Dear Devlin started as a column on the Photography Farm Blog because if one of us is stuck on something, chances are plenty of others are too, they just aren't saying it out loud. Now I'm bringing a guest onto the podcast each episode to talk through a letter properly, rather than just handing down my own answer.

This Week’s Problem

Dear Devlin,

I’ve recen…

For years, my Dear Devlin column has been a place for photographers to send in the questions they’d never post in a group under their own name. If one of us has an issue with something, chances are plenty of others are too; they’re just not saying it out loud. That’s why submissions are anonymous, and no topic is off the table.

But a column only ever gives you one voice answering. Mine. And however many weddings I’ve shot, I’m still just one photographer with one set of experiences. So I’m turning Dear Devlin into a podcast too, bringing in a different guest each episode to sit down with me and talk through the issue.

This Week’s Problem

Dear Devlin,Can we talk Content Creators? I’ve had a couple of really challenging experiences with content creators, one who totally took over and was constantly interrupting during bride prep, posing and positioning the bride into “the best light”, which in my opinion was awful light – sunlight reflected up from a light gloss floor, made the bride and bridesmaids late for the ceremony as she wanted to do walking shots with them, stood in front of the bride’s parents during the ceremony, left the venue after the ceremony to go and move her car 200m (instead of moving it pre-ceremony) then blamed me for not delaying the confetti to wait on her.

She was just very difficult to work with and was even worse after “confetti gate” and constantly standing in front of me. I’ve had to remove her from a lot of images and others (during the speeches where she stood directly in front of the top table throughout) I’ve just had to deliver with her in situ. I hate confrontation and the whole experience has really put me off working with content creators. She has zero self awareness.

So, can you give me any advice on how to work with content creators? It looks like they are here to stay. There also seems to be a rise in couples being offered content creators for free, friends of friends who are just starting out and shooting for free. Do you have any advice on how to navigate situations like this? I love working with videographers but I really struggle with content creators and want to discourage my couples from booking them but also don’t want to come across as a Moaning Minnie.Can We Talk

Joining me is Kirsty McElroy. If you’ve been to Thrive, you already know her, she helps me run the whole thing and hosts our Million Pound Drop which wraps up the conference. She’s based in Glasgow, shoots weddings in a relaxed documentary style, and her couples always talk about how she made them feel at ease on the day. She’s also a graduate of my mentoring programme, came out the other side with honours, and never needs asking twice for an industry chat.

We get into how she handles content creators on her own weddings, where the line is between collaboration and being run over, and what she’d have done in “Confetti Gate.”

Got a problem of your own? Send it in, completely anonymous, and it might be the one we open up next time.

Submit your Dear Devlin question →

Welcome to #obsessed. This is the sixth and final episode in our series of conversations with the Thrive Brighton 2026 speakers. Just honest, in-depth chats about the work, the thinking, and what drives some of the most interesting photographers working in weddings today.

Last up is Matt Badenoch.

Matt lives not far from me in the south of England, but the first time I paid him proper attention was at Doc Day in Dublin, where he was speaking. I went in thinking street photography wasn’t really my thing. I left with a whole new way of seeing. So did the two industry friends I was with. Proof that you can be decades into this career and still have someone completely shift your perspective.

Matt is a UK wedding photographer and the founder of Street with Matt - a street photography education business running immersive workshops across the UK, Europe and worldwide. He has picked up accolades from This Is Reportage and Photographers Keeping It Real, and he is a self-described social introvert, a dyslexic with an ADHD diagnosis, and someone who has spoken openly about what that means for how he works and how he teaches.

We talked about his very un-photographer route into the industry - via a gut decision to fly to Sierra Leone. We got into what street photography actually gives your wedding work that nothing else does, and why he thinks playfulness is the most underrated skill in photography.

Find Matt here:Website: streetwithmatt.co.ukInstagram: @streetwithmatt

The Image Matt Wished He Had Taken

At the end of every #obsessed conversation I ask the same question: what’s the image you wish you’d taken?

