014 Second Hand Speak: an interview with Mike Ragusa, a Philadelphia area wedding photographer

On today's episode I speak with Mike Ragusa, a Philadelphia area photographer who has been shooting professionally for over  specializing in portrait and commercial photography. He’s been second shooting for a little over a year now.

We discuss how he started second shooting, and also how he “botched” his first wedding as a second shooter for the co-founder of ShootWithMe, and how he rebounded afterwards. He went on to shoot with Nathan Desch again and has worked repeatedly with many photographers and studios. He has a reputation for getting booked for a lot of weddings in a short amount of time and is well-liked by his fellow photographers. He consistently asks for feedback from the lead photographers after their weddings.

His preferred style is “dark and moody”, and he’s proficient with off-camera flash. His favorite part of the day is prep. And find out why receptions used to be his least favorite part of a wedding day.

He gets most of his second-shooting gigs from ShootWithMe, the Speakeasy Facebook group, and word of mouth.

Mike shoots with Sony cameras, Godox flashes, and MagMod accessories and modifiers. 

His favorite lens is the Sigma 24-70/2.8 art series.

As of June of 2023 he has a 5-star rating and 22 reviews on ShootWithMe, as well as badges for “Favorited User”, “Most Booked”, and “Repeat Hire”. 

Mike is currently booking weddings and would love to book more outdoor weddings and elopements. You can check out his work here:

IG: @mikeragusaphotography

https://mikeragusaphotography.com/