Podcast Episode 142: This is Tom Beynon

Posted date: Feb 6th, 2025

The brilliant Cambridgeshire-based photographer Tom Beynon is my guest on the Podcast this week! Tom was 5th in the world overall on TiR for 2024, and was also 5th Storyteller – this man knows his documentary.

You can also watch the video edition of this episode over on YouTube, or it’s embedded below.

 

As always, you can listen on all the usual places: Spotify, Amazon Music, iTunes/Apple Podcasts, and more.

Tom has also done an extra exclusive video for TiR members, where he talks about how he captured all of his Reportage Awards to date. This is almost an hour, and is really fascinating – so much to learn from Tom. Members, make sure you are signed in to your account first, and then visit this link to watch.

On this week’s episode:

• He photographed close to 40 weddings last year, including second shooting.
• Editing for another photographer was a challenging learning experience.
• Tom’s love for cats resonates with some of his clients.
• He has a unique avatar featuring his cats that he was initially nervous to share:

• Tom is excited to speak at the F-Stop Conference about documentary photography.
• Tom’s approach to second shooting has helped him build connections in the industry.
• The lull between wedding events is a treasure trove for candid moments.
• Documentary photography allows for creative freedom during weddings.
• Capturing genuine emotions is key to storytelling in photography.
• Learning from others can enhance your photography skills.
• It’s important to curate images for Story Awards effectively.
• Every wedding has unique moments waiting to be captured.
• Building a portfolio often requires starting with lower-priced gigs.
• Creative approaches can lead to unique and award-winning shots.
• It’s important to remain open to unexpected moments during a wedding.
• Compartmentalizing the day can limit the photographer’s perspective.
• The best photos often come from taking calculated risks.
• Storytelling is at the heart of documentary photography.

Below is the Reportage Award Tom talks about on the episode (and remember, he talks about all of his Reportage Awards on the exclusive extra video for TiR members. Members, make sure you are signed in to your account first, and then visit this link to watch.):

We now have 142 episodes of the podcast, and each and every episode contains so many personal stories, bits of advice and tips from world-class photographers. Over here you can find them all – including all our wedding photography podcast episodes – or head over here for our family photography podcast episodes.

For those who prefer to read, here is the full transcript. This is an auto-transcript, so there may be mistakes!

Alan (00:05)
Right. I’m gonna play.

Hi and welcome to the This Reportage podcast. My name is Alan Law. I’m the founder of This Reportage and This Reportage family.

and I’m a photographer too. Today, really excited to have the fab Tom Beynon with me. Tom is a brilliant photographer based in Cambridgeshire in the UK. He was fifth overall and I think fifth top storyteller in the world on TIR for 2024, which is amazing. And yeah, he’s a lovely guy as well. He’s also photographed on the TIR parties. And yeah, fab to have him here. Tom, how you doing?

Tom Beynon (00:54)
Hiya, thanks for having me.

Alan (00:55)
Thanks for coming on dude, for coming on yeah. How’s things at the moment? You good?

Tom Beynon (01:00)
Yeah, it’s all good thanks. Enjoying a little bit of downtime in January now the madness is over. It’s been a waiting season.

Alan (01:06)
Yeah, did you do what you were doing a lot? Yeah, last year, weren’t you doing your own and second shooting as well? you weren’t all around…

Tom Beynon (01:12)
Yeah, I always fill in the gaps for second shooting because a free Saturday for me isn’t really kind of worth anything because I haven’t got family to kind of remember that I have to do stuff with or anything like that. So I get annoyed if I have a spare Saturday because I think I could be working now and I don’t like having Saturdays off because I don’t want to go into town or go shopping or anything like that just because it’s full of people. I like having midweeks to do all of that kind of stuff.

and working at the weekend so if I’ve got a spare Saturday I’d rather be second shooting if I’ve not got my own wedding.

Alan (01:46)
Well that makes sense man, yeah that makes sense. So how many kind of weddings were you photographing in total last year, do know?

Tom Beynon (01:53)
I think it got close to 40 in the end, so not loads. The thing with second shooting is that the day itself is just as exhausting as if it’s your own wedding because you’ve still got to drive there, you’ve still got to do eight or ten hours of photography and then drive home again. So you’ve not got all the editing and stuff like that. But the days themselves are quite exhausting. And I did another photographer’s editing last year as well.

Alan (01:59)
That is a lot! That’s loads! That’s loads!

Tom Beynon (02:22)
So I edited about 16 weddings for another photographer. So I had all of my stuff to edit and anything from the second shooting that I wanted to put into my portfolio and then 16 weddings to edit for someone else as well. So yeah, it was a busy year. So yeah, I was glad when December came and everything calmed down.

