I think any keen amateur photographer, would at some time or another, have been asked to photograph a friend or family members wedding. Leading up to when I did actually take the plunge into weddings I know I’d been asked numerous times. I had always avoided it and made my excuses, partly because I didn’t want the responsibility and because I doubted that I would be good enough to photograph a wedding….

I had a wedding taster when a friend, Glen Blakeborough, who was a working wedding photographer asked me if I would act as a second photographer for him. He didn’t put any pressure on me during the day and I had a pretty loose brief to just act as a documentary photographer. If you’ve read the previous blog I wrote in relation to that day, you’ll know that I suddenly realised that shooting weddings was where I wanted to take my photography.

A room prepared for a Wedding at Arnos Court Hotel, Bristol

I didn’t actually go looking for wedding work but shortly after that wedding I was asked, once again, if I’d be interested in shooting a wedding for a friend of someone I worked with. This time I didn’t make any excuses and said yes. I met the bride to be, Samantha, shortly after and turned up for my initial meeting with her with no real wedding work of my own to show her. I had the shots from the wedding I’d worked on with Glen and a ‘how to shoot weddings’ book, written by Damian Lovegrove. I told Sam I would try to produce pictures like his for her which was quite a claim to make!

Luckily Sam decided to take a chance on me so in July 2011 we agreed a price, based on my limited/non experience, and I agreed to shoot her wedding in October the following year. Once word got out that I was willing to shoot weddings I suddenly had lots of enquires and as things turned out, I shot ten other weddings in 2012, prior to Sam’s wedding.

Sam arriving at the venue on her wedding day.

Having committed myself I threw myself into getting some training. I was already signed up for PhotoTraining4U and their website was a great resource for everything weddings. I had Damiens book and read quite a few others and then early in 2012 I went on a weekend photography course with two wedding pro’s. I also took on some training in relation to flash photography as I knew I would need to know what I was doing with a flash gun.

As a result of the training, I knew I needed more equipment which was up to a professional standard. I was already shooting with a professional camera, Canon 5D mk2, but I knew I would need a back up camera so I bought another 5D. Lens wise I had three Canon L series zooms covering all the focal lengths from 10mm up to 200mm. I invested in a 100mm L series macro lens, initially, for ring/food shots. That lens became a firm favourite of mine and I was using it for most of my portrait shots as well before we actually finished with the weddings. Another big investment was an Eizo colour calibrated monitor. I’d say a colour calibrated monitor is absolutely essential for anyone who is seriously into their photography. I still use the same monitor today for all my post processing.

At the time I’d retired as a Police officer, after 30yrs service, but the force had re-employed me in a civilian role. I was still only 50yrs old and wanted to work, plus I still had a mortgage to pay. I was working shifts on a six days on, four days off rota. This limited the amount of weddings I could commit to but the business plan at the time was to try and shoot 11/12 weddings in 2012 and see how things panned out. I’ll cover how that first year worked out in my next post.

All images: ©Stephen Hyde 2007-2025 – All rights reserved.