A self-confessed camera-freak, Anna has turned her obsession into a full-time career creating timeless, pretty pictures that perfectly portray a wedding day…
The interview
Location:
Manchester
When and how did you fall in love with photography?
I’ve always loved looking at other people’s photographs. When everyone else groans at someone getting their 500 holiday pics out, I’m there happily poring over them, whether I know them well or not. As a teenager I used to tear out photographs I liked from my dad’s newspaper supplements and stick them all over my walls, I’ve just always found photography really fascinating.
It never occurred to me that I might have any talent for it myself, but when I was backpacking across Asia I got an unexpected tax rebate and so, fairly impulsively, bought my first film SLR in Nepal. From that moment I just couldn’t stop, and travelling through so many amazing places and seeing so many arresting things just fuelled it even more. I got them processed as I travelled and lugged hundreds of prints around with me in my rucksack; not very practical but I was hooked!
Have you had any formal training?
No, I am a complete book nerd, studied English Literature and became a secondary school English teacher, which I loved. I taught myself photography while I was travelling. When I got back I went to a few beginners’ evening classes to make sure I’d not picked up any bad habits or missed any glaringly obvious basics, but other than that, learning how to do it has all been trial and error and lots of experimenting and reading.
How would you describe your photography style?
What really interests me is energy, individuality and spirit, I like atmospheric pictures where character jumps out of them and you feel like you can tell what that person is like, what they sound like, how they feel. I try to anticipate when something wonderful is going to happen and make sure I grab it when it does, it might be something small like a facial expression, a dance move or a belly laugh, but these are the times when people’s characters shine through.
What inspires your work?
The people I photograph. I get very excited when I know I’m photographing people with interesting personalities or style, or a couple who have a really great energy between them. Wedding photographers I absolutely love at the moment are Jonas Peterson, The Image is Found and Ben Blood. I look at their blogs all the time and flit between feeling really inspired and really inadequate!
When did you first shoot a wedding?
In July 2008. They were friends of a friend but I’d never met them before. I did it for free in exchange for them taking a punt on someone inexperienced and I was beyond terrified. The pictures turned out really well though and I am still friends with them today.
Where in the UK are you based and how far would you travel to shoot a wedding?
I’m relocating from Birmingham to Manchester this summer and so a lot of my work is throughout the Midlands and North West. However, I happily travel anywhere, including overseas, and often travel a fair distance for work, particularly weddings. I’d get incredibly bored photographing at the same locations all the time and I love to travel so it suits me fine to go further afield.
How many weddings do you shoot per year?
Around 20 or so, not a huge amount compared to some, but plenty for me as I also do a lot of portrait work and some commercial work, as well as doing a fair bit of work on creative learning projects with young people. I really enjoy the variety of work, it stops me getting bored and I find that each strand of work inspires and injects freshness into the others. I’ve also got a 5 year old son and so it’s really important to me to retain some weekends to spend with him, my husband, family and friends. I do love photographing weddings and get a bit swept up in wedding season, my husband tends to become a bit of a wedding-and-photoshop-widower!
What has been the best wedding you’ve captured so far, and why?
That’s such a hard question because I love different ones for different reasons. I’m not going to include friends’ weddings even though they have been spectacular as I’m too biased! Debbie and Peter’s 50s style wedding really sticks in my mind as it was a complete extravaganza and extremely creative. The outfits were amazing, there were so many different and inventive kinds of entertainment going on throughout the day, and it was visually so striking and varied. The guests had a proper swing dance lesson, and Debbie is the only bride I’ve seen upside down during her first dance. Debbie and Pete are just so warm, funny, deliriously in love and wonderfully eccentric with an immense lust for life, I loved them. But now I keep thinking of lots of other weddings I loved too! I’ve been really lucky with the couples who book me: so many amazing people with wonderful days.
What would be your idea of a dream wedding to photograph?
A really fun, loved-up, adventurous couple with unique style. The location can be a bit arbitrary if you’ve got people who shine. Some of my best pictures have been next to an old bin or something really dull or unglamorous like that, so it’s really not essential to have some picturesque location to get an amazing shoot. I really love weddings where you can go out into the streets as there’s so much more variety of backdrops and I love the vibrant atmosphere, so probably somewhere manic and colourful like New York, Tokyo, Istanbul or Delhi would be a dream location. Give me a noisy bustling city over a sedate stately home any day!
Has anything gone wrong when shooting a wedding? And if so, how did you cope with it?
