58 MEET RACHEL OF RACHEL THORNHILL PHOTOGRAPHY In the beginning… When I started my business, I focussed on portraits, families, children, pets, children with pets and so on. I knew I wanted to learn the ropes properly, so I took on a six-month work experience placement with a brilliant portrait photographer called Paul Wilkinson who has a beautiful studio Buckinghamshire. For two days a week, I assisted him on his sessions, and soon after I worked with him on a wedding. I completely fell in love with the whole process and even now, six years on, I spend most of the time with a huge smile on my face. I love my job! Before I was a professional photographer, I worked in the record industry and ran a recording studio and video editing suite in Kensington. One of my roles was to film artist idents (video), and I’d often be sent all over the place to meet artists, often who had just arrived from the airport, so the last thing they’d want to do was be filmed. So, I learnt quite quickly how far a smile and being polite goes! Which definitely helps during the family group photographs ‒ working quickly, being polite and wearing a big smile mean we get them done and back to the celebrating before you know it! As a working portrait photographer who shoots weddings, I choose to only take on a handful of weddings a year. I like to allow enough time in my workflow to meet with my couples before the big day, to have a walk through at the venues, and make a timeline of the day including other relevant suppliers, so that we’re not only all working together on the same page but maximising the opportunities for beautiful photographs with the best experience for my couples and their guests. Working well alongside other suppliers is always very important to me, because we are all there on the same team, helping everyone have the most amazing day. Having a schedule and a shot list in advance really helps things go smoothly. For the love of weddings… My favourite part of a wedding day? Oh goodness, so many! I see this in terms of my favourite shots to capture: the father-of-the-bride seeing his daughter for the first time, the first kiss, the walk back up the aisle after the ceremony are all very classic moments. But I think I’d have to say the speeches; I love capturing people’s expressions, the laughter, the tears, especially from relatives! However, the icing on the cake for me is winning awards from the photographs that I know mean so much to my clients. I never go out with the purpose of shooting for awards, but magic often happens on the day and I’m ready to capture it. I’ll always remember a wedding at Hartsfield Manor when the bride’s veil was misbehaving, and as we were coming back inside, a gust of wind took it off her head and up over the roof of the hotel before disappearing. She was understandably distraught, as it was her late grandmother’s veil and a family heirloom. We spoke to the hotel management to see if there was any chance that anyone could help us find it, but we needed to get the speeches under way. Fifteen-minutes later, just as the mother-of-thebride was asking everyone to raise a glass to those who were no longer with us, the manager of the hotel appeared with the veil in his arms, with not a mark on it! They’d found it caught on one of the turrets and had carefully retrieved it. We all joked that grandma definitely made her presence felt that day! Golden nugget advice… Try not to do too much on the day yourself. Delegate as much as you can, as people are often very happy to be involved! What’s your favourite film/food/song? Has to be Four Weddings and a Funeral, the first wedding was filmed at my church, St Michael’s Betchworth. I remember my friends and I seeing part of the filming, and telling everyone that Mr Bean was in the film and no-one believed us! And it’s why I always try to capture a photograph of the best man with the rings before the ceremony ‒ to make sure he has them! So many first dance gems when it comes to favourite songs. All of Me by John Legend I adore, and it reminds me of shooting weddings at the Crazy Bear in Stadhampton; Grow Old With Me by Tom O’Dell always makes me smile, as does Shut up and Dance by Walk The Line, which always fills a dancefloor! Rachel Thornhill Photography, Tadworth, Surrey www.rachelthornhill.co.uk www.instagram.com/rachelthornhillphotography
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