May 8, 2017

Meet Kurt Boomer of Kurt Boomer Photography in Downtown Los Angeles

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kurt Boomer.

Kurt, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Way back in 2008, when the market crashed, I found myself laid off and an industry that wouldn’t be hiring for the foreseeable future. I picked up my camera and started to drive aimlessly across the country. After a bit of pondering and number crunching, I decided to enter the world of wedding photography. What started out as a gig to get me through a couple of years until my industry recovered has now spanned 8 years and many countries.

Has it been a smooth road?
I can’t ever imagine starting any type of business is easy. I definitely had my struggles along the way. Competition, while not as fierce in the late 2000’s has gotten more and more challenging. My main struggle was getting my pricing for weddings at a level that would support my already established lifestyle. That coincided with a struggle that I still have today. Photographers who don’t value their time or work and will basically work for free. They continually pull clients away from us photographers who are trying to keep the industry legitimate. In an industry whose only qualification really is buying a camera and stating you are now a wedding photographer, it becomes tough to deal with mass of individuals who are constantly rotating in and out and charging next to nothing.

So, let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Kurt Boomer Photography story. Tell us more about the business.
I’m a wedding photographer who does a bit of editorial as well. I specialize of course in weddings. Thing I may be best known for is shooting weddings entirely in film. Film to me is still a far superior medium to capturing images. It also sets you apart from the rest of the industry. Anybody can pick up a digital camera and take a picture. But, shooting with medium format film requires learning, adapting, patience and thinking through each image. If film were to ever disappear completely, I would probably stop shooting. That’s how much I love film and really dislike everything about digital photography.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I see a bubble ready to pop in the lower end of the wedding market. There are just too many photographers out there to keep it at the level it is at. I know of many photographers that are supported by a spouse or (worse) mom and dad and stay in the game because of this. These are the ones that aren’t taking the business seriously and not charging what they should. There may be a mass exodus in the coming years. Either that or a dramatic drop in what photographers can charge as supply of photographers will outweigh demand.

Film will continue its rise. Only the best digital photographers will enter the “high-end” wedding world. A world that is already dominated by film photographers. Those that work themselves into this high-end level should be ok.

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