An hour, a walk, and photographs that look like you two rather than a catalogue.
A standalone couples session is priced on enquiry . with all your edited images included. If you have already booked me for your wedding, the same shoot is available as a pre-wedding add-on for £149. I'm Tom Carter, based in Leyland, and I photograph couples the way I photograph weddings: quietly, mostly from a few steps back.
People book these for all sorts of reasons: a new engagement, an anniversary, a first house, or the realisation that every photograph of the two of you was taken at arm's length on a phone.
Almost every couple opens with the same line: we are terrible at this. So is nearly everyone, and the fix is not confidence, it is distraction.
I do not ask you to pose or to look down the lens. I ask you to do things. Walk that way holding hands and do not look back. Tell each other the least romantic version of how you met. Whisper something you would not want me to hear. Then I stand back with a long lens and photograph what happens in between, which is where the real expressions live.
By twenty minutes in, most people have stopped noticing me. That is the trick, and why an hour is enough.
If you are getting married, this is the most useful hour you will spend before the day. It is a rehearsal for the only part of a wedding most couples genuinely dread: the portraits.
By the end of it I know how you stand, which side you each prefer, what makes you laugh properly rather than politely, and how close you like to be. You know how I work and what my voice sounds like from thirty feet away. On the wedding morning we are not strangers, and that shows in the ceremony coverage as much as the portraits. If you have not booked yet, the Lancashire wedding photography page explains how the day works.
Pick somewhere with a reason attached and the pictures gain a story for free. Beyond that: Beacon Fell for big skies, the lanes and river paths of the Ribble Valley for green, the West Pennine Moors above Chorley for drama, and the Fylde coast for open sunsets. Worden Park in Leyland is the easy local option.
Aim for the hour before sunset. Autumn brings the strongest colour, winter the longest low light, and a grey day is far better than a bright noon. On clothing, coordinate instead of matching, keep patterns quiet, and wear shoes you can walk a mile in.
Your gallery arrives well inside the six weeks I promise for weddings, delivered online with 15% off any prints or albums. If there are more of you than two, there are family sessions, a maternity shoot if something is on the way, a newborn session after that and a cake smash a year later. Read more about how I work or get in touch.
A standalone couples session is priced on enquiry . If you have already booked me for your wedding, a pre-wedding shoot is £149 as an add-on. Either way the edited gallery is included and nothing is charged per image.
The first ten minutes, mildly. After that, no. I do not ask you to hold poses or look at the lens. I ask you to walk, to talk to each other, to tell me the least romantic story about how you met. The pictures come from the gaps between the instructions.
If you are nervous about the camera, yes. An hour together before the day means that when I turn up on the morning of your wedding you already know how I work, and I already know how you stand, laugh and hold each other. Couples who do one are noticeably more relaxed during their wedding portraits.
Somewhere that means something to you beats somewhere merely pretty, so the pub you met in counts. Otherwise: Beacon Fell, the Ribble Valley lanes near Clitheroe, the West Pennine Moors above Chorley, or the Fylde coast at sunset.
Coordinate rather than match, keep patterns quiet, and dress for the weather rather than the photographs. Shoes you can walk a mile in matter more than anything else. Bring a coat you like, because in Lancashire it will be in the pictures.
The hour before sunset, almost always. In midsummer that is late evening; in November it is teatime, which suits people who work. Autumn gives the best colour and winter the longest, lowest light of the year.