Many of us never could have imagined the new decade would begin as it did. I had just moved to New Mexico from Portland, eager to ditch big weddings in favor of small weddings and elopements with adventurous couples. I drove to Albuquerque to network and attend a wedding expo, where I met my wife, Shay, who is also a wedding photographer. When we began dating, she had a 3-year-old child, and because I was new and didn’t have an established wedding clientele in my new state, I ended up taking a job doing marketing for a local dispensary. That’s where I discovered cannabis photography.

[Read: Have You Shot a Weed Wedding?]

I didn’t dive too deep initially. I had intended to keep the job while I built my wedding clientele. Shay and I would eventually work as a full-time husband-and-wife wedding team. But then in March 2020, ubiquitously, all of our weddings were rescheduled or canceled. Those first moments realizing that we had both just lost our jobs were shocking—but for me, they were also a message from the universe that I needed to diversify my business plan. I had never even considered the fact that a pandemic could immediately bring the wedding industry to a halt. I realized that my dabbling in macro cannabis photography for a few months leading up to this strange event would be my family’s future saving grace.

[Read: 9 Ways to Keep Your Photo Business Afloat]

THE ESSENTIAL MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY GEAR

I immediately acquired the minimum essential gear I needed to become a macro cannabis photographer, and I spent every night shooting really sloppy macro images on our kitchen island as I learned. Eventually, we converted a bedroom into a full macro studio and office.

The gear I use to create macro images is much more involved than what’s in my wedding bag:

1. Dual Sony a7 III bodies. One is marked as my studio camera, and I only take it out of the studio when absolutely necessary.

2. Basic Godox MS300 studio strobes. I love the Godox ecosystem—and our wedding speed lights are also Godox, so they are cross-compatible.

3. Two macro lenses. I use a Sigma 70mm f/2.8 macro (a 1:1 macro lens, which I also now use for wedding details when second-shooting for my wife) and an ultra-macro Venus Laowa 25mm lens (ranging from 2.5x-5x magnification).

There are so many accessories needed to hold small objects and tiny reflectors, including bins to hold all of my tools. I accumulated a lot of things really quickly, and while it was really overwhelming, I found it helpful to eventually strip my office and rebuild the studio entirely to accommodate these added necessities.

[Read: 3 Steps to Relocate Your Photo Business to a New City]

MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY IS A MORE TECHNICAL PROCESS

Macro cannabis photography isn’t something I imagined I’d ever be good at. I’ve never considered myself a highly technical photographer. I struggle with ADHD, and I tend to focus more on the vision than the gear, much preferring to blend into a scene with two small cameras on a harness. Creating focus-stacked macro images is a highly technical process that doesn’t feel creative and blissful in the same way as photographing a couple’s sweet, loving moments in front of an epic mountain as they begin their life together.

[Read: A Simple Guide to Steering Your Creative Business in the Right Direction]

Macro photography consists of taking a frame on highly stabilized equipment, moving the camera slightly, and repeating that process anywhere from 25 to 250 times, rendering them together to create just one image that is perfectly in focus. I don’t get to build a relationship with my subjects and quickly earn their trust so that they feel comfortable to share special moments in front of my camera. So when I discovered my very real passion for macro photography, I was surprised that such a different realm of photography would be so motivating and exciting for me.

PHOTO BUSINESS SURVIVAL = ADAPTABILITY + PASSIVE INCOME

The photography industry is changing even more rapidly, and while COVID-19 has caused so much pain and suffering in the world, and caused so much death, destruction and sadness, it has also shown me some important things about my career path:

1. I need to learn how to be adaptable within the parameters of my specialty.

2. Passive income in a digital world is really important.

[Read: How to Manage Money for Photo Business Longevity]

As I realized that I wanted to be a cannabis photographer but still wanted to photograph and film weddings, my wife and I developed an exciting new brand called Mary Jane Wedding Co. We will begin booking micro-weddings and elopements in Colorado this year ahead of relocating our businesses there next year.

