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Happy New Year, and welcome to 2026! An especially warm welcome to all the brides and grooms getting married this year — I hope the excitement is really starting to set in now as your big day gets closer. I’ve been lucky enough to receive a number of enquiries for wedding day photography in the first few days of 2026, and I’m truly grateful to everyone who has reached out already. With so many couples beginning to finalise their plans, I wanted to put together a quick FAQ-sty

This year, I took the leap into my dream career of photography — alongside my full-time role as a residential support worker. In just four months, I’ve been incredibly fortunate to capture moments that matter for so many amazing people. Here’s a snapshot of what these first months have looked like: 1 dream, 4 months executing the dream in 2025 2 new cameras to bring every vision to life 15,000+ photos taken and 1,281 delivered 64+ hours shooting and 210+ hours editing I’ve ha

This week I shot Screamfest 2025 at the National Forest Adventure Farm in Burton upon Trent — one of the Midlands’ biggest Halloween events. Shooting in near darkness without flash pushed me to my limits as a new photographer. Here’s what I learned about low-light photography, confidence, and making it work when nothing goes to plan.

After years behind the camera, I’ve finally taken the leap into professional photography. Follow my journey as I learn the craft, grow my business, and share tips for new photographers in The Diary of a Photographer.

It’s important that you know who will be joining you on your special day, shoot or event, so let me properly introduce myself. I’m Sam Crathorne, a wedding and lifestyle photographer based in South Derbyshire, and this marks the beginning of something I’ve dreamed about for a long time. For more than ten years, I’ve been capturing life through my lens — starting with friends and family and gradually building experience across weddings, events, sports, and portrait throughout