2014: bouncing back from burglary and becoming Joanna Nicole Photography

So. 2014. TWENTY FOURTEEN. God, you've been good to me. At the end of 2013, I had just been burgled. All my photography gear was taken and my house ransacked. Let's just say I wasn't really in the mood for Christmas at that point. But, when New Year came I was determined to make it better. I was forced to bench photography completely for at least 3 months, but I was still taking bookings despite keeping things quiet in case I wasn't able to replace my cameras. I battled with my insurance company for 7 months (YES SEVEN) before I was reimbursed for everything that was stolen, but eventually I got there. I had one camera body and lens by the end of March, when I shot a friend's little girl's christening, and christ was it good to be back behind the lens.

Over the year, I shot 9 weddings myself and second shot one with Heather Shuker of Brighton Photo which was wonderful. At the beginning of the year, I had booked 3. I've loved every wedding and each one has just made me realise even more that this is what I'm supposed to do. It's been hard work, for sure. I work full time during the week so my weekends and evenings are taken up with shooting, editing, website building, business administration, marketing... I've certainly realised how much more there is involved in running a photography business than I did before. It's all been 100% worth it though, and somehow I'm starting 2015 with 11 bookings in the bag. Could not be happier with how things are going. Here are some highlights of my year...

James and Sara were my first couple of the year. We did their engagement shoot in Richmond Park in the late spring and then their wedding was an amazing church and barn wedding in Lenham, Kent, which included a cèilidh - SO MUCH FUN to shoot. 

These absolutely gorgeous kids were the subject of a little relaxed family photoshoot at Polesden Lacey in June. They were full of smiles and an absolute joy!

I went to school with Rhiannon and she'd sent me a message on Facebook asking if I'd shoot her wedding at Manor House School in Bookham, Surrey, where I grew up. We hadn't seen each other in years and only had a chance to meet up just before wedding as she and Rhys now lived in New Zealand. Their wedding was that weekend in July where terrible thunderstorms were predicted (I bought at least 3 brollies and her family had bought a beautiful set of Cath Kidston umbrellas), but it was GLORIOUSLY sunny. I think because everyone had been expecting the worst, we were all even happier!

My beautiful friend Muni had an enormous wedding and I was lucky enough to be invited. I wasn't the photographer (she had about 6 of those!) but I couldn't resist taking a few shots during the day because it was so fantastic and that bride did NOT stop smiling.

Katie and Tom are one of those couples who deal in fun and laughter and not staring-into-each-others-eyes soppiness, so for their engagement shoot we decided to photograph them and a few from their bridal party at Garsons Farm in Esher, where they picked berries for a big barbecue they were having. It was refreshing and lovely, and the photos are totally natural which is exactly what they wanted.

Their wedding saw hundreds of colourful balloons and one of the best sunsets I've seen all year round - or maybe ever. I took an astonishing amount of photos at their wedding but everywhere I looked there was some magnificent to capture. 

Abi and Ally were a bit nervous about their engagement shoot and said they weren't good at public displays of affection, but before long they were absolute pros and forgot about everyone else around. I absolutely LOVE Brighton, so it was great to shoot there. Their wedding was at Sunningdale Park in Ascot, and made for a stunning back drop. The surprise fireworks Abi got for Ally were a lovely way to end the evening.

Jen was my boss, once upon a time, and booked me to shoot her and Paula's wedding when I'd only done 2 or 3 before. It was one of my favourite weddings of the year - they were wonderfully affectionate, Mythe Barn in Warwickshire housed some beautiful light, and bringing their dogs along for a group photo was excellent. There were tears all around during the speeches when Jen's mum, who passed away a few years before, was mentioned, but I've never seen a pair so happy for the rest of the day. I particularly loved that this wedding featured an all female cast for the speeches...YES ladies.

Susie and Greg (Rutherford, Olympian long jumper extraordinaire) booked me to take a few photos at their baby shower about 3 weeks before Susie was due to give birth to their son, Milo. It was a perfect, sunny, relaxed afternoon and I have never seen someone that pregnant look so blood fantastic. 

Kate was a bridesmaid at Rhiannon and Rhys's wedding, and when she emailed me described herself as 'the bridesmaid who couldn't smile' - I beg to differ, Dr Fjelle. Her smile lit up pretty much all of the photos I took. Their wedding was in Shopshire at Adcote Hall which is a private school. The area is particularly nostalgic for me as it's where my grandparents lived. It was a rural dream and we were lucky enough to get some gorgeous autumn light and colours. My favourite part may have been the potato canon filled with confetti being fired during the first dance though - inspired.

Luke and Louise were the second of 3 autumn weddings and had their ceremony at the newly refurbished Burford Bridge Hotel in Dorking, Surrey. Blessed with beautiful light again, was made the most of the golden colours. They had a bit of a superhero theme running though, with a cake that was half wedding half batman, and superhero capes for the kids. You can imagine how much they loved them!

