Digital Wedding Forum - Wedding photography's home on the web.

Location - Yorkshire, United Kingdom of Great Britain and all her dominions
Business Name - SMW Photography
Years in Business - Nearly 9!!
Website - http://www.smwphotography.co.uk
Blog - http://www.smwphotography.blogspot.com/
PM - Contact Simon

DWF - Let's start off with a little bio, tell us a little bit about yourself.

SIMON - I'm 38 (look much younger of course) and married to a citizen of the US, Julie, for 13 years this summer and we have one daughter, Honey aged 4. We also have a cat and a dog and live on the edge of the beautiful North Yorkshire Moors National Park close to the small/pretty market town of Helmsley.

DWF - How did you become a wedding photographer?

SIMON - Like so many, by 'accident'. I studied design & photography at college and university, but didn't work in either industry for very long after graduating ('92) as I pursued other career paths (firefighter for a couple of years, manager and instructor at a gym for a few more and did various other 'odd' jobs). Then I kind of stumbled into wedding photography in the year 2000 after being challenged by my tutor at a photography night school course. I'd been going primarily to use the darkroom, but the tutor (a very 'old school' pro wedding photographer...who is still in business!!) encouraged me to go to a few of his weddings and shoot whatever I wanted. I didn't know that there was any such thing as 'wedding photo-journalism' at the time, but that's what I was doing and found I enjoyed doing. The tutor then passed on to me a few jobs here and there that he couldn't do and it just took off after a year or so.

DWF- Who or what inspires you as an artist?

SIMON - This will sound terribly pretentious, but myself more than anything. I'm very driven and tend to look inwardly rather than outwardly. Most of my focus is on what I'm doing with very little regard to what anyone else is doing. Specifically though, I am inspired by cinematography, trailers for movies, advertising, posters, art, postcards, - particularly anything a little 'vintage' from the 30's through the 50's. The photographers I most admire are those working in that same era and into the 60's. But not to take anything away from other wedding photographers, - there's plenty who's work and approach and mindset that inspire me, - just nobody that I try to or would like to emulate.

DWF- If we needed a photographer today why would we book you? What makes you unique?

SIMON - I have a belief that the saying 'opposites attract' is rarely true and that actually 'like attracts like'. There's a saying that 'we book the clients we deserve' and I believe that to be true also and am in the fortunate position (other than a few that inevitably 'slip the net'), that I book the clients I want. I don't think there's any one specific area where I'm 'unique', - I just do and offer pretty much what I want to do/offer with very little concession to 'how you should do things' or what anyone else is doing. In many ways, this possibly does make me one of the few 'uniques' in that I don't follow convention or the herd. That isn't to say that I'm originating or 'leading' in any area, - just doing my own thing.

DWF- If you had to pick a favorite "Tool of the Trade" what would it be? and why?

SIMON - That's a difficult question to answer really because tools to me are just that, - tools, - I'm not a gadget freak and travel pretty light. I shoot pretty much all my work with 2 bodies (D3 and D700) with a 24-70 and a70-200, plus an SB800 flash. I have no favourite body, lens or piece of kit, - they all have their part to play. I would say though that the D3 (and now the D700) did allow me last year, for the first time to shoot how I wanted to shoot all of the time instead of part of the time due to 2 factors, - full frame and low light. Tools sometimes DO make a difference.

DWF - Care to share your favorite photograph? and tell us a bit about it?

SIMON - The image I am submitting isn't in my opinion my favourite image by any means, but according to a recent poll on my blog, other people's favourite image of mine from 2008. I saw an advert for a movie soundtrack album cover (Caramel) in a magazine the day before the wedding and tore out the picture and put it in my wallet to remember it as I liked the drama of the pose and the lighting. The very next day, the scenario presented itself and so I took the opportunity to 'recreate' a similar style shot (recreate for me = less than a minute). Then in Photoshop I fiddled about with it (not very well) and covered up a multitude of sins with some textures.....and then about a week ago, finally learned how to get rid of the radiator (which is shown in the pic on the blog). I do very little 'posed' work with my clients, but this kind of sums up that 'posed' work that I do, - a kind of stylized drama.

DWF - How about some final words to live by?

SIMON - Be yourself and follow your own path. Suck up as much info as you can, but only apply what works for you. Be different because you are different, not for the sake of being different. Speculate to accumulate. Have a strong nerve and hold it.