Matt said he found this exercise genuinely hard - his instinct was to think of photographers rather than individual images, drawn to their whole bodies of work and approach. But the name that kept coming back was Alex Webb.

Webb is a documentary photographer who was shooting primarily in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, and the image Matt chose was taken in Mexico - probably the 1980s. An everyday street scene: people moving around, just being themselves. But within it, Webb has built multiple layers of visual interest. A silhouette in the background. A couple by a wall. Two pairs of hands that frame the composition in completely different ways - one pressed flat against the wall, one holding a football. The light is doing something the eye wouldn’t see in person - creating darks and shadows that the camera turns into something almost cinematic.

Matt loves it because it captures everything he believes street photography is for. Finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. Going somewhere completely unremarkable, where nobody else sees anything worth stopping for, and pulling out the magic that was always there. His eye just stays in it - and for him, that’s the whole point.

Join us at Thrive

Thrive is Photography Farm’s conference for wedding photographers, and this year we’re in Brighton on the 20th and 21st of October 2026. Matt will be there in person - speaking and shooting alongside our full lineup of speakers.

If you want to be in the room, tickets are on sale now and the code OBSESSED10 gets you 10% off all tickets.

Welcome to #obsessed. This is the fifth episode in a series of conversations with our Thrive Brighton 2026 speakers. Just honest, in-depth chats about the work, the thinking, and what drives some of the most interesting photographers working in weddings today.

But first - I need to tell you why this podcast is called #obsessed.

A little while ago I was sitting at a conference in London, and the speaker put up a slide showing comment after comment on wedding photographers’ Instagram posts, all saying the same thing. Obsessed. Obsessed. I’m obsessed. I laughed so hard because yes, I am guilty - and once you’ve seen it, you cannot unsee it. I have been in full obsessed recovery ever since.

That speaker was my next guest.

Jackson Grant is a Melbourne-based wedding photographer and filmmaker who has been shooting since 2014 and has built one of the most deliberately unconventional practices in the industry. He grew up sitting in the back of his mum’s florist shop in Albury/Wodonga, dropped out of university one week in, and shot his first wedding for his friend Tara by calling in sick to his actual job. He describes himself as a queer smartarse and confident risk taker who has won zero awards and should probably clean his camera sensor.

We talked about his fascination with people, why he hates the word candid with a passion, how he thinks about championing every single person in the room rather than just the couple, and why slowing down is the single best thing he has done for his business.

Find Jackson here:Website: jacksongrantweddings.comInstagram: @jacksongrantweddings

The Image Jackson Wished He’d Taken

At the end of every #obsessed conversation I ask the same question: what’s the image you wish you’d taken?

Jackson chose a photograph of the lead singer from Australian punk band Amyl and the Sniffers, shot by US photographer Jamie Nelson. The image is arresting - Amy Taylor captured with all double denim and energy, atop a pink building.

What makes Jackson’s answer so him is that he didn’t choose it just because it’s a great photograph. He chose it because his brain immediately went somewhere else with it. He used to go to Amy Taylor’s house parties back in Melbourne when the band was not so well known, and when he saw this image, his first thought was what he would have done differently. Straight on, fisheye lens - imagine!

Join us at Thrive

Thrive is Photography Farm’s conference for wedding photographers, and this year we’re in Brighton on the 20th and 21st of October 2026. Jackson will be there in person - speaking and shooting alongside our full lineup of speakers.

If you want to be in the room, tickets are on sale now and the code OBSESSED10 gets you 10% off all tickets.

Welcome to #obsessed. This is the fourth episode in a series of conversations with our Thrive Brighton 2026 speakers. Just honest, in-depth chats about the work, the thinking, and what drives some of the most interesting photographers working in weddings today.

Next is Jessica Lily.

