Today we’d like to introduce you to Pavel Adamek and Kristen Adamkova.
Pavel and Kristen, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Pavel bought his very first camera in 2013 and shot his first wedding in 2014. Since then, he has shot over 40 weddings, with many more to come. Very soon after we got eloped in 2015, both our passions for people and art as a medium of expression merged into what is now the family business, The Adamkovi.
Has it been a smooth road?
When Pavel had first begun shooting weddings, he was still in college full-time and so that was more of a fun side job for him, shooting his friends’ weddings and all. We got eloped while Pavel was still in school, and very soon after that, we found out we were pregnant. So the timeline of everything was absolutely CRAZY because not only did he have to write 15 papers at a time, he also started wanting to transition from shooting primarily friends’ weddings to actually shooting full-time–while ALSO taking care of an oh-so-sick pregnant woman. 😀
The first few years of launching a full-time photography business is usually rough (or so we hear!), but doing it while also being a full-time student, a full-time husband, and eventually a full-time dad…. well, that’s just nuts.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into The Adamkovi story. Tell us more about the business.
We shoot primarily weddings, but also specialize in portraiture and lifestyle photoshoots. Pavel is the main shooter of the business so far while Kristen stays home to take care of the little one, and during and after shoots people just rave about Pavel’s charming approachability and crazy level of energy (he can shoot a 13-hour wedding day and be the same little jokester from beginning to end).
Oftentimes people just want nice photos of the day–which is good and all–but a photographer’s personality and ability to make people feel comfortable is incredibly important for how the photos turn out in the end. You can have a photographer tell everyone to stand in a line and smile over and over throughout the day, or you can have photos where people are kicking back and relaxing and laughing and interacting because the guy behind the camera is also doing the same. It’s a pretty huge, under-looked component to not only creating awesome photos but also just a really memorable day.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Currently, we see a very popular and cheap photography option for weddings are the big businesses that hire out large numbers of photographers, from which clients get any one of those photographers who are still free on their wedding date.
We definitely believe there can be a ton of benefits to this type of operation, but we have begun to see (and hope to continue seeing) an awareness among clients that a more personable relationship with a photographer and a particular resonation with their editing style (whether it be bright and colorful, or pastel, or more earthy/moody) is more important than previously perceived.
We and a good number of other photographers within our network are constantly striving to help couples realize that the wedding photographer, their personality, and their style is crucial to both the flow of the day and also the memories to remember the day by.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.theadamkovi.com
- Email: theadamkovi@gmail.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/theadamkovi
- Facebook: facebook.com/theadamkovi
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