Having me at your wedding means letting me into one of the most important days of your life, so let’s not be strangers!
So you may be thinking “I know about your packages and prices, I know I love your photos, I’ve read through the FAQ’s - so isn’t that enough?
Why do I need to know about my photographer’s personal life”?
Well, you don’t need to know more about me but it does help. Your wedding day will be one of the most nerve-wracking, emotional and personal days of your life and your photographer is often the only service provider that is with you on the day from start to finish. I’m there before the make-up goes on, I’m there when you first look into the mirror and see a bride/groom looking back at you. I want to give you support when you’re feeling nervous and friendship when you need someone to talk weddings with. I’ll be getting to know you quite a bit on the lead up to your wedding day, so this is my way of letting you get to know me too. If you’re interested in knowing more, keep scrolling.
Where I call home.
After living most of my life in Cornwall I now live in Devon with my better half Pete and our two dogs Vinnie and Devin. We love where we live now but Cornwall will always feel like another home to us both. The dogs mean the world to us, we really couldn’t imagine life without them! Pete and I have been together for over 13 years, I know it’s cheesy but he is my best friend - we were actually best friends for around a year before we started a relationship. We have recently got married!! So I’ve experienced first hand, what my couples go through with the planning and the wedding day nerves.
My Thoughts on Wedding Photography.
These photos were taken 72 years ago, on my grandparents wedding day - August 1st 1953. I love these photographs and appreciate them on so many levels - as a collector of vintage cameras, a lover of photos, as a wedding photographer and of course as a granddaughter.
It is so amazing to me, that I get to see what my Nan looked like in her wedding dress in 1953. Photos are incredible like that! I feel so privileged knowing that my photos could be loved in the same way in 2098!
I'll never know if my grandparent's wedding photographer realised how important each click of their camera was 72 years ago but as a wedding photographer and a granddaughter who misses her grandparents dearly, I know how important my job is.
Wedding photographers are like family historians, we take photos for people that don’t even exist yet. I hope that the work I do will be treasured for decades by many people, years after I'm gone too. Just as I treasure these photos today.
I photographed my first wedding back in 2012, I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into at the time, I was just helping out a friend. I was at uni studying English Literature and Creative Writing - I wanted to be a music journalist (working for Kerrang! magazine was the dream at the time). I invested in a camera so that I could include photos of the gigs I reviewed, and I actually had no intention of being a professional photographer at that time. But people saw the wedding photos I’d taken and word got out; I kept getting asked to photograph people’s weddings and by the time I’d finished my degree I knew that photography was the only job for me. So I have no qualifications in photography, I’m completely self taught. And in all honesty experience is the best qualification you could have in a job like this. I know it sounds cheesy, but I do think photography found me, not the other way around. I had my sights set on doing something else but the path I ended up taking seemed to come so naturally, so I followed it and I haven’t looked back.
How and why I started as a wedding photographer…
Digital Illustrator
For our wedding, I did all of the designing myself - from the gig ticket wedding invitations to the festival line up style table plan and everything in-between. I loved creating all these things for our wedding - things that really screamed ‘That’s Leah and Pete!’ After our wedding, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I wanted to be able to offer personalised designing like this to others who really want to make their mark on their wedding day. But I knew I’d need to learn how to properly illustrate - and so I taught myself just that.
I started off by drawing characters from TV shows that I love - shows like The Office USA, Taskmaster, Gavin and Stacey and more. And those drawings then became ideas for greeting cards, stickers and prints.
I couldn’t believe how quickly I took to it - that I had that skill in me all along but I’d just never tried it until then.
Naturally, my collection of illustrations grew and I now have an Etsy shop.
Although I taught myself digital illustration in order to be able to design creative and personalised wedding stationery, the majority of the work I do is the greeting cards at the moment. However, I do hope to be able to circle back to that original idea and help to inject people’s personalities into their wedding day with unique, alternative wedding stationery - if you have something in mind that you’d like to discuss me designing - please get in touch.
Self Portrait Artist
When 2020 put my business on pause I adapted and taught myself how to create conceptual self portraits from home. It was the perfect way for me to keep busy and creative during lockdown and it really boosted my confidence as I learned how to edit in a whole new way and I taught myself how to be the subject of a photo instead of always hiding behind my camera. Concept photography is a part of my life now and I really enjoy creating visual metaphors and story telling through photography. If you’re interested in following my conceptual self portrait work then click here and it will take you to my self portrait account. If you are interested in buying some of my photoshop artwork then click here for my shop.
I’m also a bit of a book worm! If I can’t find the time to read, I will listen to audio books (or podcasts) often while I am busy editing photos. My favourite genre of books is dystopias, thrillers and life stories in general. The podcasts I listen to are usually wedding photography related (unless it’s the Taskmaster TV show podcast).
In 2018, my Grandad’s Zeiss Ikon Nettar 120 film camera was handed down to me. It’s been in my family since 1955 (I have the receipt) but by the time it reached me, it had been neglected and unused for a very long time. I decided to take it along to a few weddings to see if it still worked and I was instantly hooked to film photography from the moment I saw the first set of prints.
Here’s a little example…
I loved providing this unique service to my clients so much that I created GO VINTAGE PACKAGES for those who want to include some film photography at their wedding.
Being the enthusiastic, creative person that I am I then went a step further and commissioned this illustration by Laurissa Stanbury Art
(this was before I taught myself digital illustration).
I call her Vintage Vera. I had stickers made of this illustration, so when I deliver vintage prints to my clients, the parcels are sealed with a Vera sticker.
My love of film cameras actually led me to find a camera that had undeveloped film inside for 28 years! I developed the film and with the power of Facebook I was able to reunite the photos with the family. Read about my mystery camera and the photos I found here.
I also donate £5 to a charity with every wedding booking that comes in. The charity that I donate to will vary depending on which month you book me (not the month of your wedding). I know £5 isn’t much but it all adds up and I’m proud to be doing something instead of nothing.