Emma and Piers chose to have their engagement photos at the place they were getting married - Gatton Manor in Surrey. A girl with an infectious smile and the absolute best autumn reds and golds you could hope for, it was a triumph. Emma braved soggy grounds in heels in order to get those photos, and it was definitely worth it. Their first dance, to Imelda May's 'Inside Out' was choreographed perfectly and was really refreshing and fun - I loved their kiss with Emma on Piers' knee at the end!

Kate and Ed. My final wedding of 2014 on December 20th. And to be honest, the one I was most worried about. Limited light is the bane of any photographer's life, and although you can be clever with off-camera flash, it's still hard work and can flatten a natural image. However, this Christmassy ceremony with mulled wine, sparklers and fairy lights galore, was incredible. The weather was fabulously clear and crisp in the morning, and there were some moody clouds after the ceremony but no rain. Success! Their reception was in a Tentipi in Kate's parent's garden near Ashford in Kent, and the log fire and Christmas crackers just made me feel all warm and festive. Kate deserves a medal for hanging out in the bitter cold for so long to get these photos, as well!

So there we are. Merry Christmas everyone, and roll on 2015.

JNP

Wedding photography is for life, not just for... Christmas?

Alright, the 'not just for Christmas' is a tenuous link to say the least because this post has literally nothing to do with Christmas, but I was stuck for a title and I'm feeling festive, and it IS about something lasting for life. So... we good?

A lovely thing happened a few weeks ago. I was on the phone to a couple who, during the call, had decided they would really like to book me to shoot their wedding next year, and at the end of the phone call, they asked this:

“And – it doesn’t really matter anyway, but I suppose we should probably know – what do you charge again?”

Music. To. My. Ears. Not because I thought, ‘oh they don’t remember, perhaps I can charge more!’ or anything like that. It wasn’t even about the money. It was just the ultimate compliment that the money wasn’t the deciding factor in choosing me to be their photographer. YEAH. Which in an ideal world, I think all wedding photographers (or any creative person) would love to be the case every time. To be chosen purely based on your work and know that the most important thing to the couple is also the thing that you put your heart and soul into is a wonderful feeling.

Of course, I’m not naïve; I know that everyone will have a budget, this couple included. Weddings are expensive and obviously couples will choose their budgets for individual outgoings accordingly. For some, it might be that they’re willing to spend more on a dress or a cake, but subsequently can’t spend as much on photography. Those decisions have likely been made quite early on, and will probably affect where the couple look for their suppliers. It goes the other way as well - using the most expensive photographer you can find because you *can* afford it and surely that means they're the best. There are a lot of blogs out there on the cost of wedding photography by photographers who have been doing this a lot longer than me, so I’m not going to get into that, but have a look at this infographic by Francesco Spighi and this blog by Laura Babb which explains everything REALLY well. It’s a topic that comes up a lot, and there is a common misconception that photographers are rich because ‘they earn £100 an hour at least!’ (they don’t. They really don’t). The price of wedding photography is an interesting, and often misunderstood, subject.

What I'm getting at is that your wedding photos are something that will last forever, so the decision shouldn't rest *solely* on what it costs. You know when you spend a bit more on a great pair of boots or a lovely coat, but you can justify it because you LOVE it and it's good quality and think of all the WEARS you'll get out of it... Well imagine how many 'wears' you'll get out of your wedding photos. Think how many times in 30, 40, 50 years you'll pour over your album again and smile and reminisce and feel that nostalgic glow of what a happy day it was. Make sure that at that point, you're not thinking 'well, I don't like them but at least they only cost X' or 'how annoying that I spent XXX and I don't even like the style'. Instead, be preoccupied with your amazing wedding and how you love the way it was captured.

JNP

An all-female cast.

A few weeks ago I shot my first same sex weddings (both were of the female persuasion), pretty much back to back. Beforehand, I was slightly more nervous than usual, in the way I might be if it's a different type of location to what I'm used to or if the groom was super tall and the bride was tiny. You're always going to feel more comfortable shooting a wedding in familiar territory. Other than that, I was quite excited because I want to photograph as many different types of weddings as possible, to keep everything fresh, creatively.

I wondered if I'd need to change my approach for the couples shots, particularly for those which are perhaps a bit more 'man holding woman in protective way'. I thought it might be hard to fit in two lots of bridal prep. But to be honest, as with most weddings, I think about these things but I rarely sit down and decide what I'm going to do. I prefer to just let it come naturally on the day and hope my artistic instincts get me through (they never let me down). Of course everything ran smoothly and there's nothing noteworthy on that front other than the fact that I definitely rely on the groom to hold flowers or help the bride with her dress; when there's two people with big dresses trying to navigate their way around woods/fields/grass it's slightly more tricky! So same sex couples are exactly the same as everyone else: they're completely different. These two pairs in particular were polar opposites; one couple were very cuddly and affectionate, and the other couple were giggly and playful, so the same adjustments in how I get the best photos in any situation applied. 

