PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER | OCTOBER 2019
accused of being too casual—by assistants
working with her for the first time. Using one
assistant per wedding, she keeps a roster of
four whom she’s trained to “keep me alive
and know what my weird gesticulating hand
gestures are.”
For any wedding more than 15 miles from
her home, Patel Peña insists on a prepaid
hotel room the night before and the night of
the wedding as part of her compensation. “I
don’t do reimbursements anymore: too hard
to follow up. They already are prepaid for
other people’s rooms, so they just need to
add me to the list.”WHAT’S NEXT
Indian weddings account for 100% of Patel
Peña’s wedding clientele. “Indian couples
book way in advance, and I have no room
for anyone else.” At one time she was photo-
graphing as many as 31 multiday weddings
a year. The time commitment was grueling.
It was not a sustainable pace, she says, “not
if I want to be a good mom and a sane hu-
man being.” Even if the wedding is only an
hour’s drive away, she’s giving up weekend
time with her husband and two children,
ages 6 and 9.
This year, she’s limited the workload to 20
weddings, and next year to 14 and raising her
rates. In addition to enjoying a better work-life
balance, she can be more selective, choosing
clients she wants to do business with.
She’s also diversifying, using the relation-
ships she’s built with hotels and caterers to
expand into architectural and food photog-
raphy. “Wedding photographers are trained
in the art of efficiency,” she says. She knows
she can use that to her advantage with com-
mercial clients.
She’s not worried that her style of Indian
wedding photography is being practiced by
more photographers in the United States
and in India, too. In fact, she teaches semi-
nars on her techniques. And she knows that
technique isn’t everything. Her clients, she
says, “are getting a combination of my work
and me as a person; they’re hiring both. I
can’t compete with who other people are as
people, so I don’t try. I’m just myself.” •charmipena.comEric Minton is a writer and editor in
Washington, D.C.It takes 30 seconds to show your support:
PPA.com/SmallClaims
Join the fight for artists’
rights and demand what’s
fair because it’s time
photographers are finally
protected by copyright law.
Photographers
are being ripped off.
But together, we can stop it.