A Conversation with Melody Joy

Mia Nguyen
7 min readMar 20, 2019

When I first started following Melody’s work two years ago,
I became entranced by her personable demeanor and editing style. She makes the most intimate moments radiate with elegance and emotion. In addition to her wedding photography, she has partnered with Samsung, Google, Overstock, Kamrette Bags, Brooklinen, Schwinn Bikes, and Master + Dynamic. In this interview, she talks about creating opportunities for herself when situations became uninspiring, packing Sudoku puzzles, and the challenges and rewards that come along with shooting photography full-time.

Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Melody Joy and I’m a wedding and lifestyle photographer. Although I haven’t stopped doing web and graphic design, as that was my first passion/job. I feel like design really helps my style as a photographer. I tend to shoot minimally and symmetrically, just as I do in my design.

As a wedding photographer, what are some of the challenging and rewarding aspects of the job?
I find that the biggest challenge can be the amount of time I take to edit each photo. I hear a lot of photographers using presets and zipping through a wedding in just a couple of hours. I manually edit every image and, while I think it’s really therapeutic and I like having full control, the downside of that is it’s definitely time-consuming. But I love the learning curve and the process of creating something that is so meaningful to someone. That’s the most rewarding part. The responses I get from brides and their families about how much they love the little moments that they didn’t even notice. Those are always my favorite images. It’s extremely rewarding for me when a wedding collection is finished and genuinely appreciated by the couple.

How often are you out on the road?
I think about half of my weddings are destination and the other half are in Chicago, so quite a bit! One of my favorite parts of running my own business and being my own boss is that I can take time before and after destination weddings to explore the area. I just a had an elopement in Orcas Island a few weeks ago and had never been to Washington before. I actually brought my cousin along so we could adventure before and after the wedding, and we stumbled upon so many beautiful and unforgettable moments!

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