Photo Chat with Matt

This week I wanted to ask a really simple question: are you better than you were a year ago?

I’m not just talking about money, bookings, followers, or whether you bought a new camera. I mean are you actually better at what you do? Are you a better photographer? Are you better with people? Are you calmer when things go wrong? Are you better at running your business? Are you happier with the life you’re building around all of it?

I think we spend so much time comparing ourselves to other photographers that we forget to compare ourselves to the person we were twelve months ago.

So in this episode I talk about looking back at your actual photography, the way you handle clients, the way you deal with pressure, the things you care less about now, the parts of your business that have improved, and the things you still haven’t done that you said you would.

I also get into the idea that getting better doesn’t always mean getting bigger. More bookings, more money and more followers can be great, but maybe better means you’re calmer, more confident, making smarter decisions, working with better clients, or just enjoying your life more.

And then there’s the other question: if you keep going the way you’re going now, are you going to like where you are this time next year?

That’s the question I wanted to talk about this week, because I think fear holds us back from way more than we realize.

Maybe you know you should raise your prices, but you’re worried the bookings will stop. Maybe you want to change your style, try film, move into a different niche, start something new, or finally go after an idea you’ve had in your head for ages.

A lot of the time, we already know what we want to do. We’re just scared of what happens if it doesn’t work.

I talk about fear of failure in photography and business, the things we’ve already done that once felt scary, why waiting for certainty can keep you stuck, and why sometimes you just have to make the decision and see what happens.

There’s also a bit about Nick Saban, Tom Brady, your future self, and why failure usually gives you something useful to learn from rather than being the end of the world.

It’s a pretty simple question, but I think the answer can tell you a lot about what’s actually holding you back.

“Community over competition” gets thrown around all the time in photography, but I wanted to actually talk about what it means to me.

I don’t think being part of a community means you have to stop being competitive. I want to do well. I want bookings. I want to make more money, improve my work, grow my business and be the best version of myself I can be. I think healthy competition is a good thing because it pushes all of us to improve.

The important part is how you go about it.

You don’t need to shit on another photographer, videographer or vendor to make yourself look better. You don’t need somebody else to fail for you to succeed. You can recommend people, second shoot for each other, help each other out, celebrate someone when they’re absolutely smashing it and still want to win yourself.

I also talk about referrals, working well with other wedding suppliers, having boundaries, jealousy, ambition and why I think being surrounded by people who want to succeed can actually make all of us better.

The easiest way I can explain it is this: you don’t need to blow out somebody else’s candle to make yours burn brighter.

Just work on making your own burn as bright as you can.

I photographed a wedding in Italy, spent some time in Firenze, then came home to a hotel with no power the night before photographing another wedding in West Sussex, England. It was quite a week.

This week on Photo Chat with Matt, I’m catching up on the Italy trip, what it was like photographing a wedding abroad, the flight home and the power cut that made getting ready for my next wedding a bit more interesting than I’d have liked.

I also get into a friendly argument I had about the metric system (hate it). Tell me you’ve made half a liter of coffee and I have no idea what that looks like. Tell me it’s 20 oz and I know exactly what you mean. Naturally, this turns into me defending imperial measurements and Fahrenheit. Can't measure freedom in kilometers!

It’s a relaxed episode with a bit of travel, a bit of wedding photography and a few stories from behind the scenes of a very busy week.

Come and tell me whether you measure your coffee in ounces. You can find me on Instagram at @mattdoddphoto.

Thanks for listening!

This week I’m joined by my good friend and fellow photographer James Evans, recording from the middle of Tuscany just a few hours before we photographed his sister’s wedding.

We didn’t really have a plan for this one, so we just sat down and chatted about photography. We talk about our nightmare journey to Italy, shooting destination weddings, how we prepare for a wedding day, backup cameras, harsh sunlight, making couples feel comfortable and finding your editing style. We also get into presets, Lightroom versus Lightroom Classic and quite a few completely unrelated tangents.

Basically, two wedding photographers chatting photography in Italy. Enjoy!

