, which are all un-edited because I just don't want to edit for the blog right now... Terribly lazy of me, I know, but I know you all understand.]

Now an interesting thing has come of this. My own mother asked why I don't do this as a job. A job?! I am a serious analyst! I am busy defending a budget that is going to be hammered in the near future and besides, I'm not that good of a photographer. Hmmm. But I have to say the idea stuck with me this week. The other oddity, a co-worker saw my photos and asked what I charged, and if I could come out to the beach today to take photos of her family. I had no idea what to say, peeps, which is a rare thing for me. Ultimately I said yes, gave her a quote of my fees, and suddenly, I find myself a photographer. I'm heading out to a beach in front of Obama's vacation home in about an hour, and am playing with the thought of creating a portfolio to actually do this on a part time basis.

The thought of a job that allows me to the flexibility of a SAHM during the week, especially with a little one on the way, is tantalizing. Especially when this is something I would love to do for free. I know my weekends would be full, but I'm fortunate to have both my MIL and my mom just 20 minutes away if I needed someone to watch the babies.

I have a lot to learn, both about taking my work from casual, hausfrau photographs to professional, and about setting up a business. Any suggestions? Any thoughts on it? I'd love to hear from you all who have set up a business and what it took to get there. I've spent the week researching photography websites and the market here, which is ripe for a boutique-style company.

What do you think?