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Courtney Liske has seen COVID-19 take away a significant amount of business this year.
The owner and lead photographer for Courtney Liske Photography, Liske said the majority of events she and her husband shoot are wedding-related.
“About 70 per cent of our clients who had weddings scheduled for 2020 have moved them into 2021 and we’re still cautiously waiting to see how those even go,” Liske said.
“We’ve noticed definitely a huge upheaval in our business.”
Others in the business have experienced similar declines due to COVID-19. Thankfully for Liske and her husband, they also have other work they can rely on in the summer months during the pandemic.
“We have the other jobs to supplement that income that we’re not getting from photography, but for a lot of photographers in the city, that is not the case,” Liske explained.
The Liskes’ loss of income over the past few months, however, means their family will not be able to afford their much-anticipated trip to Disney World this year.
“That was a big thing for us to have to replan for another time,” Liske said.
But Liske isn’t one to focus on the negative in any situation.
“This has been a bit of a blessing in disguise that we kind of run all summer and given that our kids are usually involved with sports and camps and all those kinds of things, it has given us a lot of time to spend together as a family,” she said.
On the weekends when she and her husband might have typically been shooting a couple’s “I do’s,” Liske said she and her husband, along with their three children, have been taking small day trips around the province together.
Liske said her focus — and concern — during this time has mostly been for her couples.
“I feel bad for the people who are losing income over this, absolutely. That is hugely stressful but this has been so hard for the couples who are trying to plan their weddings,” she said.
“I feel so deeply for them in how stressful it is normally trying to plan a wedding, let alone having to adjust when you’re planning in the midst of a pandemic. Cutting down their guests list, and making alternate arrangements from the venues they thought they had … it’s been an emotional rollercoaster for them.
“I can’t even imagine how emotionally exhausting this has been for them and the up and down of trying to plan a wedding and not know what tomorrow is going to look like.”
For the shoots the Liskes still have scheduled for this season, Liske said they’ve changed how they interact with their clientele.
Engagement and family photo sessions are still taking place, alongside the occasional small wedding. With social-distancing rules in place, it’s a different experience to capture these events.
“I use a longer lens so I can be farther back,” Liske explained. “If we do need to get in closer, we will be wearing masks.”
Liske said she has to resist the urge to perfect a shot herself, and has started guiding her subjects so she can maintain a hands-off approach while working.
That means asking a bride to fluff her dress or fix a stray hair herself rather than Liske stepping in to assist.
“It’s definitely different for us, where we would just come in and fix it as to giving them directions on how they can fix it so we don’t have to get too close,” Liske said.
If they must break social-distancing rules to get a shot, Liske and her husband wear masks to protect those around them.
“We’re just keeping our distance,” she said.
Liske is still enthusiastic about this season of weddings and life, despite the continued impact of COVID-19.
“I love the people who are embracing the uniqueness of the times that we’re in,” she said.
The couple has shot only one wedding so far this year. The bride and groom provided monogrammed face masks to their guests in honour of their pandemic nuptials.
“(They) were getting the pictures with the facemasks and your hand sanitizer and Lysol,” Liske said.
Her favourite wedding trend to emerge thanks to COVID-19, however, involve the small backyard ceremonies held by couples who are choosing to tie the knot in spite of the pandemic.
“It’s just such an intimate time,” Liske said. “The people who are really important in those couple’s lives are the ones who are in those backyard weddings and I love it.
“It’s encouraging to me to see that they are still focused on the reason they’re getting married in the first place and that’s for their love for one another.”