Jessica is a London-based wedding photographer who works alongside her husband Steve, shooting documentary and editorial across the UK and destinations abroad. Her work sits quietly between photojournalism and fine art - film-led, and feels carefully observed. She has been featured in Vogue, Sheer Luxe, Together Journal and The Wed, and collaborated with Pinterest on a creative project that says a lot about how her work is perceived beyond the wedding industry.

I’d had my eye on Jessica for a while before I slid into her DMs - one of those photographers whose work kept stopping me mid-scroll. I’m very glad she said yes.

We talked about how she fell into wedding photography by accident after watching her own photographers on her wedding day and thinking she could do that, how she built a business alongside her husband Steve, why she’s so passionate about print and physical products, and how she approaches the client relationship as a genuine creative partnership rather than a transaction.

Find Jessica here:

Website: jessicalilyphotography.comInstagram: @jessicalilyphotography

The Image Jessica Wished She’d Taken

At the end of every #obsessed conversation I ask the same question: what’s the image you wish you’d taken?

Jessica’s answer was the most personal one we’ve had in the series so far. She chose a photograph of her husband’s grandparents on their honeymoon in Trafalgar Square - two young people fresh out of Wales, in London for what was clearly a very big trip. There’s a pigeon mid-flight across the frame, strangers in the background, and two people smiling at the camera who look completely relaxed rather than posed. Jessica describes it as a Where’s Wally photograph - the more you look, the more you find.

What she loves most is that it does exactly what she tries to do in her own work. You can feel the moment. You can sense the excitement of the day, the newness of it, the joy of being young and in love and somewhere that felt enormous. She draws on it regularly when she’s reviewing her own galleries - asking herself whether the images she’s made carry that same weight of feeling.

Join us at Thrive

Thrive is Photography Farm’s conference for wedding photographers, and this year we’re in Brighton on the 20th and 21st of October 2026. Jessica will be there in person - speaking and shooting alongside our full lineup of speakers.

If you want to be in the room, tickets are on sale now and the code OBSESSED10 gets you 10% off all tickets.

Welcome to #obsessed. This is the third episode in a series of conversations with our Thrive Brighton 2026 speakers. Just honest, in-depth chats about the work, the thinking, and what drives some of the most interesting photographers working in weddings today.

Next up is Anni Graham.

Anni is an Oregon-based destination wedding photographer who grew up in India, in the foothills of the Himalayas, and spent years as a freelance photojournalist before she ever shot a wedding. Her work has been featured in Vogue, GQ and Over The Moon, and she was named one of Rangefinder Magazine’s 30 Rising Stars of Wedding Photography in 2018. She has also built a substantial education business, alongside 118,000 followers who turn to her for a genuinely intentional approach to social media.

I first saw Anni speak at Way Up North in Prague back in 2023, and her work has stayed with me ever since - there’s a stillness to it, a sense that you’re not looking at photographs of a wedding day, but at the feeling of one.

We talked about how she started out shooting anything and everything, including $100 weddings from Craigslist, to where she is now, working in the high-end luxury market. She explains why she walked away from destination elopements and how she grew that huge Instagram following. She also offers insight into how she goes beyond just documenting weddings and creates images with emotional connection.

Find Anni here:Website: annigraham.comInstagram: @annigraham

The Image Anni Wished She’d Taken

At the end of every #obsessed conversation, I ask the same question: what’s the image you wish you’d taken?

Anni chose a large-scale composite photograph by the artist Alex Prager - one of her elaborately staged crowd scenes, shot from above, every single person in the frame doing something different and strange. Anni loves it because there’s no single focal point. Your eye lands somewhere, then moves on, then finds something else - a woman with a peculiar expression, a man looking the wrong way, a stranger reading mid-crowd. She says it’s busy without feeling busy, and that despite working with large groups constantly herself, she’s never quite managed to make a group photograph feel this alive. It’s left her wondering whether she might attempt something similar one day.

Join us at Thrive

Thrive is Photography Farm’s conference for wedding photographers, and this year we’re in Brighton on the 20th and 21st of October 2026. Anni will be there in person - speaking and shooting alongside our full lineup of speakers.

