HOW I WORK
I am Courtenay, a professional wedding photographer in Dorset.
I don’t want to take wedding photographs that look the same as everyone else’s. I want them to be yours. Stylish, not stylised. Because every wedding is as unique as every bride and every groom. Individual. I am as unobtrusive as a wedding photographer can be. You have hired me to record one of the most important days of your life – I can’t do that unless it is allowed to simply unfold around me. My job is simple – to watch; noticing the small things which will mean so much when you look back at your wedding photographs in years to come.
Telling your wedding story
I don’t take 6,000 images in a day, safe in the knowledge there’ll be some good ones that I can fix up and bung a few filters on later. I trained and worked on film. And though I have the best digital equipment at my fingertips these days, old habits die hard. I still watch. I still wait. I still try and tell a story every single time I press the shutter.
Is your wedding to be a photo shoot?
Before the wedding we’ll get to know each other a little – I want you comfortable and relaxed with me. On the day itself I stand back; my style is definitely not to take centre stage and manage your day in a series of mini photo shoots. You have hired me to record one of the most important days of your life – I can’t do that unless it is allowed to simply unfold around me. I work without an assistant, without lights… without even a flash on my camera. I make as little fuss as possible, knowing my talent lies in recording people just as they are, their relationships with each other and the emotions they show. I have learned over the years that this changes the minute anyone knows they have a camera pointed at them.