Alan (02:33)
You workaholic! You workaholic!

What was it like editing for someone else? Is that fun? Is it interesting to see how, you know, someone else is photographing?

Tom Beynon (02:45)
It was harder

than I thought it was going to be because the other photographer, Ben Lee, you know Ben, he won’t mind me saying this, because he’s got a full-time job. He works at Tesco. He’s quite a senior at Tesco, so he’s got that to do Monday to Friday. So he’s just not got time to do his editing. But Ben’s editing style is different from mine and he’s…

Alan (02:57)
yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s lovely, yeah.

Tom Beynon (03:13)
only about 18 months into it, so he’s still evolving his edit. So his edit isn’t quite settled yet. And what I wasn’t expecting to do was actually build him presets this year because he had a preset at the start of the year that he wasn’t 100 % happy with. So I’ve effectively kind of like had to build a preset and then halfway through the year it changed again because I kind of got more into his head of like what he wanted. So I thought it was going to be really easy.

Alan (03:26)
Nice.

Yeah

Tom Beynon (03:43)
but actually it took a little bit longer. Also, one of the things that I wasn’t expecting to have to do was to kind of do so much cropping, because when you crop your own image, you know what you meant at the time. So you know, well, I couldn’t get close enough, so I knew that, or you can look at something, I think, well, I’m just going to tidy that up a little bit. But when you’re cropping for someone else, you’ve got to think what they want the image to look like.

Because you might not have known what they are intending to do, can crop it. You can crop any image two or three different ways, really, depending on how tight you want to go, what you want to focus on. doing that and also dealing with a lot of winter weddings or indoor bad light situations like with our own work, I think we’re probably all quite quick at going, I can’t get this to look how I want it to look just because of the situation and I’ll get to this point quickly and it’s fine and you’re happy with it. But I’m trying to work out what

Ben thinks is fine for it. And because he’s got a different style to his edit, trying to get to that point took a lot longer. So actually those 16 weddings took about twice as long as it took to edit 16 of my own. So yeah.

Alan (04:40)
Yeah.

Oh man, yeah, that’s a

lot of work, that is really interesting though and was he, was he, was it, has it been like a kind of ongoing process with him? Was like, you give him the first Eddie back and he was like, Tom, this is awful, like what are doing Tom?

Tom Beynon (05:07)
Yeah, the first one he came back and I think like the main thing was how was the white balance. I like quite a warm edit and he likes quite a cool edit. So I had to train myself to look at the wedding dress and make it what I think is a touch blue. Ben would say is fine and probably would look at my edit and say is a touch warm. So I had to kind of…

retrain my brain that was part of the process that took so long as I go out and editing Ben’s work now and I need to think like Ben and I need to remember what Ben was trying to do and when I said I’d do the editing I just didn’t really think about anything like that I thought oh yeah be fine I’ll you know I’ll get through that in a few hours.

Alan (05:42)
Were you not just

tempted to get all his images and whack him through Imogen after shoot and then like, yeah, here you go Ben. Here you go.

Tom Beynon (05:49)
Well, this is the problem. So

when Ben started last year, he was using the basic version of Lightroom. There’s like a mobile version. It’s not the full version. And you can’t use anything like Imogen or Artichute with that version. You have to use the full version. So part of what I’ve done this year is teach Ben to use Lightroom properly because he didn’t know how to use it for. Ben doesn’t mind me saying all this. I’m sure he won’t. So.

Alan (06:16)
Yeah, this is the Ben Lee

Tom Beynon (06:19)
Yeah.

So basically the idea was because he’s got a full-time job, he’s not got time to edit, so he needs to use Aftershoot or something like that, but he can’t use it at the moment because all of his last year’s weddings are on that kind of simplify. I don’t know what it’s called, Lightroom. It’s not Lightroom Classic. It’s something else. But the interface is completely different. The terminology that Lightroom use within it is different. So I was trying to explain folders and collections to him in Lightroom.

Alan (06:39)
using Lightroom Classic.

Tom Beynon (06:49)
and didn’t understand what they were because the other version of Lightroom uses different terminology. So he’s had to completely learn to use Lightroom. So this year I said, I’ll edit your weddings, we’ll come up with some presets and we can put those weddings into Aftershoot and then next year you’ll have your profile on Aftershoot and you can just do that.

Alan (06:53)
Okay.

Are you putting yourself out of a job?

Tom Beynon (07:08)
Yeah, yeah well, do you know what, having edited someone’s weddings once, I’m not sure I want to do it again.

Alan (07:09)
Yeah, it’s like, phew, shooting yourself in the butt.