If you want to be in the room, tickets are on sale now, and the code OBSESSED10 gets you 10% off all tickets.

Welcome to #obsessed. This is the second episode in a series of conversations with our Thrive Brighton 2026 speakers. Just honest, in-depth chats about the work, the thinking, and what drives some of the most interesting photographers working in weddings today.

Today is the turn of Alexandria French.

Alexandria French is a Yorkshire-based wedding photographer, artist and writer who has been shooting full time for seven years. She took an analogue photography diploma at nineteen, knew within two years that faces and human emotion were her thing, and has never deviated from that clarity since. Before photography, she was an English teacher, and that love of storytelling and expression runs through everything she creates.

She shoots documentary and editorial, draws on 90s Vogue, cult films and the Romantic movement of the 1800s, and works across digital, 35mm and 120 film. She has built one of the most distinctive creative identities in UK wedding photography - not by following the market, but by being completely, unapologetically herself.

Her Instagram is worth a look before you press play. At a time when social media has become relentlessly performative, Alexandria has found a way to show up that feels considered, client-focused and genuinely elegant. We talked about how she figured that out - and why it works.

Find Alexandria here:

Website: alexandriafrenchphotography.com

Instagram: @alexandriafrenchphotography

The Image Alexandria Wished She’d Taken

At the end of every #obsessed conversation, I ask the same question: what’s the image you wish you’d taken?

Alexandria chose this portrait of Oscar Wilde, taken by someone in Napoleon Sarony’s studio in 1882 - at the very height of Wilde’s celebrity, when society adored him. She finds it deeply emotional to look at knowing what came after. The imprisonment, the shame, the poverty, the exile. A man who was so completely himself, celebrated for it, and then destroyed for it. She also mentioned she has read The Picture of Dorian Gray at least a hundred times - which tells you everything about why this image hit her the way it did.

It is a portrait of someone at their most radiant, taken before the fall. And the thought of how different his life would be today - that got us both.

Join us at Thrive

Thrive is Photography Farm’s annual conference for wedding photographers, and this year we are in Brighton on the 20th and 21st of October 2026. Alexandria will be there in person - speaking and shooting alongside our full lineup.

Tickets are on sale now and the code OBSESSED10 gets you 10% off all tickets.

Welcome to #obsessed. This is the first episode in a series of conversations with our Thrive Brighton 2026 speakers. Just honest, in-depth chats about the work, the thinking, and what drives some of the most interesting photographers working in weddings today.

First up is Katie Rogers.

Katie is a London-based editorial wedding photographer with over eight years in the industry. She shoots digital and 35mm film, her work has appeared in Vogue, Grazia, Tatler and The Guardian. Professional Photo Magazine has named her in their Top 50 Wedding Photographers five years running. She also runs an education arm for photographers who want to build a business with the same quiet confidence her work radiates.

We talked about how she got here, what film gives her that digital can’t, and what it really means to be the calm in the room when everything around you is chaos.

Find Katie here:

Website: katierogersphotography.com

Instagram: @katierogersphotography

The Image Katie Wished She’d Taken

At the end of every #obsessed conversation I ask the same question: what’s the image you wish you’d taken?

Katie chose Richard Avedon’s portrait of Marilyn Monroe. Not because of the technical mastery - though it has that in abundance - but because of what it captured. In that image, Marilyn switched off. The famous persona fell away and what Avedon got was just her - the person underneath. Katie loves it because that’s exactly what she’s always trying to do with her own subjects. Get past the performance and find the real thing.

Join us at Thrive

Thrive is Photography Farm’s conference for wedding photographers, and this year we’re in Brighton on the 20th and 21st of October 2026. Katie will be there in person - speaking and shooting alongside our full lineup of speakers.

If you want to be in the room, tickets are on sale now and the code OBSESSED10 gets you 10% off all tickets.