How I got into all this in the first place.

The part where I tell you something I don't have to tell you

My wife and I have always been disappointed with our wedding photos.

That’s not a criticism of anyone. It was entirely our decision. We assumed, the way a lot of couples do, that all wedding photographers produce roughly the same result. So we didn’t prioritise booking someone whose work genuinely moved us. We’d save the money. The photos would be fine.

They were fine. And fine is a horrible thing for your wedding photos to be.

I’ve looked at those images hundreds of times over the years. I know exactly what’s missing. I know it’s permanent. And I know it’s one of the reasons I started photographing weddings myself. I wanted to understand what the difference actually was between fine and extraordinary. And then I wanted to make sure other people felt it.

I'm not a real northerner

How I got here

You can tell by my accent that I'm not a local

I grew up in Birmingham. Not the nice bits.

I was a lanky, awkward kid with a problem with authority and no particular sense of where I belonged, until I found a basketball court at fourteen and everything shifted. Basketball gave me coaches who gave a damn, teammates who became a tribe, and for the first time somewhere I genuinely felt like myself. It also gave me an obsession with Air Jordans that I couldn’t afford then and absolutely make up for now.

I followed that obsession to Leeds, where I studied, captained the basketball team, and met a 6ft 1 Sheffield woman called Laura, who turned out to be the best decision I ever made that wasn’t entirely my idea. We spent six years in South London after university, getting sharper and more ourselves, and then came north to be closer to the people who matter. Sheffield is home because Laura is from here, and that turns out to be reason enough.

I also grew up understanding that families are complicated. That the people in a room together on a wedding day don’t always have a simple history, and that sometimes the most important photographs are the ones that capture something that took years to get to. I don’t take that lightly. Whatever your family looks like, whoever is in the room, I’ll hold all of it with care.

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The other stuff, since you're here

I have an art degree, which means I think about light and composition in a way that doesn’t switch off when I put a camera down. I’m 6ft 6, which makes “blending in” a generous description of what I do at weddings. I’m more of a very tall shadow in black clothing and whatever Jordans I’m currently obsessed with.

I’m outgoing and informal and occasionally very silly, which tends to help with the people who freeze up in front of a camera. I’ll charm your Nan, make friends with your niece, and probably end up giving her my spare camera at some point. I tie a tie five different ways. I give a genuinely good bridesmaid impression when it comes to showing you how to walk down an aisle.

I got a dog called Devon not that long ago and it turns out I’m completely that person now.

And on the days when everything goes sideways, because something always does, I already have a plan and you’ll never know it was needed.

What drives all of it

I lost my dad when he was 57.

What I have left of him, really have of him, are photographs. A specific one where he’s looking at me during the confetti and his face says everything. That whatever had been complicated between us didn’t matter anymore. That he was proud. That in that moment, I was seen.

It’s permanent. And I’m grateful for it every time I look at it.

That’s what a photograph actually is when it works. Not a record. Not a nice image for the album. A moment that someone gets to keep forever, that keeps giving something back every time they look at it.

That’s what I’m trying to make at every wedding I shoot. For the couple who nearly didn’t book a photographer. For the person who never thought they photographed well. For the family who will one day look at these images and feel something they can’t quite put into words.

It’s worth doing properly.

If that sounds like your kind of photographer

I’m not going to hard sell you. If you’ve read this far you already know whether this feels right.

I’m on WhatsApp and I answer quickly. Tell me about your wedding, where it is, what kind of day you’re planning, what terrifies you about being photographed. We’ll have a conversation and work out whether we’re a good fit. If we’re not, I’ll tell you that too.

And if you’re still in the planning stages and need someone brilliant to help pull the whole day together, Laura runs her own wedding planning and events business. Between us we have most of it covered.

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About Nate