No, I totally understand that. But yeah, doing my own weddings takes enough time, so yeah, it’s true. You mentioned that you were second shooting a lot. Is it Ben that you second shoot with as well, or are you doing it with lots of other photographers?

Tom Beynon (07:27)
loads of people. So I have second shot with Ben a couple of times. This year I probably shot with Rafe Abrook five or six times, actually did a couple of associate shoots for him as well because Rafe’s just down the road in Hitchin as half the wedding industry seems to be in Hitchin. There’s so many of them based there. think most of them… Yeah, Eric is there, Rafe’s there, you’ve got Paul Rogers in Hitchin.

Alan (07:35)
So yeah.

Yeah, you’ve got Erika Hawkins there as well, haven’t you?

huh. Some high caliber photographers there.

Tom Beynon (07:56)
as well and a few other people as well in the area.

Yes, it’s a hotbed of photojournalism in pitching.

Alan (08:05)
And in general second shooting because I think a lot of people have listened to the podcast, know interested they a lot of people want to be second shooting more How have you found how have you been able to do so many second shooting gigs? What how do you get that?

Tom Beynon (08:19)
So I think it helps that I’ve always had a strong niche for documentary photography and that’s what you see on my website. So in 2019, I was really down on bookings because I was going that year, I was trying to go up in price from my sort of beginner price when I was new and I was charging 600 quid and I didn’t understand how to… Yeah, about 850 now.

Alan (08:39)
Are you more than that now? Are you charging more than that now?

Tom Beynon (08:46)
In 2018, I was sort of marketing for 2019 at a higher price point, but I was still marketing at the people who were only paying 600 quid. Like I hadn’t understood that my marketing was kind of aimed in the wrong place. So I went into 2019 with barely any work and I needed to second shoot just to earn money from the second shooting. But also I just wanted to keep photographing because I got to a point in 2018 where something I kind of clicked in my head with

documentary shooting and sort of the progress I was making because I shot my first wedding not long after I picked up a camera for the first time. So I was very much learning to be a photographer and learning to shoot weddings at the same time. So there was a very steep learning curve there and I progressed a lot and around 2018 something had clicked and I’m like, all right, I’m getting to the standard I want to be at and I’m getting the kind of shots I want now. And then I got to 2019 and I barely had any weddings to shoot so I’m like, need to second shoot. So I…

I went to every second shooter Facebook group I could find and added myself to them and the notifications on them and made sure that I was one of first people to put my name down. And because my website was documentary based, people who I didn’t know and had never met me and had no idea who I was, was just asking me to come second shoot for them. And if I looked at everyone else’s websites who I was competing against, they were just showing classic wedding photography imagery like portraits and group shots.

And if you’re second shooting, you’re not doing any of it. You’re doing one side of group prep typically, and then candies and documentary stuff. And people weren’t seeing that in other people’s work. So to start with, it was just a case of showing people my work and because they could see it was documentary niche, they’re like, well, that’s what I need from a second shooter. And I’ve just kind of continued that on. Over last couple of years, I’ve only second shot for people I know via This Is Reportage and Nine Dots.

Alan (10:30)
That makes sense.

That’s cool,

yeah.

Tom Beynon (10:40)
just

shooting with people that I know. And I just really enjoy it. I love shooting. I got into photography when I was 35 and I finally found the thing I love and I’m good at and I wanna keep doing it. And if I’ve got a spare Saturday, I would much rather be doing that, as I said before, than sitting at home. So, I’m always pestering people for second shooting gigs.

Alan (10:58)
That’s cool man, that’s the proper passion for it, yeah, that’s great.

And when you shoot as well as you’re the when you’re the main photographer do you often have a second or do you shoot mostly solo?

Tom Beynon (11:10)
No, I hate having second shooters. Yeah, think

and I’ve probably shot about 170 weddings now and I think I’ve had 10 second shooters in that time. It’s not something I really push too much and the people I have had have all, they’ve been there for a reason. So I’ve been in a situation where we’ve been doing, I’ve been with the bride at the bride’s parents house like half an hour from the venue.

Alan (11:26)
Yup.

Tom Beynon (11:39)
and the groom’s getting ready at the venue and we’re not turning up until five minutes before the ceremony. And so they want photos of the groom getting ready and people arriving. Or I’ve had large weddings where it’s 200 people and there’s just a lot going on and it’s been mentioned from the bride about a second shooter. So if I look at a wedding and think in this situation a second photographer would be useful, I’ll pitch it. But typically I just want to…

I just want to shoot it on my own. find I can work much easier just being in my own headspace the whole time. Most of my couples don’t have videographers as well. So I think this year I’ve only had one videographer at any of my weddings. So usually if I’m working with a videographer it’s when I’m second shooting and then obviously I’m at someone else’s wedding and there’s a primary photographer and a videographer. But if it’s one of my couples, typically it’s just me. And I quite enjoy that because I can just get my head into

Alan (12:22)
Yeah, that is a many. Wow.