However, most of my primary work will become cannabis, and I will move into more of a support role for my wife’s wedding business as I pursue an exciting new industry with huge growth potential. I believe that macro cannabis photographers will soon be in high demand, with federal cannabis legality coming soon, and that cannabis weddings will become very popular in the future. I’m excited to be at the forefront of that.

[Read: Navigating the Micro Wedding for Your Photo Business]

THE BUSINESS AND CLIENTELE OF CANNABIS PHOTOGRAPHY

There are so many interesting things about the cannabis industry, between the varying levels of legality in each state to the black-market history. I quickly realized that I was entering a very different realm than wedding photography. However, there are truly so many things that are just the same: you learn the skill, then find your voice and style, discover your niche passions within the industry, identify a target market, and develop a brand that speaks to that audience with a portfolio of relevant work.

Over the course of the year, I realized that my own passion within the cannabis industry is with cannabis concentrates—diamonds, batters, shatters—commonly known as “dabs.” Cannabis diamonds actually share many similarities to regular diamonds when you’re photographing them. After photographing them all year, I really felt like my wedding detail work had greatly improved when I returned to my first wedding this past fall.

I typically work with cannabis extraction companies, or companies that turn cannabis plants into dabs. Extraction companies need beautiful photographs of their products for dispensaries to place orders (depending on the state and laws around vertical integration), so they are my most ideal client. Dispensaries have even more extensive photography needs. They would need me to be on site full time in order to keep their menus (which change daily), website, social media and print marketing materials up to date.

I’ve just launched a brand new YouTube channel (Art of Cannabis Co.) to provide education in marketing and creative production to the cannabis industry. Many businesses think that weed sells itself, but that’s not really true. One of my missions in the industry is to help businesses understand how important marketing really is. My new channel will be both for cannabis businesses and cannabis creatives (or creatives who are interested in getting started in the industry), and it will give all kinds of tips on macro photography, gear, creating product commercials, as well as the business side of things.

WHY SHOOT CANNABIS PHOTOGRAPHY?

People often ask why they need photographs of cannabis, why they are valuable and what I do with this work, which are all great questions. Cannabis photography serves many purposes: it sets companies apart in their marketing, it catches the eye of cannabis connoisseurs, and in fact, it is even a health and safety protection. You can see all kinds of things at the macro level of magnification that you wouldn’t be able to see otherwise. Cannabis growers inspect their cannabis at high magnifications to make sure there aren’t any issues with the cannabis, like bugs or mildew.

Mostly, my photographs are used on social media, in marketing (both print and digital), and I have an online print store for consumers and a high-end custom retail art operation for dispensaries. The macro photographs I create look absolutely incredible in large-format, high-definition acrylic prints, and they look brilliant in a beautiful retail environment. Sometimes, my extraction clients order them to place in dispensaries that carry their products as a means of marketing their products without even being present for a sale!

THE NEW REALITY OF DIVERSIFYING AS A PHOTOGRAPHER

Some people used their time during COVID-19 for rest. Some used it to launch new projects and careers that the chaos of life kept them from starting for so long. Some of us have had to deal with the deaths of our loved ones—and have had to process that grief in isolation. Some of us have just survived, and that’s okay. No matter how each of us spent this time, I truly believe there is something to be learned and gained from the experience, and I think this event has taught us that we are living in a very different world than we were even just 10 years ago.

Being adaptable in an ever-changing digital world is so important, and despite all the pain and suffering that has been felt over the past year, I truly believe we are on the precipice of big change in the wedding industry. Now has never been a better time to envision your dream business and make it a reality.

Rhys Harper is an Emmy-nominated photographer, filmmaker, creative director and entrepreneur. He currently resides in Albuquerque, NM, with his wife and daughter. His work has been featured in The New York Times, TLC, Medium.com, Cosmopolitan, Huffington Post and more. He enjoys travel, skiing, cooking, and will always and forever be a cat lady.