Lee Garland Photography ~ In The Hotseat

For the third and final feature of today, i wanted to introduce you to a super amazing wedding photographer, the brilliant Lee Garland Photography, who is based in Nottinghamshire.

Lee captures moments effortlessly, in a classic timeless way that couples will be sure to treasure forever. Read on for more from Lee and some of his gorgeous work…

{w} Hi Lee, could you firstly tell {www} readers a little bit about you?

I’m Lee and I live in a small village with the vaguely comical name of Thrumpton in Nottinghamshire. I have a wonderful partner of 14 years and two cats . My studio is pretty.

{w} What do you love/dislike about your job?

I love taking photographs, and always have. It’s a pretty enviable line of work to be in. It’s odd to think of it in terms of a ‘job’, but if I was to think of it in those terms, I love the freedom of it; not having to be in an office every day, not having to iron shirts or talk in business jargon.

{w} How did you get into photography and into the wedding industry?

In 1999 I went off to Uni and spent 3 years immersing myself in our little student magazine, where I started off as a contributing photographer and ended up as the Picture Ed. This involved buying and distributing reels and reels of film, developing and scanning and photographing all those luminaries that put themselves through the uni-circuit in the early Naughties. So Chesney Hawkes, actors from Guy Ritchie films – and Chesney Hawkes, again. all the hard work paid off; we won both Independent and Guardian awards for best student magazine and for my efforts I was nominated Best Student Photographer by the Independent.

I guess thanks to this, I got a job with a magazine publisher after uni. Everyone seemed to be buying houses, doing them up and selling them on for huge amounts of money – and so I spent much of the next 4+ years taking pretty pictures of houses for the publisher’s two Interiors magazines. All Bizazza tiles and kitchens the size of netball pitches. The publisher also had a music magazine, which meant I could finally upgrade Chesney to Oasis, Motley Crue and the White Stripes. (I met Slash in 2004!).

Then people stopped buying houses, I decided I had more than enough Interiors for any one portfolio and went freelance. I moved on to shooting for the likes of The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, BBC, Radio Times, Living etc, Homes & Gardens and people like Crabbies, Very and Harvey Nichols.

Friends started getting married, and I realised weddings were pretty amazing. Plus, I couldn’t help looking at the wedding photographer and thinking ‘I’d probably want to stand over the other side/If you shot towards that window you’d be able to see through that veil..’ and so it began. I wasn’t prepared for how much fun shooting weddings actually is. Commercial work can entail a lot of vested interests, angst and interfering forces. Weddings: there is a whole day of opportunities, and everywhere you look there is love and tears of joy and hugs and kisses and tightly held hands and stolen glances.

{w} What do you aim to achieve for your clients?

It’s in danger of becoming a cliché, but to tell their story. That starts before the big day, by getting a real understanding of who they are, how they met, what they do, what their plans are for the day and then coverage of the full day – from the morning’s preparations through to the dancing, with all of the love, smiles and tears of joy in between.

{w} What style is your work?

It’s not a conscious thing, a photography ‘style’ – so it’s surprisingly difficult to describe, especially yourself. I to leave it to my couples to describe what my photographs say to them, and decide if it is the style for them by having a look through the portfolio.

{w} Could you tell us some information about your packages/prices?

Packages start from £945 and all include the high-resolution images with a licence for the couple to print them themselves, so there are no nasty surprises afterwards. There are packages with albums, or you can leave an album until later – maybe a nice little gift to one another for your first anniversary?

I’ll travel anywhere for a wedding – I’m based in Nottingham so that’s pretty well placed for getting around. I’ve got weddings from the Lakes to London, France and Spain this year.

Full pricelist here.

{w} Do you have any tips for couples in selecting their wedding photographer?

Meet them! Weddings are such a personal occasion, you have to get along with the suppliers you are inviting to share that special day with you. To which I add – come to my studio!

{w} How can we get in touch with you?

leegarland@me.com or 07779 662 178

Thanks so very much Lee.. wow your imagery is beautiful. Do pop by and visit Lee’s site and if you make an enquiry with Lee please do mention WWW XOXO Lou

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