Questions

The eight we are always asked, including the awkward ones.

If yours is not here, email Maddie — she has heard it, and she will tell you the real answer rather than the marketing one.

Before the questions: the one thing worth knowing

Almost every disappointing wedding gallery we have ever been shown by a couple failed for the same reason, and it was not the photographer's equipment or their editing. It was the timeline. Portraits scheduled for one o'clock in July, a ceremony in a room with a west-facing window at four, forty minutes of group shots stacked on top of a drinks reception that was already running late — none of that can be rescued afterwards, by anybody, at any price. Twenty minutes moved to the right place is worth more than the difference between two photographers' portfolios, and it costs nothing. That is why the light timeline on this site exists, why we insist on a planning call rather than an email chain, and why the first thing we will ask you for is not your Pinterest board but your running order.

The eight questions we are always asked

Tap any question to open it. You can have several open at once.

Yes, and we think the question is worth asking every photographer you speak to. A full day comes back at roughly six hundred edited frames and you get all six hundred — we do not hold a "best of" back behind a print package, and there is no version of the gallery that costs more. What you will not get is the near-duplicates and the frames where somebody blinked, because that is editing rather than withholding. Everything comes as a full-resolution download with a print release, so you can order from whoever you like, including us.

A sneak peek of about thirty frames goes up within four days, usually while you are still away. The full wedding gallery lands within five weeks in season and rather quicker between November and March. Family and newborn sessions come back inside twenty-one days. Those are the dates we put in the contract rather than the dates we hope for, and in nine years we have missed one — a burst pipe at the studio in 2022, and we told the couple before they had to ask.

It will rain, or at least it will threaten to, and some of the best frames we have ever taken were made under an umbrella at Hardcastle Crags. We carry two golf umbrellas, dry cloths and covers for both bodies, and we will always ask before suggesting anybody stands out in it. What we do not do is disappear indoors at the first spot and then apologise for the photographs afterwards — twenty minutes of soft grey light after a shower is genuinely the easiest light of the whole day to work in.

We do, and we would rather do them properly than pretend a documentary approach means skipping them. Eight groupings, twenty-five minutes, list agreed in advance and one person from each family briefed to round people up — that is the formula and it works. Beyond about ten groupings the whole thing starts eating the part of the day you actually booked us for, and we will say so when you send the list rather than on the day.

Because one photographer cannot be in two getting-ready rooms, cannot shoot the aisle from the front and the back at once, and cannot be ill. Esme leads every wedding and Joss shoots alongside her; the second camera is included in the full-day price rather than sold as an upgrade. It also means the day is covered from two heights and two temperaments, which is why the galleries have both the wide, quiet frames and the close, noisy ones.

The other one still turns up, which is the honest answer and the reason we work in a pair. If something happened to both of us we have a written arrangement with two other Calderdale studios whose work we would be happy to have at our own wedding, and we would ring you the moment we knew rather than the night before. We carry professional indemnity and £2 million public liability, and we are registered with the ICO for the data we hold on you.

Constantly. Anywhere within an hour of Hebden Bridge is included — that covers Halifax, Todmorden, Haworth, Skipton, Ilkley, Saltaire, Leeds and most of Manchester. Beyond that we charge mileage at cost and a room if the start time makes an early drive daft, and we will tell you the number before you commit rather than after. We have shot in the Dales, the Lakes, Northumberland and, twice, on Skye.

Joss shoots one roll of 120 medium-format alongside the digital on the film collection — twelve frames, no more, developed by hand at the studio and scanned here rather than posted away. There is no back of the camera to check, which is exactly the point: it slows the whole hour down and the twelve frames that come back are almost always the ones that end up on a wall. It is an add-on rather than a substitute; nobody has ever had a wedding covered on film alone by us and we would talk you out of it if you asked.

Planning the light

Pick an hour and see what we would be shooting

The single biggest thing you can do for your photographs is put twenty minutes in the right place in your timeline. Step through the day — the drawing re-lights, and the note underneath is what we would actually advise.
19:20Golden hour
The twenty minutes everything is for. Long shadows, warm light, and nobody has to be told to relax.
Best for: twenty minutes stolen from the reception. Ask us to book it into your timeline.
Sunset times are for the Calder Valley in late June; we send you the real ones for your date when you book.

Insurance, backups and the other boring bits that matter

Both photographers carry two camera bodies and both bodies write to two cards at once, so a card failure loses nothing rather than losing your ceremony. Cards are never formatted on the day. Within twelve hours of getting home everything is copied to two drives in the studio and one off-site, and the originals stay on the cards until the gallery is delivered — three copies in two places, which is the standard the archive world uses and the one your photographs deserve. We hold £2 million public liability, professional indemnity, and equipment cover, and we will send the certificates straight to your venue's coordinator without being chased for them, because most venues now ask and it is faster if we just do it. We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office for the data we hold about you, we do not sell or share it, and we will delete it on request once the gallery period has ended. We ask before we put any photograph of you on this website or on social media, and no means no with no follow-up email. If you would rather your wedding never appeared anywhere at all, say so at the planning call and it never will.
Available dates

Tell us the date and we will tell you straight away.

One wedding a weekend, so most Saturdays in the summer go about eighteen months out. Send the date and the venue and you will have an honest answer the same day — including if the honest answer is that we are already booked.
Check your date07700 900412
Unit 4, Linden Mill, Hebden Bridge · Studio open Tuesday to Friday for album viewings