While Sydney Doherty says her still-sorta-new wedding photography business hasn’t been too affected by the pandemic, the details of the first wedding she ever shot tell you all you need to know about the state of the world at the time of Sydney K Andrew Photography’s inception. (Doherty’s married name will be Andrew, but she and her husband-to-be haven’t tied the knot yet.) “It was a 10-person elopement at this gorgeous Airbnb right on the water in Huletts Landing,” Doherty says of the June 2021 event. “It was so laid back, but also so elegant.”
Besides traditional weddings and elopements, Doherty also specializes in family portraits, boudoir and engagements, the last of which is what got her into the professional photography game in the first place. “When I got my first ‘real camera’ it was pretty much love at first sight,” she says. “A friend of mine asked me if I could take her and her fiancé’s engagement photos, so of course I said yes. It felt so natural being behind the lens, and when I saw the images I created afterwards I said, ‘I finally know what I want to be when I grow up!’”
That was in October 2020, and while yes, Doherty was technically already a grown-up at the time, her photography career has certainly “grown up” since then. Since June, she’s captured numerous engagement and couples sessions, plus 10 weddings, and already has 32 weddings on the books for 2022. “I thank my lucky stars that COVID hasn’t had as much of an effect on my business as I know it has on so many other small businesses,” she says. “The wedding industry took a huge hit, but I think 2022 and beyond are going to be the comeback years that everyone has been waiting for.”