We’ve made it to episode 100 of Photo Chat with Matt.

For this one, I wanted to look back through every episode I’ve recorded since starting the podcast in 2024 and pull out one thing I’ve learned, talked about or still believe from each one.

So this episode is 100 lessons from the last couple of years of photography, wedding photography, running a business, creativity, confidence, client experience, money, gear, mistakes and everything else I’ve talked about along the way.

Some of these are things I believed right from the start. Some are things I’ve learned through actually doing the job. Some I believe even more strongly now, and a few made me realize how much my thinking has changed since those early episodes.

It’s also been really interesting looking back and seeing how the podcast itself has evolved. I started out talking a lot more about gear, photography tips and the basics, and over time it’s become much more about business, people, creativity, mindset and building a photography career and life that you actually enjoy.

Thank you if you’ve listened to one episode, ten episodes or all one hundred.

Here are 100 things I’ve learned from 100 episodes of Photo Chat with Matt.

This week I wanted to ask a pretty simple question: would you actually hire yourself to photograph your own wedding?

It got me thinking about everything that comes with being a wedding photographer beyond just taking nice photos. Would I like the way I communicate? Would I actually want myself around all day? Would I feel comfortable being photographed by me? Would I be happy with the way I handle family photos, couple photos, delivery times and the overall experience?

I also talk about pricing and whether I’d actually pay my own prices, how I’d feel if something went wrong on the day, whether I’d trust myself to deal with it, and whether I’d genuinely recommend myself afterwards.

I think it’s quite a useful question to ask because when you run your own photography business, you get very used to seeing everything from your side. Sometimes it’s worth looking at it from the client’s point of view and asking whether you’d actually be happy with the experience you’re giving people.

A relaxed episode about wedding photography, client experience, pricing, communication, galleries, posing and basically putting yourself in your own client’s shoes for a bit.

A bonus episode this week about something I feel quite strongly about in business: I don’t think saving money should ever come at the expense of your client experience.

I talk about things like deleting online galleries after a certain amount of time just to save on storage, overselling people into bigger photography packages than they actually need, charging for every tiny extra, and cutting corners in places where the client is the one who ends up feeling it.

For me, if someone has invested a lot of money into me, especially for something as important as a wedding, I want them to feel looked after properly. Sometimes that means spending a little more, keeping things available for longer, giving someone a bit more than expected or simply recommending the option that’s actually right for them.

I also talk about why trust matters more than squeezing every possible bit of profit out of one booking, and why good customer service is one of the best things you can invest in as a photographer.

A short bonus episode about client experience, wedding photography business, customer service and knowing where not to cut corners.

This week I wanted to talk about something that’s been on my mind a lot recently: following the crowd, waiting for permission and putting things off because you think there’ll be a better time later.

I talk about how easy it is in photography to copy what everyone else is doing because it feels safe. The same trends, the same ideas, the same way of running a business. But if everyone is doing the same thing, it gets very hard to stand out.

There’s also a bit about making changes sooner. Raising your prices, trying film, changing your editing, improving your website, learning something new. A lot of the time we already know what we want to do, we just keep delaying it.

I also get into the idea of doing things your future self will thank you for, why the work you put into your photography business now can pay off months later, and whether you’re actually building a business and a life you genuinely want to live.

A relaxed episode about photography, business, confidence, motivation and doing things your own way.

I think a lot of us say we want to improve as photographers, but how often do we actually stop and ask ourselves what are we doing to make that happen?

In this episode, I'm talking about the difference between being busy and actually getting better, why copying everyone else can keep you stuck, and how easy it is to focus on the wrong things in your business. We get caught up in cameras, lenses, Instagram trends, websites, branding and all the other stuff that feels productive, while sometimes completely ignoring the thing that's actually holding us back.

I'll also talk about figuring out what you're genuinely bad at, when buying new gear can actually be useful, why experimenting and doing things your own way matters, and the small improvements that can make a much bigger difference than you might think.

So, if you look at your photography business a year from now, what do you actually want to be different?

And more importantly, what are you doing about it?

That's the question for this one.