Tom Beynon (12:38)
the story of the day and all of that kind of thing. And nothing bugs me more than a videographer who it gets the drinks reception and they’ve got nothing to do because they don’t really need to film too much of the drinks reception. So they just want to come over and talk to me because they think I’ve got nothing to do as well. And particularly with a lot of a lot of what we do, a lot of it kind of looks like you’re not really doing anything because you’re just observing what’s happening and you’re waiting for a moment. So you’re just doing that kind of people watching thing.

Alan (12:41)
Makes sense.

Yeah, yeah, I get that, yeah.

Tom Beynon (13:06)
and it probably looks like you’re not really doing anything. So they think, Tom’s not doing anything right now. Let’s go and talk about cameras and compare what Sony model we’ve got.

Alan (13:11)
Let’s have a chat.

Yeah, I get that, I get that. And I’m similar actually, I have hardly any videographers. Why do you think that is? Because we’re so documentary-focused you think? And maybe people are so into documentary, not so into video.

Tom Beynon (13:25)
Yeah, think

so. think I would imagine your couples are similar to my couples in that really they don’t want any fuss with sort of having people around to sort of do that kind of thing. I would say my couples typically are not into the whole romantic fairy tale side of weddings. So my brides don’t start accounts about their bridal journey for planning the wedding and all of that kind of stuff. And they don’t have Pinterest boards.

They basically plan a wedding because they want to get married and they want to have a good party. But it’s not, you know, they’re not going to set a mood board for the day and care about that side of things. And I think they just want less hassle and they don’t the idea of being filmed all day is not something there. And I also get a lot of couples say to me when we’re doing the Zoom call, when they’re looking and I talk about video, they just say, we’re just never going to watch the video back. Really.

Alan (14:20)
Yeah, he watches

video, what’s the point of No, in case anybody offers this, I’m joking, I’m joking, but no, I get that,

Tom Beynon (14:23)
So, yeah,

yeah, and I feel that I did, there is a, I can see why videography works for certain parts of the day. So I think the main advantage that video has over photography is the audio rather than the moving picture part. I actually think video isn’t a particularly good medium for storytelling in the way that photography is because I think a good documentary photo

can really take you into the day. Whereas a video, particularly the way the wedding videography industry seems to do it, it’s very cookie cutter. And I think it’s great to hear people’s voices back. I understand the importance of that, but I don’t think it does a huge amount past that really. I think all of the storytelling is handled by the photography. And I think if the photography is done well, you don’t really need the video.

aside from the audio. So I’ve actually recently last year started offering simple video packages as an add-on and I literally just set up two cameras for the ceremony and for the speeches that are static and a mic on the groom or on the mic for the speeches and they can hear those back and have a very simple video setup where it’s not, there’s nothing too complicated and it’s easy for me just to set up two cameras on two tripods and hit record and leave them.

And that is actually good enough for a lot of my couples who say to me, the ones who have video, I’d say it’s a 50-50 split between the ones who want a proper wedding video and the ones who actually just say, we just want something really simple. We don’t want, you know, to spend loads of money on a video. We just need something simple for it. And I’m like, well, I can set up a camera on a tripod and hit record. And it’s, you know.

Alan (16:09)
Yeah.

Yeah,

that makes sense. Are doing that for the speeches as well? is it just a ceremony?

Tom Beynon (16:17)
Yeah,

yeah, so ceremony and speeches, I’ve done that twice now. And so I’ve added it on as an add on. And I think that would be quite popular with my couples just because it’s such a simple solution for them.

Alan (16:22)
It’s good idea.

Yeah,

well it’s extra money for you as well and it’s offering a really good thing. I think as you’re right the audio I think is really good. But also it means you don’t have to work with any kind of nightmare videographers if they’re going for… yeah.

Tom Beynon (16:32)
See ya.

Yes. Yeah, I think I don’t know how you

find it. But I think my my issue, I have four videographers that I recommend couples and three of them I met via second shooting because when I second shoot, I work for photographers who have different styles and approaches and different types of couples. And so they get different types of videographers. And I’m always quite jealous when I go to those weddings and I’m working with a videographer and I’m like,

I wish I had more of these videographers because I get an awful lot of newbie photographers who aren’t charging much or experienced photographers who aren’t charging much because they’re not very good. And couples are just trying to find a kind of budget solution. And with budget solution comes budget photographers who they’re the ones that are frustrating. Whereas when I second shoot, I work with more experienced people who really know what they’re doing.

