Have no answer to your key question. As I am amateur (into printing jobs since I graduated high school), I think I did not earned a single dollar with my photos, tho I invested some dollars into decent gear and consider photos (and editing) eventuated to some PRO level. I would love to share a piece of advise, but... have no useful ideas in my pocket.
The visuals are great, especially these two: stunning!
Thank you for your kind words. I have professional level gear (with the exception of my lighting gear, it is some mid-range Godox stuff) and my lighting modifiers are still entry level stuff. :D
The one on the left was lit with a single, small beauty dish, and natural light.
The other one was a long exposure, and the model, Holly, stood still as a statue for 15 seconds while I gathered light from the stars, and lit her up with a small flash.
God knows, weddings customers are not capable of that 😂 they do not need art but some well-selling cliches... me thinks. let me send a Hive !PIZZA your way, as an extra ☘️
Certainly not. When Holly's father got married to her Step-Mother, I first did this experiment with long-exposing them. They were open to it, they trusted me, and then Holly saw the results, and wanted an image just like that, too! :D
So sometimes, you do get excellent clients.