Professional Photographer interview

An interview with a documentary wedding photographer.

An offshoot of winning the overall prize in the PPOTY awards ( Professional Photographer of the Year ) a couple of months ago, is an interview/feature piece about me in the June issue of Professional Photographer magazine. There is a portrait of a rather noble-looking black horse on the cover, by Jill Greenberg I think, should you be browsing the shelves at the newsagents. ( Although if you like photography, maybe you should be subscribing 😉 As you can see below, there is an iPad version too )

Not sure how the writer, Jessica Bracey, managed to cull together something from my ramblings during the telephone interview, but the result isn’t as cringy as the last time I had a profile piece about me in a photography magazine. That was back in 2007 and focused upon my newspaper background. It had started with a mocked-up ‘telegram’ saying, “Drop everything. Have a job in France. Am sending a reporter. Calves being transported into Europe. No one knows where. Follow lorry from Dieppe. Find out where calves being taken. Send back photos. Stay out of trouble.” ( cringe ) Turned out we did get an exclusive for the paper, after being briefly held at gunpoint, and chasing a lorry across France through the night…but there was no telegram.

This article touches upon my photojournalism background, which is important, as it is what primarily influences my wedding photography style, rather than the latest trends or what I’ve read in books. But the main focus is upon my documentary wedding photography work in relation to the award. It is strange, after years on the other side of the camera and pen, to see something like this. I appreciate a bit more now why subjects want to check things, as there are points made here I’d like to have clarified or even reworded maybe? One part that Jessica did kindly rewrite for the online portion, was a few technical bits about the kit I use. I think it all got lost in translation. I started my career ( and my photojournalism course at LCP ) with the Nikon F3HP camera – not the S3 in the magazine article. Before that, I used Olympus OM cameras when I worked on the University newspaper. I also usually use fast Nikon primes – 24/1.4, 35/1.4, 50/1.4, 85/1.4 and 135/2 – this however got a bit garbled in the article. Nikon doesn’t make an 85/1.2 but maybe they should? Also, I am keen for them to update the 135mm lens, rather than the 85mm ( the one lens Canon beats them on at the moment, IMHO ) but all this is corrected on the website. http://www.professionalphotographer.co.uk/Blog/2013/5/Photographer-s-Profile-Martin-Beddall

Anyhow, there it is. It is nice of the magazine to write anything about me and I’ll keep a copy for my kids to laugh at in the future. So if you’re in WHSmith later today, buy a copy – there is a lot more there than just my ramblings in this interview over five pages… 🙂