My Five Year Business Anniversary

Declaring my business five years ago in Kings County was the result of a mistake.

About a month before, I photographed headshots for a publishing company. I received a $500 check made out to “Eileen Meny Photography.” Eileen Meny had a bank account. Eileen Meny Photography did not.  To cash the check I needed to create an account. To do that, I needed to officially register my business in New York.  

I was too embarrassed to ask the publishing company to re-write the check to Eileen Meny, so I publicly registered/created/birthed my photography company in order to cash $500. I did this on Valentines day of 2014 – a proper birthday for a wedding photography company.

I owned 1 camera, 2 lenses, and all the experience of one wedding under my belt. 

Five years later, I have a thriving company. 

I am very proud of this. 

Learning how to run and maintain a business over the last five years has been ________(insert any adjective, they’re all appropriate). A rickety ride of managing administrative tasks, writing contracts, editing nipples out of wedding photos, crying over health insurance costs, wrangling finances and pricing, and also learning how to take better photos. However, the hardest part has been mentally navigating and surviving the weight and complexity of being a solo business owner – especially as a single woman in the “love” industry. There’s a steep mental tax. 

Simply put, I take photos of people on their wedding day. My goal is for these images to show what love uniquely feels like to each couple.  A photo has the ability to do this – it’s magical. Photographers are a bit like wizards.  We freeze time. (Though we haven’t mastered the ability to conjure golden hour on demand, or stop rain storms. #goals.)

Over the last five years I’ve realized the only way I’m able to make images that I’m proud of, is to be completely vulnerable and open to experiencing all the highly charged emotions of a wedding day. Every photographer has a different process, I’ve tried to fight mine, but I’m finally accepting it as my own. 

I recently read a book that said the three main issues everyone carries some sort of baggage/trauma about are sex, money, and family. How lucky that I get to work in a field that deals with all of these! As a result, each wedding day feels like I’m opening and taking a tumble through Pandora’s box of human emotions. Equal parts thrilling and terrifying.

Working this way is hard. I’m always grateful for the micro moments on wedding days to do things like photograph flowers. Detail photos = emotional time outs for me on weddings days. Heyooo. #blessed.

A photograph often reveals more about the person taking the photo, than the subjects in the frame. (Hint: This is why it’s important to like your wedding photographer as a person.) For example, you could put me in a cat museum and I would find the one non cat thing to photograph. Revealing truth: I’m terrified of cats. 

The photos I choose to take on a wedding day are what I believe love feels like. What I want romantic love to be.  I see and experience it as funny, scary, quiet, loud, and fall down overwhelming. It’s also a damn good hug. When I show images that make me proud, it often feels like I’m flipping my insides out, showcasing my innards.

Romeo only had to declare/demonstrate his love for Juliet for one day. #lazy.  As a wedding photographer, I’m declaring what romantic love is to me daily. Doing this all the time, particularly as a 33 year old single woman, makes me feel naked.  Which is hella awkward in public and scary! It’s also often the last thing you want to do when experiencing certain events like, oh ya know, a breakup. Salt – in – wound. (If only I’d become an accountant!  Or an actuary!  The peace of mind!)

Soooooo … why?  Why have I continued to build and grow this slightly accidental company, where the main task is navigating emotional minefields? Where I feel like I’m running around naked crying out “this is love!” while rubbing salt in open wounds?

It makes me feel alive and connected. It gives me hope. It excites me to keep going. In a world where people are becoming less present, bombarded by news alerts and glued to phone screens, I have a job that let’s me cut into the vein of being human and feel that beat. My favorite part of this job is showing up, feeling the pulse of the event, and taking those photos.  It’s not editing, designing marketing material, or organizing quickbooks.  Barf.

After photographing over 100 weddings the best advice I can give to anyone getting married is to be present with each other. I’m not saying it’s easy, but it’s a beautiful gift to give yourself and everyone around you. I guarantee it also creates an environment for me to take meaningful and stunning images for you. To quote Jerry Maguire, “Help me, help you.”

I am grateful for the last 5 years – for everyone I’ve photographed, for the love and encouragement from my friends and family, and for the intelligent and strong female business owners I’ve met along the way. The start of my business was not a well thought out plan, but I’ve been fighting with all my heart since that first accidental day. Thank you.

Happy Valentine’s Day. In love or not, it’s still pretty exciting to be a human right now. I choose to be in love with that. 🖤.