And I’m actually working with this guy has been really good. I’ve to say of the four people that I recommend couples, three of them I’ve only met through through second shooting. So it’s very much the type of couples I get that is more the issue with with with the videographers, I think.

Alan (17:38)
Three seconds, that’s funny.

Yeah, it’s interesting. Yeah, I like you as well. I just have a few videographers that I recommend I don’t work with many every year but one especially that I used to do about four or five with every year and I shot his wedding as well and just has a similar approach, you know hands off not directing the couple or anything. What is ever weird, it’s happened a handful of times in my career though, when you know I think couples have booked me because of the documentary style and then I’ll turn up and there’s a videographer there and they’re like the videographer is like asking them to put on the makeup again and everything and I’m like

Tom Beynon (18:15)
Yeah.

Alan (18:16)
This doesn’t make any sense, it’s so weird, isn’t it?

Tom Beynon (18:18)
Yeah, no, that’s definitely a problem is that, it’s a problem with photography as well, is that documentary has become a bit of a buzzword that everyone wants to use because it sounds good. But definitely that’s an issue I’ve had with video is that I will turn up and there’ll be a videographer there. Well, hopefully they’ll turn up after me. I will try and get there before the videographer. And we’ll say hello and I’ll say about.

Alan (18:31)
meet so many different things.

Tom Beynon (18:46)
know, documentary, I’m just going to be hands off and just kind of let things flow. And they’ll go, yeah, documentary, that’s what I do as well. And then they walk into prep and then they start moving things and they start saying, right, where should we hang the dress for a good dress shot? And I’m like, I don’t care. you know, that’s, I’m not going to move the dress. And I’ve had videographers look at me and say, I had, did a, did an associate shoot for a friend of mine last year who was ill and I just jumped in last minute.

And the videographer turned around to me and said, where are going to do your lay flat? And I’m like, my what? He said, you your lay flat, know, laying out the shoes and all the bits in prep on the table. Where are you going to do that? So I can video it. I’m like, I’m not going to do it. And he’s like, And I think this isn’t something this is something I really thought about until Patrick Mattier said it to me is that a lot of videographers think they’re documentary.

Alan (19:25)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Tom Beynon (19:45)
because they’re working with photographers who are moving the dress and then they just film it where it is and so they think that then they’re hands off and it’s not until the photographer doesn’t do a lot of that stuff that they realize how much they’re relying on photographers to do things that they’re then kind of pinching basically. So yeah, I had a videographer once who…

Alan (19:49)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. I never thought about it like that, but that is true, isn’t it? Yeah, it is true.

Tom Beynon (20:13)
Again, we have the conversation about documentary and towards the end of prep, the bride was sat on her own in a room in one of the hotel rooms and it was just her and the hair lady just putting on like a tiara thing or whatever it was in her hair, just doing some final touch ups. And the bride was sat there on her own reading through her speech. And in her speech, she mentions her sister who died when she was 11 years old and the wedding was

at the venue because the venue was close to the church where her sister was buried. So obviously it’s a very emotional day for everyone and she was just sat there very quietly reading through her speech and she read through the whole thing and you could see the emotion on the face and she could see that she was getting quite tearful and I was one side of her and the videographer was the other side and I took a few nice pictures of this happening.

and everything was very quiet, like the room was completely silent. And she finished reading through her speech, so she was reading through her in her head, she wasn’t doing it out loud, it was completely silent. And then as she finished, she put it down and she looked straight ahead into the mirror and I thought, I’m just gonna leave the room now, because she can just have a moment to herself and I’ve got this picture. And as was about to leave, the videographer sort of cut through with the silence saying,

That was brilliant. Could you read it again? But I’m just going to move around to the other side so I can record you from that side. And it’s like, why would you, why would you do that? And you know.

Alan (21:42)
Oh my days. Yeah, that’s crazy. Yeah.

Man, that is crazy. That’s crazy. That’s crazy. Yeah, well I’m totally with you there, Tom. I’m totally with you. I’ve never had a second shooter as well, so yeah, I’m totally with you. I’ve done it just once. I have just one second shot. Yeah, shot for James Rouse years ago, Cue Gardens of London.

Tom Beynon (21:50)
So yeah, I like it when it’s just me.

Yeah, and you’ve never done second shooting, is that right? I’m sure you’ve… You once, right? Yeah.

Alan (22:06)
But that, to be honest, that was mainly because we were going to go out afterwards into London and I knew I was going have a good time because that really is fun. But I did enjoy it. I did enjoy it that day, second shooting. I did enjoy it.

Tom Beynon (22:10)
Yeah.

You would be a

very popular second shooter because people like, as I saying before about people want to know that you’re just going to turn up and do good candies and good documentary work. So if you put yourself up for second shooting, you’d be very popular pick for people.

