What led me to this point? Why am I writing a blog on my very own website, trying to get people to engage with what I am doing? Why am I trying to get people to book me to take pictures of them?

Because I love it, and I want to do more of it.

*Euridge Manor*
*Taken on Ilford HP5+ with a Pentax K2*

It all started late in 2022… In the shower… Where I tend to do my best thinking.

I have been shooting film for over 6 years at this point and I have always loved it, from the minute I first started. However, as with lots of things, Covid and the Lockdown (which sounds like a dodgy 90’s band!) put a pause on my film photography fun. Shooting film has always been expensive compared to digital, so I have always been limited to how often I could shoot it, but being unemployed during the lockdown made it completely impossible to do.

Luckily for me I managed to find employment later in 2020, which allowed me to ease back into my favourite pastime, but I had to be careful with how often I shot, and I was usually left with a dilemma; develop the roll I had just finished, or buy another roll to keep shooting? I generally built up a collection of exposed rolls before I would get them developed, meaning there was a long time between taking the picture and seeing the image.

But… back to 2022, and the shower.

I was thinking to myself; what could I do to allow me to photograph more often? It was something I would often think about, but with two young children and a mortgage, I just couldn’t think of how it would be possible. Then it hit me. Instead of paying to take pictures, get people to pay me to take pictures!

My brother was getting married in 2023; so I started to wonder how I would operate a photography business. What could I offer? And would anyone be interested in film photography for their wedding?

*Overlooking Plymouth Sound*
*Taken on Kodak Portra 400 with a Leica M6*

I started to do some research online; beginning with some google searches to see if there are many (if any!) other film wedding photographers out there, before I moved onto the Facebook groups. I found very little to begin with, but I did come across a few ‘hybrid’ shooters; people who generally shoot digital but take a film camera along as well to get that ‘classic, vintage look’.

I joined some wedding photography groups on Facebook and asked some questions to see what views other people had on the subject. With the sheer volume of wedding photography groups and the large amount of members in each group, I expected my posts and my questions to generally move through without getting much response, I was surprised to find that I got plenty of engagement, most of it rather unpleasant.

It turns out wedding photography is an extremely saturated market.

I guess it makes sense; modern digital cameras have come a long way, mixed with the post processing abilities of Photoshop, and even more so with the introduction of AI. It is so much easier for someone with little to no photography ability or background to throw their hat into the ring as a wedding photographer, or for family members to take the photos on the day instead of a professional photographer. I’m not saying that all new wedding photographers are without ability, but during my market research prior to starting my business, I found myself to be fairly underwhelmed by what I saw! This, mixed with the number of existing, and very successful, photographers, leads to a huge amount of supply to a relatively static demand.

New photographers tend to get ignored in the groups (unless they ask for some ‘constructive criticism’, then they get it!), but as I was offering something different, it felt very much like I was stepping on toes. I very quickly got into some ‘back and forth’ with experienced people, which made me feel like starting a photography business was a huge mistake. Luckily for me, for every ten people that tried to put me off, there was one person that was really helpful and offered some great advice.

*The Wisteria at Euridge Manor*
*Taken on Kodak Portra 400 with a Leica M6*

That advice to me… was to keep going.

It gave me the push that I needed to make the jump. I continued to ask questions in the groups, but I now had a desire to get my business up and running and to prove everyone wrong. I always like a challenge, and this was going to be a massive one; I had to learn quickly how to be a wedding photographer, find out what couples wanted from a wedding photographer, and to try and convince people that I was the wedding photographer for them.

I began to gather the equipment I needed, and reached out to established photographers to see if I could shadow and learn from them, or to see if I could come along and build my own portfolio in exchange for any help I could offer, and to give the couples some additional images for nothing. Contacting people directly was a bit different to the feedback I received in the groups; most people just didn’t reply. Those that did were rather polite and offered some really helpful advice, but generally weren’t able to offer me anything more than that.

After a while I started feeling like I was getting nowhere, and every email response I received essentially became a ‘no thank you, but good luck’. Until I opened one email, from a very established, and exceptionally talented photographer. This email immediately looked different because it actually had some depth to it; more than just a paragraph or two. This email was offering me the chance to come to a wedding in a few weeks time as a third photographer. It would give me the opportunity to experience a wedding as a photographer, to shadow an experienced photographer, and to build a portfolio. I was unbelievably excited, and that was before I even knew where this wedding would be taking place.

That’s when I was told that it would be at Euridge Manor!

If you don’t know where that is, just google it, you’ll understand. To get married there is an unbelievable experience, it has everything you could want and more; it is custom built as an ‘everything you would ever need’ type of venue. It’s the sort of venue where photographers pay to do a shoot there, so they have it in their portfolio. I couldn’t believe how lucky I was; I still can’t. I will have to do a separate blog on that.

I feel very honoured that I was given that opportunity. That photographer, by the way, was Laura Martha, her website is www.lauramarthaphotography.com please go and have a look, she is fantastic.

My next step shortly after this was to shoot at my brother’s wedding, which was a completely different experience. I had offered to photograph the wedding as a wedding gift, which just so happened to give me an opportunity for more experience and more portfolio pictures. However, I was also a guest at this wedding, along with my wife and two children. Mixed with the fact that there were family members there that I hadn’t seen for years and obviously wanted to spend some time with, this became a really difficult wedding day to photograph. I think I handled it pretty well, and I am happy with the images that I produced, but it’s fair to say that I slept well that night!

How did I get started?

Lapland on Film. Part 1

Let’s talk about grain