Photographically, no. I check, double check, triple check, back up, plan etc etc to make sure that nothing will go wrong. A bridesmaid once got her knee stuck in a cattle grid at the church exit so that no-one could leave until the fire brigade came to cut her out, which was pretty memorable! Coping with things like this that don’t go according to plan is just a matter of being supportive, creative and flexible. Often the couple looks to you as a calming influence and I think it’s really important that you can be this for them.
What camera(s) do you use for photographing weddings?
Canon 5D Mark II and 5D.
And your favourite lenses?
Recently I’ve been trying to use prime lenses much more, although it’s very hard to give up on my 24-70mm f2.8 which is such a great, versatile walk-around lens. I absolutely love my 50mm prime and next on my list is the Canon 35mm f1.4 prime, which I’m beyond excited about getting.
Do you use any lighting equipment?
Not if I can help it. I much prefer natural light, it’s much more atmospheric and beautiful, and with fast lenses with wide apertures and higher ISOs you don’t often need anything else. However, I have started using flashguns more for dancing in the evening: I love the energetic effect of second curtain flash.
What advice would you give to wannabe wedding photographers?
Do exactly what you personally love to do. There are so many styles and trends in wedding photography that it’s really easy to get sidetracked by what you feel you should be doing, or what everyone else is doing. Think about the photography you get the most genuine enjoyment out of, and think about your own personality, tastes and interests, then build your approach and brand around this. Rightly or wrongly, brand is as important as your pictures so take time to make sure you have an identifiable style and brand that is true to you. Get in contact with other photographers whose work you admire and build up a network of colleagues whose work you love so that you can support each other and bounce ideas off each other. Twitter is also a really great tool to build up networks of like-minded people.
What has been your proudest moment as a photographer?
Any time anyone says they love my pictures I feel unbelievably proud and excited. When other photographers whose work I really admire say that they like my work I just feel like bursting as I value their opinion so much. I also feel really proud when clients get teary when they see their pictures.
Out of all the photographs you have ever taken, which is your favourite and why?
If we’re talking wedding photography, probably this picture of the receiving line (from Debbie and Pete’s wedding that I mentioned earlier). The wedding was one of my favourites and one of the reasons for this was the levels of energy, chaos and fun. I love that everyone in the line is caught up in something or other and I love the sense of loads of different things all going on at once. It always makes me giggle.
If you could capture anybody or anything on camera what would it be?
The Pushkar Camel Fair in India, Burning Man festival or a Trans-Siberian trip would be right up there too. If time-travel wasn’t an issue, I’d love to photograph Oscar Wilde, he’s my hero.
Just so we can find out a bit more about the person behind the lens, could you tell me 5 things you like that are completely unrelated to photography?
- Books and crosswords: I am a huge word nerd and read constantly. My house is absolutely filled with books and I can’t bear to get rid of any. Crosswords excite me far more than they should.
- Pool and snooker: I could play these for hours. I can be a bit of a pool shark and used to play on my local pub’s team.
- Stationery: I have a huge stationery fetish and can’t get enough of pens, notebooks, paper, folders, clips, letter trays, the list goes on… you name it, I have a thing for it. I think it’s in the DNA of English teachers, I’ve never met one that doesn’t have an unhealthy obsession with stationery.
- Music: I’ve played the piano since I was four and can also play the clarinet. I’m trying to get my husband to teach me the guitar, it’s a bit more portable than the piano! Dancing to good music is one of the biggest pleasures there is.
- Being a mum: Joe is such a little dude, I can’t get enough of him. He’s absolutely hilarious and I laugh so much more now that he is in my life. I love that now that he’s getting older we can enjoy more things together. My favourite thing is cuddling up with him and reading a book, he loves them as much as I do.
And 5 things you dislike?
- Being patronised.
- Bad manners.
- Text-speak: words shouldn’t have numbers in them!
- Negative people.
- An empty fridge.
What are your aspirations for the future, in photography or otherwise?
I really hope to start doing more photography work abroad so that I can indulge my love of photography and travel at the same time! I also want to start doing lots more photography-based creative learning projects in schools and youth groups as I really miss teaching and working with young people, to be able to combine that with photography on a regular basis would be wonderful. Just to keep being able to do this, really, I still have to pinch myself that my favourite hobby is actually my job.
Debs & Anna
Photographer Details:
Anna Hardy Weddings
Anna’s blog
Contact Anna
Phone: 01214 435547
Mobile: 07903 786540
