ULA: COLLEAGUE AND SECOND PHOTOGRAPHER

For some time I have felt the need of a regular second photographer for weddings. I have chatted with various recent photography graduates I know. One isn’t sure whether she wants to go on in photography, another has decided he wants to major on graphic design, and yet another is in Leeds – hardly practical!

Matters came to a head recently when wedding clients that I booked towards the end of last year strongly expressed a desire (and willingness to pay) for two photographers. Where to go?

In some desperation I tried my friend Konsta. I say friend – I know her as the assistant manager at the Phoenix pub in Camberwell, where I have been a regular. I know Konsta is a very able photographer and has done weddings – was she free and could she help? Unfortunately, no she wasn’t, but…  “the person you need to talk to is my friend Ula.” So the meeting with Ula was set up – from Bromley back to Camberwell, to the Phoenix, on my birthday, with a great lunch with Sarah followed by “business talk”.

At the Phoenix, Windsor Walk – Camberwell

We met again for Alan and Tricia’s wedding at St John Fisher and St Thomas More church in Eltham. The wedding was unusual in its own right, but that is for another day.

Working for the first time with a new second photographer took me right back to early days with Tim Harman. It’s a slightly nervy thing – but we fell into a rhythm of working straight away and the day became very easy.

Ula (Urszula) shoots with Canon cameras. That made for part of my nervousness, and it is true that pulling our files together to make a seamless whole was a challenge, especially given the difference between my Nikon D6 and Ula’s mirrorless Canon R6ii. But the edit has gone ok, and the benefit of working with a second photographer easily outweighs the slight extra challenge.

Ula in action during the wedding in St John Fisher and St Thomas More church, Eltham

Ula is no new graduate. She is an experienced professional photographer, with websites for her portrait and historical work and for her weddings photography, under the name Feather and Grain. Our styles are not identical, but they blend easily. Both of us love reportage, both of us love creamy out-of-focus areas, both of us just love our work as wedding photographers. She is around my daughter’s age, which for me is another positive; in my experience bridging generations at a wedding is a good thing as a wedding photographer.

So – we hope to do this again. If her clients want a second photographer, it can be me, and if mine do, it will be Ula. We look forward to giving each other some work to do, and making each other’s work a bit lighter too!

Urszula with bride Tricia at the reception – Royal Blackheath Golf Club, Eltham

That’s a whole question in its own right! It is going to have to wait for another post – this is a newsy blog just to say that I have a new colleague and I’m very happy and thankful that she came along. But there are a ton of reasons for having two wedding photographers – and I will very soon be writing about all that!

Chris and Lizzie’s wonderful Surrey wedding – St George’s Ashtead and Denby’s vineyard

If you are planning your wedding, and looking for a photographer – or two! – please contact me.