Alan (22:28)
Thank you, let’s

do it if I don’t get that many more bookings this year, I’m be all over it Tom let’s change tack a bit. We’re not doing the Netflix yet, but we will that is good that is coming up He asked me before we began this and yeah, we are gonna do it and by the way I forgot to mention as well if you are listening to this we are starting 2025 by doing a video version as well So you can come and watch our very beautiful faces if you head to YouTube or on Spotify Spotify shows both audio and video which is good as well, but Tom yeah

Tom Beynon (22:32)
Yeah. Yeah.

So check.

I’m sorry.

Alan (22:58)
Something that I see probably more than you on your Instagram stories are your cats. Which I think I can see one in the background I think if you watch the video you can see it.

Tom Beynon (23:03)
Yeah, Charlie’s just asleep

on his cat tree there. In fact, I think, I’m not sure if it’s in scene in the camera. Can you see Charlie, Monty, sorry, just sat in his…

Alan (23:16)
Where is he?

right down there, yes I can see, yeah aww.

Tom Beynon (23:20)
He is

just on the sofa there. You can probably just see his eyes beeping through. It’s probably black cats. They tend to sort of camouflage themselves quite well. Yeah.

Alan (23:27)
Merge into the kind of… Yeah, that’s true.

So I just want to, because you do show loads of your cats on your Instagram stories, which is fab, I think you’ll love it. They’re rescue cats, aren’t they? Which is cool. Yeah. Do you get couples that are all into cats? Because everyone says, you know, show those elements of your personality and then you’ll attract those kind of couples. And does that happen with you with cats? Does it?

Tom Beynon (23:32)
Take one.

Aw yeah.

I

get people mentioning it in my inquiry form. I ask what it is about my work that they like. And most people talk about the documentary side of things, but then occasionally you’ll just get one. like, you’ve got cats and we love cats as well. So that’s definitely something that does appeal to people, I think. I think if you’re a cat person and you meet someone and you know that they’re a cat person, it creates a kind of little bond.

Alan (24:11)
infinity.

That’s cool. Do you get many cats at your weddings then as well?

Tom Beynon (24:15)
there straight away.

not at weddings, unfortunately, that’s the one downside to them compared to dogs is that you can bring your dog to a wedding, but you can’t really bring a cat to a wedding. So I have seen cats at weddings, but it’s always been like when the venue’s got a cat. That’s happened a couple of times. But no, normally it’s in prep. So if I’ve got a prep at the couple’s house, so I know they’ve got cats, I will make a point of spending time trying to find the cats to get pictures of cats.

Alan (24:24)
Yeah, that’s true.

Okay, yeah, not their own cats

That’s cool.

Tom Beynon (24:48)
Obviously they love their cats and their cats aren’t going to be involved in the day. So if I can get them, you know, sleeping in the corner or something like that, they haven’t really done it. I’ve never really had a cat picture yet, but I kind of crave like a really good documentary image of a cat in cat prep. But, you know, they’re either typically they’re, they, a load of strange people have turned up to the house for the day and cats will do one or two things. They either push off and disappear or they’re very

Alan (25:02)
documentary capture. Yeah. Yeah.

Tom Beynon (25:17)
friendly and they’ll come and say hello to everyone. But I just seem to have had a run of cats that just did a kind of push off and disappear type, unfortunately. So.

Alan (25:23)
That’s shame Tom, but I think it’s really

cool how like, you know, you do really have that that real strong personality element I think from your Instagram and that and I think a lot of photographers are looking for that and I try to inject my personality into it as well But it’s tricky. I even with your profile picture, I think you’ve like really nailed that home as well I love that try image of you and your two cats. That’s really cool

Tom Beynon (25:43)
Yeah, yeah,

I was really nervous about putting that as my as my avatar because I’ve always wanted to include the cats in my branding a little bit more and never really known how to do it. So on my website, on my About Me page, there’s pictures of the cats and things like that. And I must say in November or October last year, I was ill and had the idea for the avatar and

At one point, I think I had, I’m not sure what, I was ill and I don’t know what was wrong with me, but at some point I felt quite delirious. Like I had a 24 hour period where I was just really, really ill and felt quite delirious. And it was when I was feeling like that, but I had the idea for the avatar and I wasn’t sure whether it was a good idea or not. like, is this a good idea or am I going to do something that everyone’s going to look at and go, that’s just a bit weird. And so I kind of had to, I had to message Chelsea and I’m like, I mocked up a version of what I was thinking of doing.

