Careers · Los Angeles · Orange County · San Diego
Associate Wedding Photographer
jobs in Los Angeles
The senior photography role on our team: you lead your own weddings under the Lulan Studio name, with a second photographer beside you. Open now — we hire year-round.
The role
Leading the day, start to finish
As an associate wedding photographer you lead your own weddings under the Lulan Studio name, directing the day, the family formals and the couple portraits, with a second photographer beside you. This is the senior photography role on our team.
What you’ll do
- Lead your own weddings under the Lulan Studio name, with a second photographer beside you
- Direct the day — the family formals, the couple portraits and the timeline as it moves
- Shoot a dark reception with confident off-camera flash, in full manual
- Work from one call sheet with our video and content crews on the same day
- Cover weddings from intimate elopements to multi-day South Asian celebrations
Hard minimums
- Minimum 40 weddings shot as the lead photographer, documented and verifiable. Days spent assisting or second shooting do not count toward this.
- Two professional bodies with dual card slots, written to simultaneously, plus a third body available. Single-slot cameras are not acceptable on a wedding day.
- A fast prime kit covering 24mm to 85mm, two off-camera flashes and modifiers, and spares of every consumable
- Your own general liability and equipment insurance — most of our venues require a certificate before you are allowed on site
- Two complete galleries as delivered to the couple, each from a single wedding, start to finish. Highlight sets and Instagram grids are not reviewed.
- Full manual exposure and confident off-camera flash in a dark reception, without hesitation and without chimping between every frame
- Minimum 20 weekend dates a year, based within a 60-mile drive of Downtown Los Angeles
What we look for
A high bar, held deliberately
Couples get one wedding day and it cannot be reshot. That is the whole reason we are strict. The same three gates decide every hire, and failing any one of them ends the application regardless of the other two.
Craft
A portfolio is the floor, not the pitch. We read the frames you did not choose — the middle of a gallery, the dark reception, the group formals, the hour when the light is ugly and the schedule has slipped. Anyone can pull ten strong images out of forty weddings, so we ask for the whole wedding instead.
Character
Weddings are long, hot and unrepeatable. We hire people who are early, unflappable, kind to vendors and generous with the crew — and we check. References are contacted, and we ask specifically about reliability, not talent. One no-show ends a career here, because the couple has no second date.
Kit
Professional bodies with dual card slots, a genuine backup of everything, and your own liability and equipment insurance. Single-slot cameras, entry-level kit, rented-for-the-day gear and borrowed bodies do not clear this stage, however good the work is. Venues ask us for certificates; we ask you.
Read this before you send anything
What gets an application declined immediately
We would rather tell you now than leave you waiting. Any one of these ends a submission at the first read.
- No portfolio link, a dead link, or a gallery locked behind a password with no code
- A highlight set where the role asks for a complete wedding, start to finish
- Fewer weddings than the stated minimum for the role, applied for anyway
- Single-card-slot bodies, no genuine backup body, or a kit you would have to rent per booking
- No general liability or equipment insurance, and no intention of carrying it
- Not naming the role you want — or applying to all of them at once
- Images that are AI-generated, heavily composited, or not your own work
- A reference who will not confirm you turned up on time
If you are under the bar today, that is a not-yet rather than a no. Our mentorship program for photographers is the honest route — it is paid training, not a job, and it exists precisely because the standard here does not move.
How to apply
Three steps, read by a person
Every application is read by a person on our studio team, against the requirements above rather than the presentation.
Send your work
Use our application form and include all six: the role (Associate Wedding Photographer), your city, how many weddings you have shot in that role, a link to at least one complete wedding gallery or film, your body and lens list, and whether you carry liability and equipment insurance. Anything missing and we cannot assess you.
Intro call
A fifteen-minute call with our studio manager. We walk through your work, how our wedding days run, what the role pays and where you would fit on the team.
Shoot with us
You come out on a real wedding day alongside a lead. Most applications never reach this stage. It is paid, and it — not the portfolio — is what decides the hire.
Prefer email? Write to info@lulanstudio.com with “Associate Wedding Photographer” in the subject line. Please don’t call, text or DM to check on an application — everything happens by email. Lulan Studio is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes applicants from every background.
Good to know
Questions about this role
Is this a freelance or staff position?
Freelance. The role is booked wedding by wedding around your availability, and you carry your own general liability and equipment insurance. We confirm the terms before anything is signed.
What does it pay?
Rates depend on the day and your experience. We tell you the number on your intro call rather than making you guess, and we pay on a set schedule after each wedding.
I have fewer than 40 weddings as a lead. Should I apply?
Not for this role. Apply as a second shooter instead — that needs 10 weddings as a second or 5 as a lead. Applications under the stated minimum are declined.
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