My Career in Cameras
I can’t quite believe that as we draw towards the end of another year that 2024 marks my 30th year as a wedding photographer!! Itmade me reflect on just how much photography has changed since I started my business, all that time ago.
My Journey
I can’t quite believe that as we draw towards the end of another year that 2024 marks my 30th year as a wedding photographer!! It made me reflect on just how much photography has changed since I started my business, all that time ago. Back in those old days, wedding photography styles were very different. Cameras were medium format which used roll film. Exposures were measured with a light meter and a huge hand held flashgun lit the scenes.
My first photo, aged 3
My Eary Years
My father encouraged me with my love of photography, although as a child, I never thought of photography being a ‘job’.
We used to have a family holiday in the Lake District every year and were always very excited to travel up to Levens to the holiday bungalow. The couple next door owned it and I used to love going to see them and their daughters and ‘pudding’ the dog. One year we were packing the car to go home. I was 3 years old and wanted to take a picture of one of the daughters with her dog. I remember holding the camera and looking through the viewfinder and carefully framing the shot. Nobody thought it would turn out but to everyone’s amazement it did.( I didn’t understand why they doubted me so much).
At the age of ten, my father bought me a Practica 35mm SLR camera and a book, so I could learn about depth of field and balancing shutter speed with film speed. I loved taking my camera out and about and photographing animals particularly.
Me with my camera aged 10
My Introduction to Wedding Photography
Moving on to 1993, I was very lucky to meet photographer Warwick Dickinson and his wife Valerie. They allowed me to accompany them for a full wedding season at which time I never picked up a camera once! I learned how a wedding works and where I should be at what time, in order to help make the day run smoothly. I was very aware of the roles of the other wedding suppliers on the day and the fact that the Hotel had to seat the guests at a certain time, to avoid a spoiled meal, so I had to make sure all the images required were taken within the allocated time. In 1994, I shot my first wedding with my new Hasselblad camera which was square format and you got 12 shots to a roll of film!!! This meant that every time you pressed the shutter it cost about £3.50 (price of the film, lab developing and proofs to be printed to show to your clients.) A whole wedding from house to church and wedding venue would produce around 60 pictures! Can you image that these days? The cameras created beautiful images but were so heavy and cumbersome that they were tripod mounted which always frustrated me as I didn't have any freedom to capture moments, as everything had to be set up for the shot. However, this 'classical' training certainly didn't do me any harm as it taught me to make sure the image was right before I 'pressed the button.' A discipline which still stays with me today. I used to leave my film for the laboratory to collect and by Thursday, there were my photographs- delivered. After a few years, I also acquired a Canon SLR film camera which gave me much more freedom to take 'moments' as well as just posed photographs.
30 Years as a Wedding Photographer
In 2006, when my daughter Lily was one year old, the photography industry was starting to change dramatically and I made the switch and bought my first digital camera. What a daunting task lay ahead of me. I was tired from looking after a young child and I didn't know what a pixel was!!! I had no option but to dive in at the deep end and learn -Quickly!
I went on a couple of photoshop courses and learned the basics and began editing my own images. I soon found that as my confidence grew, that I really enjoyed this although I was spending hours sat at the computer- and still am!
How things have moved on again since those first digital years. The Nikon cameras I have now are incredible. It amazes me how you can zoom in on an image and see someone’s contact lenses! Editing has become so much easier with the advent of lightroom and I still love my job as much as I did (if not more) than when I started.
I shoot a lot of elopement weddings now, as I find couples sway towards smaller weddings and have their ceremony at the wedding venue, instead of a church.
As I am also a qualified makeup artist and hair stylist, I find combining my skills works perfectly for these smaller weddings-someone there to help the bride with her dress and accessories and make sure she walks out feeling a million dollars.
The Next Chapter...
I have loved being a part of so many weddings over the years and being able to work at such wonderful venues in the Lake District and beyond is something I will never tire of. I am excited to be involved in many, many more beautiful occasions.