Once you have done this once or twice, and you feel confident that you can do it alone, I would suggest that once again, you photograph a wedding free of charge, but this time as ONLY photographer, and just charge for print costs.

By not charging, and fact that you are NOT yet a business, and as long as you make this absolutely clear to couple, you are limiting your liabilities but getting some incredible experience under your belt.

Before you finally take plunge and start charging for your services, I would suggest that you put yourself on a 2 or 3 day course with a professional photographer and learn about lighting and posing techniques, along with all other requirements you are going to have to learn. They normally include a model "couple" for a day for you to practice on.

Wedding photography is so much more than just taking photographs, you have to think about albums, organising, printing and above all, your own proficiency, efficiency and professionalism.

It is a lot to take in and you won't earn money for a while this way, but when you finally start to charge, you will be more than ready and hopefully have bags of confidence.

Once you get it, weddings can be hard work but an awful lot of fun and very rewarding both financially and satisfactorily.

I have a full run down of wedding photo tips for amateurs at my website;

http://www.all-things-photography.com/wedding-photo-tips-for-amateurs.html

Including a wedding photography checklist of all photographs you may have to take.

Please feel free to use this article for private or publication use.

Good luck!

Professional photographer with over 20 years experience in many aspects of photography.

www.all-things-photography.com

3. Think of solutions. For excuses that you normally make, think of ways of overcoming those obstacles. For example, if you are constantly using your work as a reason why you can't practice, ask yourself questions like…

"How can I get paid more but work less hours?". "How can I get paid while I sleep?". "How can I stay home all day and practice?".

If you ask enough questions like this on a daily basis, you'll find a solution eventually.

4. Think of your "Why". These are reasons why you want to achieve your musical goals. If your why is strong enough, You will NEVER want to stop practicing for any reason.

5. Think of your role models. Use your role models to motivate and inspire you to keep on practicing.Every time you start to make an excuse, ask yourself "Would__________make this excuse?" For example, one of my favourite guitarists is Steve Vai. I could NEVER imagine making him excuses for not practicing!

To finish off here's a quote that you may want to memorize...

"You can either become a great guitarist, or you can make excuses, but you can't do both".

Copyright 2005 by Craig Bassett. All Rights Reserved.

Craig Bassett is a professional guitarist, guitar tutor and author living in Auckland, New Zealand.