And I sent it to Chelsea and I’m like, Chelsea, is this a good idea? Or just tell me if this is a bad idea or not. She’s like, no, this is brilliant. You should definitely do this. So that kind of gave me the confidence to kind of put it up.

Alan (26:51)
that’s nice.

That’s nice as well. That’s nice from Chelsea and that’s Chelsea. Can I? I? How do you say it? I’ve interviewed her on the podcast. I should remember. Which one is it? Which one? Which one? No, Tom doesn’t know. Okay.

Tom Beynon (27:01)
Yeah. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. I

get a pass for not knowing how to say people’s surnames.

Alan (27:10)
Yeah, I should know that. should know that. I’ve interviewed her.

Yeah, she’s lovely. She just won a TWA, didn’t she? think a couple of days ago. Yeah, it’s cool. yeah, and she’s great. And I’ve interviewed her on the podcast if you want to check that out in a past episode because she comes from a design background as well, doesn’t she? think so. Yeah.

Tom Beynon (27:16)
did yes yeah

Yeah, she does. That was one reason why I

asked her. And also, Chelsea, I know Chelsea won’t sugarcoat anything. Because before I’ve sent her images and I’m like, I’m thinking of entering this for this is a reportage. And she’s like, I think this one’s probably better for a story award rather than an individual, which is how I know like, okay, that’s, you know, so she will be honest with me about it. So I thought if this is a bad idea, Chelsea will definitely tell me she won’t. She won’t sort of, you know, she won’t sort of pass me off.

Alan (27:39)
that’s a good way of saying it. That’s good.

Yeah, why don’t you show your… That’s cool. And it looks great, that graphic looks

really good though. How did you design that by the way? Because people might be interested. that… Because I’m awful at creating like graphics like that. How did you do that?

Tom Beynon (28:00)
Yeah,

very painfully in Photoshop because obviously it’s in the… you’ve got the triangles and I couldn’t work out a way of finding a shape that would give me those three colour boxes to fill in. So if you look at the Photoshop file it’s a complete mess because you’ve got the three pictures of us and then like a triangular shape that’s

Alan (28:06)
It was Photoshop.

Tom Beynon (28:27)
coloured in and then another shape underneath and another shape underneath and I’ve just had to kind of like slowly move them round till they basically line up to be. So there’s probably a really slick way of doing it that someone who knows how to use Photoshop probably would have would have done it in five minutes but it took me about two hours just to kind of like faff around and try the best way to doing it.

Alan (28:36)
Well, it’s really good, man.

Yeah, I’d be like doing that as well, but it looks

really good and if I remember I’m gonna include it in this video edition Sorry, was a weird cough. I’m gonna make it pop up on this video edition So do check out the video version or if you’re listening just head to thisreportage.com I’ll include it on the post as well because it’s awesome dude. And one thing as well You said earlier you mentioned Rafe with someone else I’ve interviewed on the podcast

And you are speaking at his upcoming conference soon, aren’t The F-Stop Conference, which is called, yeah, Congrats on that man. How you feeling about that? It must be exciting.

Tom Beynon (29:15)
Yes, f-stop, yes. Yeah, thank you.

It is exciting. I’m actually not as nervous about it as I thought I would be because so that the concept, Rafe’s concept is, I’m not sure if it’s Rafe’s concept or Sian’s, his fiance, because she’s starting to second shoot with him now and she’s very new for his photography and I think Rafe asked Sian what would you want from a workshop as someone who’s new and this is where the ideas come from of there’s five speakers and we each take a part of the wedding day and break down that section and talk about how we shoot it.

So someone’s going to talk about prep and like how they do that. And someone’s going to talk about couple shoots and all that kind of thing. My section of the day is, yeah, how to do a lay flat during bride prep is what I’m known for. I’m doing the drinks reception. So I’m just coming at it from the documentary angle of.

Alan (29:53)
It’s a good idea. It’s a good concept.

Are you going to be talking about lay flats? Is yours lay flats?

No, what are you talking about? What are you doing? Which section? cool, nice.

Tom Beynon (30:20)
know, how to find moments during drinks receptions and that and I’m also going to venture into what I like to call the second drinks reception which everyone else annoyingly calls the lull in between the end of the speeches, excuse me, in between the end of the speeches and the party because you’ve got that kind of hour or two hour period where everyone just says well nothing happens during that moment which isn’t true, loads of stuff happens, it’s just people have a kind of

I think too often people go to a wedding thinking they know what’s going to happen. So they just go by the numbers at every wedding. And if you go with that attitude, then yeah, nothing happens at that point because there’s nothing in that part of the day that the couple would expect to see a picture of. at the, you know, during a ceremony, you’ll get like a first kiss or you’ll get people doing speeches or you get first dances, all these moments happening through the day that are kind of the key points that you hit.

that the day is kind of based around. But obviously in between all of that, you’ve got all of the other stuff going on. And actually, if you think about the lull as a second drinks reception, particularly on a summer’s wedding, marquee wedding, everyone just goes back outside and carries on drinking. It’s just another drinks reception. They’re all playing beer pong or whatever. There’s loads of stuff going on. And even when there’s not stuff going on, that’s one of my favorite times is looking at a wedding thinking it’s really quiet right now and it’s brilliant.

