Freddie Bates · North East of England

I started out photographing cityscapes and mountains, not people.

Empty streets, skylines, buildings that hold still and don’t talk back. These days the empty streets and mountain tops have mostly been replaced by rooms full of your happy drunken families!

Freddie Bates, documentary wedding photographer

I'm a photographer who approaches a wedding day like a writer.

Which sounds like the sort of thing photographers say, so here is what it actually means in practice. I am not looking for the shot. I am looking for and anticipating what is happening. Who keeps glancing at who. What your gran does with her hands when she is trying not to cry. The two seconds after a speech lands, before anybody claps. What story can I tell with each moment I capture? Each little detail fits together like a jigsaw and creates a beautiful picture of you as a couple.

Those are the frames that survive. Everybody gets the ones of the dress, the first kiss and the cake. I focus on the real moments whilst giving you time and space to get those showstopping, cinematic portraits that will cover your hallway.

This isn’t always where I thrived though. My journey started with Sony’s first ever mirrorless camera, in the white capped mountains of New Zealand, trying to capture those postcard moments that everyone wants for their Instagram pages. Naturally, when I got home, the Lake District became my new muse and I began to spend days in the fells with dog, just soaking in the magic around us.

Somewhere along the way, landscapes stopped being enough on their own, and I started shooting weddings across the North East alongside them. I have been doing it long enough now to know where to stand before I need to be standing there, which is most of the skill, and to know that no two of these days are remotely alike, which is most of the fun.

Documentary wedding photography by Freddie Bates — Durham, UK ii

What's it actually like having me there

The honest version

Morning

I get stuck in, not tucked in a corner

I’ll find your mum, say a proper hello to whoever’s nervous, then get right into the middle of the morning with everyone else rather than hover at the edges. Being part of the group, not watching it from a distance, is what actually gets people comfortable, and comfortable is when the honest and beautiful moments start happening.

Ceremony

No flash, no interruptions, and I stay out of your videographer’s way

I have shot enough of these to know the geometry of a room before I walk into it. I do move during the ceremony, working different angles so nothing gets missed, but I know how to do it without blocking anyone’s view or stepping into a moment that matters.

Groups

Twenty minutes, list agreed in advance, done once

Family photographs are the bit everybody dreads and they are dreaded because they usually take an hour. They don’t have to. Give me the list beforehand and someone loud who knows everyone, and we’ll be finished before the drinks run out.

Portraits

Twenty minutes, and about zero of those are awkward

I don’t pose people into shapes. I’ll walk you somewhere amazing, ask you a few daft questions, and by minute one you will have stopped thinking about the camera. That is when it starts working. Comfort leads to confidence which leads to those showstopping photos you never thought you'd be able to take.

Evening

I stay

The last two hours are where your uncle finally commits to the dancefloor and two of your oldest friends end up on the steps outside with their shoes off and their partners' ties around their heads. That's not something I want to miss.

A few things that are true

Rather than a list of awards

I shoot film alongside digital

Not as a gimmick and not as an upgrade. A handful of frames from every wedding are shot on actual film, because there is a texture and a warmth in it that I have never managed to fake afterwards.

I work to a twenty, sixty, twenty split

Twenty per cent safe, sixty per cent documentary, twenty per cent instinct. It is not a style, it is a proportion, and it is how I decide where to stand for twelve hours.

I'd rather drive four hours than shoot the same field again

Weather, hills, long journeys and questionable decisions all make for better photographs. If your wedding involves any of those, we are going to get on.

Forever goofy and willing to have a laugh, always watching to anticipate the little moments that you might otherwise forget, never complacent or simply going through the motions.

I will tell you if I'm not right for you

If you want a photographer who is willing to spend hours on your portraits and stand you in various locations around the venue for 10 minutes at a time, that is a completely reasonable thing to want but it is not what I do. I’ll say so early and point you at someone who matches your vision.

“Freddie was chatting, laughing and mingling with our guests, fitting into the atmosphere perfectly. He was never intrusive, yet somehow managed to capture every little moment. Kieren and I are completely in love with our photos, but even more so with how much they feel like us. ”

Laura & Kieren

When I'm not doing this

I’m usually out with Lola, our cocker spaniel, who has heard more wedding enquiries read aloud on a morning walk than any dog should have to, bless her little soul.

The rest of it is hills. I hike and I climb and I have a long-running weakness for road trips through desert and mountain country, which is where a lot of my own photography still happens. I play a bit of guitar and sing, badly and loudly.

And I share all of this with my beautiful wife and more recently, a perfect little girl who at the time of writing is asleep in her cot next to me – already the boss of the house at 12 weeks old!

Currently booking 2027 & 2028

That's me. Tell me about you.

Where it's happening, roughly when, and what you're most looking forward to. You'll get full pricing back and an honest answer about whether I'm the right person for your day.

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