My style

My wedding photography shows how the day felt, not how it looked

Of course, I want you to look amazing but more than that, I want you to look at your wedding photographs in 10 or 20 years time, in good times or bad, and be transported back to the day.

I’ll document the day as it happened, not fit you into a Pinterest pose.

Don’t treat your wedding like a photoshoot. Most people feel awkward in front of the camera and that will show in your fake smile and dead eyes in the photographs. I’m laid back and relaxed in my approach, and I think that you’ll look a million times better in your photos if you are enjoying the day rather than stopping every ten seconds to pose.

I’ll be there when you need me and stay out of your way when you don’t.

It’s easy to get caught up in the details of the day, and of course I’ll photograph your chair covers ;) but the priority for me is to capture the emotions, and the relationships, between your friends and family.

I’ll dress and act like a guest at your wedding, allowing me to tell the real story of your day. You can spend the day laughing, crying and dancing with your friends and family instead of hanging around for formal photos.

I photograph your day in a documentary style.

But what on earth is documentary wedding photography?

Documentary wedding photography, sometimes described as reportage or photojournalist wedding photography, is probably best described in contrast to traditional wedding photography.

What is traditional wedding photography?

The traditional wedding photographer is a cliché - they are loud and bossy with the wedding guests, they stand on step ladders to set up group photos that take hours, and they stop the day to get posed photos of the couple looking right at the camera. There’s nothing wrong with this approach as such, it’s just that there is now an alternative and you might not be aware of it.

Documentary wedding photographers tend to not make themselves the focus of the day - they let the couple take the spotlight, and photograph events without directing them. This is a very important distinction.

Just be true to who you are as a couple and I’ll take care of the rest

Imagine the traditional photographer arriving at the bride’s home to photograph bridal preparations. They spot that the light is better at a different window and ask the bride to move. This may seem like an innocuous thing, but it plants a seed in the bride’s mind. ‘ Am I doing what will look best in my photos? Am I standing in the correct light? Is the photographer on my ‘right’ side?’

Wouldn’t you rather be getting on with your wedding day and not worrying about the photography aspect of the day at all? It’s my job to worry about that. You should not be second guessing how you are behaving at all. You should be relaxed and natural and that will make for better photographs.

I’ll still take the group shots, but the focus will be on unposed photos

My approach is to make candid, documentary style photographs for 95% of the day, shoot around half a dozen group shots, and then set aside 15 - 20 minutes for bride and groom portraits. We agree upon a list of essential group photos in advance of the day and work through them quickly and efficiently so that you and your guests can get on with enjoying your wedding day.

Some couples don’t have any group photographs at all.

I’d far rather make a photograph of you and your mam laughing or crying in a real moment, than make a technically perfect but otherwise booooring photograph of the two of you stiffly posing for the camera.

By not stopping the wedding for three hours to photograph an endless combination of family groupings it leaves me free to capture real moments.

My documentary wedding photos are full of colour

Many people think that documentary wedding photography means black and white photography, but that’s not the case with me. Although black and white photography can be useful to strip out the visual clutter from a photograph so that you can focus on the raw emotion, it’s not the only way to make documentary wedding photographs. I like colourful, vibrant, fun photographs that enhance people’s personalities and add excitement to the frame.

Every wedding I photograph is unique

Every couple is different and every wedding is different. Whether you are a serious, thoughtful couple or a crazy couple or a romantic couple, your photographs will be unique to you. And it’s not just about the bride and groom. The story of your wedding day includes your parents, your brothers and sisters and your friends and family. I photograph their silly faces, their funny dances and their happy tears.

I believe that your wedding is about the people, not the…stuff (although I photograph that too)

Although I do photograph the venue and the details (they are a part of the story of your day after all) my priority is to photograph the people at weddings and their interactions. This means I’m as happy photographing a Register Office wedding followed by cricket club reception, as I am photographing a large stately home. Some of my most memorable recent weddings have been on farms, in village halls, in breweries (yessss!) and on a Navy Reserve base!

Documentary wedding photography is about letting the day unfold naturally and without interference.

You won’t even know I’m there

It’s about photographing real emotions. In ten years time I’d like you to look at your wedding photos and say ‘Remember when your gran did this,’ rather than ‘Remember when our photographer told us to do that.’

In fact, I’d rather you didn’t remember me at all, and you just remembered having the most amazing day, and that your wedding photographs help bring all of those memories flooding back.