Why why why?

I thought it might be interesting to write a few words about WHY I’m a wedding photographer. Interesting to me anyway…I’m not sure anyone else is actually reading this blog yet…

The answer to that breaks down into 2 parts, like a Bounty bar (blue wrapper!). Firstly, photography has become hugely important to me. For years I never thought of myself as creative in any way, shape or form. I just thought of myself as a bog-standard wage slave. But in 2002, when the dot-com bubble burst, I was made redundant from my City job, and Jenny and I sold the flat and went travelling around Australasia. I was determined to come back with decent photographs of this once-in-a-lifetime trip, so I bought an SLR camera and did a 1-week photography course in Sydney. While we were away, I burned rolls and rolls of film, spent loads of money on processing, and shipped the negs back home. When we finally came to putting albums together, I noticed that some of these pictures were actually pretty good! And I’d really enjoyed snapping away…hmmm. It’s grown from there really, with plenty of encouragement from my friends and family. The short version is that I love the way photography lets me express myself and document life.

So why weddings? Well, that’s something different. That’s about spending my time around people on their happiest day. That’s about having a job telling stories. That’s about my work being deeply meaningful to people. In short, it’s about positively impacting my clients’ lives and nourishing my own soul in the process.

It may have the distinct whiff of Roquefort, but it’s true. And if I can also avoid rush hour on the tube, that’s one whiff I’d happily avoid (some people don’t seem to understand the concept of deodorant, but best not to go into detail).

This image is the kind of thing I’m about. The bride and groom weren’t sure that the wedding cake actually contained the 50 cupcakes they’d ordered, so they wanted to quickly count them before they began cutting! It’s a quirky little moment that you couldn’t script, that you’d have to be really quick to catch, and that will make Tab and Rob smile every time they look at their album: