Hi I’m Katie, a Documentary Wedding Photographer based in Manchester, I work all over the UK photographing weddings in a candid, natural way that tells the story of your day.

So What is a Documentary Wedding Photographer?

You might hear a couple of different labels for this type of photographer in bridal blogs, magazines and maybe some other places, such as a reportage photographer or someone who captures the day in a photojournalistic manner, but it all boils down to the same thing. A documentary photographer is someone who captures the day in a candid way, un posed natural photography that shows the story of you day moment to moment. No interrupting things or asking people to say cheese. Just me sneaking around with my camera capturing all the awesome real moments that might otherwise be forgotten.

My Approach to Photographing Your Wedding Day?

Personally I like to keep things as natural as possible and leave you to go about your day, most of the time you wont even notice I am there. Of course there is sometimes a need for formal photos (but this is entirely up to you) but I do advise that we keep the formal or not so formal photography down to minimum to give me more time to capture more natural moments and interactions between you and your guests and give you more time to enjoy the day and spend time with your friends and family and enjoy the party! 

Listed as one of the top 50 UK Wedding Photographers 6 years in a row, 2018, 2019, 2020 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Do You Do Couples Portraits?

I love couples portraits! This can be a really fun time for you guys to take a few minutes away from the hustle and bustle of the wedding. Usually after the ceremony we’ll go off for a walk together and get some fun, natural photographs.

Either of you two naturally interacting together or I'll do my best to get you laughing and capture you both in that moment. I find these photographs full of emotion, real laughs, smiles and expressions are the ones we always end up coming back to and the ones that capture the real people in front of the lens. 

How Long Do Couples Portraits Take? 

My general approach to couples portraits on your wedding day is to have a short 10-15 minute session after the Ceremony and then another 10-15 minutes later on in the day, when the sun is lower in the sky and champagne has been flowing and people are feeling more relaxed. Although during winter weddings when we have the sun shine for a little less time or on a shorter day we may just have time for one session. I like to keep these sessions short and snappy so that you can spend as much time with your wedding guests as possible, but we still have plenty of time to create some beautiful natural creative fun photographs of you both together, just being yourselves and having a right laugh on the day you got married!

I tend to get a lot of photographs of couples laughing together with a good mix of romantic ones too (if that's what you are into). If romantic photos make you want to puke, we can just keep it to the fun ones, but we can figure out a plan for what would work best for you guys when we chat before the wedding.

We can always take longer on couples portraits if you want to travel out somewhere or cover a few different locations, but usually I like to keep the sessions short and sweet, so we can keep it fresh and get you guys back to enjoying the party ASAP. 

Details

As a Documentary Wedding Photographer, I often get asked if I shoot details. Details are an important part of the puzzle, they help piece things together. When I put my slide shows together for my couples I love using details shots to move the story of the day along and bring things into context. For example one of the photos below shows flowers with empty chairs behind them. The photograph is not just about the beautiful flowers but also about the empty chairs. Where have the people gone? In the slide show this would mark the beginning or end of a scene of your wedding day. The next shot would be taking us to where the people missing people are. My favourite photographs are the ones that can tell part of the story all on their own or raise a question, that soon can be answered in the next click of the shutter. 

Details aren't always beautiful flowers, dresses and shoes, they can come in much rawer forms that help tell part of the story too. Below is a photograph of some washing up that needs doing, it might just look like a pile of dirty dishes at first, but in context to the story of this wedding, the reception was held in the brides parents garden and they had their friends help out serving the guests from the family kitchen, bringing plates back and forth and doing all the washing up by hand. This was a labour of love for the people involved and an important part of this wedding’s story. 

Where do I work? 

I'm based in Glossop, Derbyshire just outside of Manchester so I shoot a lot of Weddings in Greater Manchester, Derbyshire, Liverpool (My home town), Cheshire and the North West but I love to travel and also work all over the UK. Whether you are having a Urban Wedding and are up for some up for some gritty city centre portraits or you are getting married in the beautiful english countryside or beyond, I’d love to hear from you for more information or if you have any questions Get in touch!

Do you do Group Shots?

I sure do. I love to have a good chat with my couples before the day and get a feel for what you want from your day and your wedding photography. We can do this via Zoom or if you fancy a trip out to sunny Glossop we can grab a brew and get to know each other. The majority of my wedding photography is natural reportage coverage of you and your friends and family having a good laugh together on your wedding day and I like to keep the group shots on the same level. Making them a fun not so formal affair, that you and your guests can enjoy together. To see more examples of what my group shots look like click here.

Are you a flash or natural light photographer?

 Short answer, I am both. As a documentary wedding photographer I love nothing more than shooting in natural light and you’ll see a lot of my favourite photographs that I have taken are using natural light. I will use flash a lot after sunset, on the dance floor and sometimes to take some more artistic photos when the mood takes me. If I think we will need flash during the ceremony I will speak to you about it first, but I’m a dab hand at handling low light conditions with over 10 years of Winter Weddings under my belt.

I love to play with light and create moody atmospheric shots where I can,  if there’s a silhouette to be had during bridal prep you can bet your last quid I’ll be on it!

What happens when it rains?

If you are getting married in the UK it rains a lot and Manchester is especially famous for it! But don’t worry if the heavens do open on your big day we can get some lovely moody indoor portraits using window light, take an adventure outside with a brolly, have some fun with a bit of off camera flash or do all three. Sometimes when the weather takes a turn it can push me to think outside the box and come up with something a little bit different, whatever the Weather Gods through at us we’ll be sure to come out with some lovely photos of you both and probably have a good laugh while we are at it.

I do use available light in venues, when I feel the light quality is good enough to do this. Using the light available light means I can take more photographs in succession and the look of the photographs will be more true to your memory of the day, there may come a point when I feel that the quality or direction of the light available to us isn’t quite up to getting us the best photographs and that’s when I may use additional sources of light.

If I think it might be best to use flash or some form of extra lighting during the ceremony I will always check in that you are happy for me to do so.

If you like what you see and want to get in touch fill in the form at the bottom of this page. I hold meetings in Manchester every Tuesday 9am until 9pm and I have one client meeting day a month in Liverpool. So if you are North West based and fancy a chat face to face let me know. I love to meet couples before their wedding day. If you aren’t close enough to Liverpool or Manchester to get to a face to face meeting a Skype or call will be just fine. It’s lovely to get to know you both before the Wedding day and get a feel for what kind of photographs would work best for you as a couple.

Wanna see more? check out my blog. 

Like what you see? Get in touch!