I’m not a city photographer, I’m more used to trees and hills these days. And so to throw me into London and try and do a pre shoot, well, it’s a bit alien to me.  I try to be as diverse as possible, after 14 years of photographing weddings I feel I’ve pretty much experienced it all. That doesn’t make it any less difficult when you’re mainly used to the great outdoors and natural light. That said, I love having a varied portfolio and forever grateful to those couples who opt for something different in their pre wedding shoots. Be it drinking pints in pubs, to wild swimming in the lakes, it’s so varied, challenges me to think outside the box and keeps this job interesting as well as giving my couples my full attention as I’m constantly thinking about the shot. 

Being able to flex on pre shoots prepares me to flex on wedding days, because although this job is the same day in day out. Every wedding is completely different and requires a different eye and a different approach. Some days I have no idea what “office” I’m walking in to. Dark, small, travel inn, luxury hotel, air B&B, mansion, yurt, church, barn, forest, marquee, bus, greenhous…. All completely different and all require a different approach. So that’s why it’s important to me to push myself into situations that I can easily find uncomfortable. 

A wedding day is not the time nor place to test or push myself, styled shoots and pre shoots are. So for anybody watching my latest stories and news is wondering why I’m attending various workshops and shoots at the moment despite shooting over 400 weddings. This is why. When I was a teacher I’d get monthly CPD sessions, mentor sessions training sessions in order to stay current and at the top of my game. 

When you’re self employed you are responsible for putting yourself through training so you can be prepared for anything, improve your skill set and earn your worth. So here’s last weeks pre wedding shoot around London. Completely out of my comfort zone, but I’m not afraid or ashamed of my work and I vowed to share more full galleries. So here’s this one. Sarah and Tom, you were absolutely worth the 6 hour trip to London, the 22,000 steps and the tiredness the next day. I cannot wait to shoot your day in Devon in August. Thank you for bringing me out of my comfort zone and more importantly, getting me into the city again for the first time since the pandemic. God I’ve missed it.

Oh, and I saw a seal in the Thames yesterday. But I was too slow to photograph it - see, sometimes I’m a shit photographer 🤣