However, two things I noticed at both weddings and LOVED, were:

1. Women doing speeches. Please can this be done more? In the first, one bride did a speech, and it was lovely to hear things from her perspective. I think women are more likely to be emotional than men (in my experience) and its a beautiful thing to see all that FEELING come out during the speech. In the other wedding, the speeches were done by an all-female cast. *insert women power emoji here*. Both their dads were there, but they didn't do speeches. So we had two sets of bridesmaids and each bride giving a speech, and it was an absolute breath of fresh air. Funny, emotional, heartfelt, personal. You get used to hearing similar(ish) types of speeches from proud dads/grooms and best men trying their hardest to embarrass the groom, but this turned everything on its head. The whole room was captivated and there were tears of every type. So ladies, please don't be afraid of doing a speech. You'll be funny and charming and if you cry it's totally cool.

2. Being gay wasn't A Thing. I didn't expect it to be, exactly, but we live in a world where even the most accepting parts of society will still view this as something to be commented on, however innocent the intention. I mean, I'm writing this blog so effectively doing the same myself, but I have to say it was 100% NOT A Thing at either wedding. I guess it makes sense given that everyone there was presumably someone they know and love, but I wondered if there would be a mention in the speeches perhaps? Nope, it was the same as every other wedding and was about two people who love each other and nothing else. It was like temporarily being in a world where a famous person wouldn't have to publicly come out and for it to be front page news; it was completely refreshing and basically wonderful. 

More weddings where I come away with the impression that they're refreshing and wonderful, please! Okay now I'm off to shoot another wedding of two people who love each other :-).

JNP

Finding a fiver in your old jeans.

HELLO. I've never done a blog before. I can only apologise in advance if this is terrible or devastatingly boring. Should you feel it necessary to give me some blog-writing tips afterwards, then please do be my guest. I welcome criticism... In the way that you might welcome humiliating yourself in public by falling on your face and having to laugh it off because you KNOW it was funny. And then you hobble off you do ugly crying.

Anyway, moving swiftly on. I am a photographer. I'm trying my best to get used to saying that, but it's a bit like after you've been single for ages and you have to relearn what it's like to say you have a boyfriend; it still feels a tiny bit like you're embellishing the truth in a flattering manner. Or to stop people asking why you're single. The reason calling myself a photographer feels a bit foreign on my lips is partly due to the fact that it's all fairly recent and I still work in an office during the week, and partly because photography is genuinely my dream job. I sort of can't believe that people consider me a professional in something that I love doing.

So, to keep this short, I won't go into too much detail about how I got here. It went like this:

- did a highly enjoyable but essentially useless degree in Fine Art (joannayates.co.uk in case you were interested in what happened with that)

- picked up a camera and found it pretty rad

- got a 'normal' job but took many photos all the time everywhere and made all my friends love and hate me in equal measure for capturing their best sides...and their worst

- 2 years ago, was asked to shoot a friend's wedding because they liked my photos

- was flattered and terrified but did it and LOVED it

And since then, I've done several weddings, christenings, portraits, family shoots... basically, whatever anyone was willing to hire me to get behind a camera lens for. It wasn't actually until I had the absolute pleasure of meeting Emma Case and Pete Smyth (www.emmacasephotography.com) at one of my best friend's weddings a year ago which led to me attending their workshop, Welcome Home, that I really decided that being a photographer was what I wanted, and needed, to do with my life. At the risk of sounding a bit wanky, it was actually quite an emotional experience, after not knowing if I was capable of career-related ambition for most of my life. I mean, there was that time in school where they made us use that vocational-counselling programme 'Kudos' prior to choosing our GCSEs... it suggested I should be working outdoors, but the brief dreams of becoming a adventure tour guide were short lived. 

At Welcome Home, they told us to think about our 'why'. The first thing I thought, as cheesy as it sounds, was 'to capture joy'. I just don't know if I'll ever get enough of being able to take a moment of pure happiness and turn it into something everlasting. The artistic side of photography plays an important part with me as well; naturally, having come from a fine art background, I've always had so much appreciation for the beauty in a visual creation. For me, looking at a shot I've nailed is like finding a fiver in an old pair of jeans: you didn't expect it, but in that moment you are MADE. UP. Which is a bit like how I feel about becoming a photographer.

The joy part is important, though. And even better? When the smiles you've captured create more smiles.

JNP

Photo by Anna Pumer Photography