What made me a UK Wedding photographer?
I became a UK Wedding Photographer at the young age of 19. Fast forward 6 years I have photographed 150 weddings so far, in both the UK and in Europe. You can see more of my destination weddings here.
Why speak about it now?
I think writing my own photography Journey is quite hard to do as a female business owner and I only realised I’ve never been too vocal about this because my good friend, UK Wedding Photographer Gemma mentioned she had no clue how I managed to get into the photography world. The only appropriate way to do it is by talking into my phone using the dictation app on a busy train platform as I head off to London for a night at the Kew Gardens light exhibition. Finding the words is difficult for me which is why I stick to photos and let Jamie do most of the talking!
My story
I have always been quite interested in literature and history I was never very arty in school and my sister was the gifted and talented art student(she is now an interior designer in London!). I have always pushed aside as the one in the family that was not creative. One thing that I was really good at was keeping my family memories family photos and albums safe. I spent a lot of time building family holiday albums and especially Disney holiday albums as a child and I always looked forward to looking at the images. In hindsight, this was so significant.
When I had just finished secondary school and was starting my A-levels I went up north to visit my grandparents. My grandad decided he wanted to give me his Nikon camera as he knew I was always playing with it when I was up there and I was always fascinated by it. I was so happy that he decided to give me the camera but I also went upstairs and cried my eyes out. It was such a significant part of my life and such a special moment of my life which I will always remember. As he handed me the camera he said:
“You must know how to use the camera inside out, read the manual and learn how to use it properly”.
Within a month my grandad was in the hospital quite often and was diagnosed with dementia which explains why he gave me my camera. I knew something wasn’t right and wanted to give me something to cherish him by.
As of that afternoon, I don’t think I have ever put the camera down and for months and months on
How did I get into wedding photography?
I was starting to take portraits of my sister quite often and captured her friends before their prom. I then started photographing my friend and her horse, my other friend’s Proms and from there it just started to build. One significant event was when I photographed one prom and the mum of one of the girls saw my photos and then asked me to photograph her wedding. I didn’t want to start shooting weddings without any experience so I started working with other photographers: first assisting them and then second shooting with them to understand how to be a UK wedding photographer.
Fast forward five years I am now a UK Wedding photographer; photographing weddings across the country and abroad. I think about my grandad every day and how he left me his legacy of photography. Everything I do relates to him and it’s so personal to me. Photographing weddings is the best job in the world and I’m so lucky and fortunate that I have such amazing clients without me to do it so regularly. My grandma tells me often that my grandad would be very proud of me and I just want to continue making her proud, my family proud and providing the happiest moments that my clients can treasure forever. Their grandchildren can look at the photos and see what life was like for their family, in the same way, I show the world to my grandmother through my travel photographs.
