A large majority of us don’t have the opportunity to work in a career that we love. We spend countless hours on the clock at a job that we despise. We find it hard to get up in the morning. We look forward to going home. There aren’t challenges at work – except for the challenge of trying to stay awake.

However, some of us are lucky enough to have a career in a job that we love. I’ve been that lucky and so has Cristina. Cristina G is an award-winning photographer from the windy city of Chicago. She was even named one of the “2014 best Wedding photographers in the United States” for the state of Illinois, by MODWedding. She has a wonderful team that have helped memorialize over 250 weddings over the span of 8 years.

It is obvious (by her responses, her portfolio, and her attitude) that she is incredibly happy to be able to turn a passion into a career. Recently I had the pleasure of interviewing her in order to check out her organizational habits and to hear a bit about her trade.

Cristina G at work

JB: What made you choose wedding photography specifically?

CG: I started out doing architectural photography and graphic design/marketing for a high end architectural firm in Chicago. Wedding photography found me initially when I was asked to photograph a friend’s big day. She wanted her downtown Chicago wedding captured with an emphasis on the beautiful architecture of the city. So she trusted me to get it right. I guess I did well. I received three referrals from that wedding and found myself loving this new direction I was heading into and wanting to make a full time switch to it. Three years later I quit my day job and made wedding photography my full time career.

JB: How many pictures do you normally take at an average wedding?

CG: It depends on so many different variables that I don’t really have an average number. But a lot.

JB: How do you keep all of those photographs organized on your computer?

CG: They are not stored on my computer at all, as that would slow it down considerably. They get imported on two External Hard Drives and backed up on a cloud.

JB: I can imagine that there is a lot of editing involved. Do you keep back-up copies of the originals in case of emergency? Do you keep multiple copies of each photo in each stage? That would add up to a lot of images!

CG: A copy of the Lightroom catalog along with the several copies of the raw images is all we keep. The copy of the catalog allows us to go back into the edits easily and keep all work already performed on each image.

JB: How do you back-up your work? Do you use a different system than when you back-up other types of media?

CG: External hard drives, a cloud and the final online gallery that the client receives are where we usually store final edited images from every wedding. I use the same backup methods for personal work as well.

JB: Have you had any horror stories in the past about losing large amounts of work, any type of photographs? Wedding photographs specifically? I can’t imagine how hard that must be since you can’t go out and re-take wedding photographs.

CG: I used to not be as careful about personal images as I were about client images and I did lose and entire 500GB hard drive of personal, family pictures back in 2010 after a drive failed. That was a tough lesson to learn. I was furious at myself for not valuing my personal images as much as my professional images.

JB: What types of photography do you work with? Strictly digital? Film? How do you keep, store, and back-up film?

CG: Digital for the most part. I do like to shoot a few rolls of films here and there for fun. The rolls get sent in for processing at a professional lab and I receive back both negatives and scans of the images. The scans are archived together with the rest of the digital images we take.

JB: Do you have any advice for someone who just hired a wedding photographer, and has never worked with one before?

CG: Most important part to a stress free wedding for both the couple and the photographer is a well-built timeline and lots of prep beforehand reviewing all details. If that is all done and taken care of, then trust is the second most important factor. Trust her completely and just live the moment. Don’t think of the poses and wonder if you are following directions correctly. Do the best you can and then just look into husband’s eyes and feel that moment in time. Squeeze your partner a little tighter, kiss your partner a little longer, and laugh together. It will fly by so fast that reminding yourself to just stop and feel each moment is the best way to slow it all down a little.

If you want to know more about Christina G Photography, check out their website at http://cristinagphoto.com/.

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