What makes a good wedding photographer?

You need to bring a variety of skills to the day, the vision of a photojournalist, the artistry of a portrait photographer and the anticipation of a sports photographer,. You must bring all these abilities together under all levels of pressure in all manner of locations. You can’t go back and do the job again, it has to be done in any weather or lighting situation. You have to work quietly and unobtrusively, you will have to work with a group of people you have never met before many of which profess to ‘hate having their picture taken’. It is this challenge that I thrive on and that leads to the end results.

A good wedding photographer will always be seeing something to photograph.

I began my photographic career in 1981 photographing sport. Sport took me all over the world and to many major events. Whilst developing these skills I began shooting features and portraits. Whilst striving to capture the sporting talents of world class athletes I often wanted to show their personality in a different way. Time in their company would lead to a set of pictures that captured more about the person than the peak of action images that I had been searching for within their sporting arena. It was this love of sport and portraiture that led me to photograph weddings. In the late 80's all my friends got married. They all paid for someone to turn up with a Hassleblad and shoot three rolls of film whilst I photographed their day in what would now be called a 'reportage style'. I knew the importance of their day and I wanted to capture the moments that they would remember for the rest of thier lives. To me it seemed a natural way to work and that these pictures were screaming to be taken.

I was happy in the world of sport but one day a wedding photographer said something to me about photographing weddings that was blindingly obvious. At that moment I stopped turning down weddings and the next time I was asked I said 'yes'. I only wished I had said yes earlier!