I can spend 15 minutes trying to get something. And if you don’t get anything, it doesn’t matter because again, there’s nothing the couple’s expecting from that time. So actually it’s a really good playground if you want to sort of take interesting documentary moments, that part of the day is a really good part that they do that. So yeah, my section will just be talking about there’s no prescribed images that the couple’s expecting at this point. So now’s the time you get to go and find the interesting things that are happening and all that kind of stuff.

Alan (32:16)
That’s cool man, that’s cool. I didn’t interrupt you then because I thought that could be a good sound bite as well for promo-ing this podcast. That was really good. That was really good. And when… It was going to be low, it was going to be low. But that was really good. And when is it? When’s the conference?

Tom Beynon (32:16)
so.

That’s good. I’m glad there’s one sound bite. That’s one more than I was expecting.

So, I wish I had, hang on, let’s just double check. I’m gonna say the wrong date if I don’t, it’s in March. It is the 4th of March in Hitchin. In Hitchin, the hotspot for documentary photography that is Hitchin.

Alan (32:35)
Yeah

You

in Hitchin. Okay that’s cool and yeah

and TIR moments get a discount on that actually as well so I put in a newsletter a few weeks ago as well so yeah go along and show

Tom Beynon (32:51)
They do? Yes. I’m not

going to say how much it is because I would get that information wrong. if you just…

Alan (32:59)
Yeah, but it’s good value though, isn’t

it? I remember it’s good value. Yeah, it’s good.

Tom Beynon (33:03)
The early bird price was £99 and it did go up to £150 but I think there’s a TIR discount in there as well, I’m not sure.

Alan (33:10)
What’s the website? it F?

Yeah, that’s cool. It

definitely is. I’ll put, if you head to thisrepetition.com, I’ll link to that as well. And yeah, all the best for that man. Sure, it’s going to be great. It’s going be good.

Tom Beynon (33:23)
Thank you. Yeah,

no. So you said about being excited before. Basically, I’ve just got to stand up and talk about how I photograph a drinks reception. And I could kind of do that with no notes or no prep, because I know how I photograph a drinks reception. So it’s easier than giving like a general talk you might give, you know, like you’ve done talks before where you’ve got to talk for like an hour on something, and it’s a bit more freeform. Whereas this is literally just how do you photograph a drinks reception. So I’m just looking forward to it now.

Alan (33:37)
So that’s good.

Tom Beynon (33:53)
to be honest.

Alan (33:53)
Oh that’s cool man, that’s really good, that’s really good. And the

whole concept of the day is really good ideas as so yeah, that’s really cool. Yeah, all the best for it, all the best for it. Let’s change tack though, let’s go to the bit that I think everybody just tunes in for, they don’t really care about photography and stuff. Let’s just do the Netflix game. If you’ve ever listened to the podcast before, this is just a little way breaking up the podcast bit and I’m gonna ask Tom.

Tom Beynon (33:59)
Thank you.

Alan (34:14)
I’m going to read out a synopsis of either a series or a movie. It doesn’t have to be on Netflix, don’t why I gave it the Netflix plug at the beginning, so could be on anywhere. And we’re going to see if it can get the title and hopefully you enjoy playing along at home as well. Are you looking forward to this Tom? You’re looking forward to it.

Tom Beynon (34:30)
Do know, when I listen to the podcast, I regularly get two or three out of three. And this is why I’m worried about it, because I know the one time I come on the podcast will be the time when you find all the obscure stuff that I’ve not heard of. So…

Alan (34:36)
That is good.

Yeah. Let’s see, I’ve made it especially

hard. No, I think it’s a mix. It’s a mix. It’s a mix. So, okay, you ready for your first one? You ready? Yeah, let’s do it. Okay, so this is a series, okay? So, decades after their 1984 All-Valley Karate Tournament bout, a middle-aged Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence find themselves martial arts rivals again.

Tom Beynon (35:13)
This is what I was worried about. Everyone else is going to be listening to this going, well it’s obviously whatever it is and I’m just going to sound like an idiot. Is it, I don’t really like martial arts, I don’t watch martial arts stuff. Is it one of the karate kids?

Alan (35:19)
It’s tough man if you don’t…

It is a series based on that. It’s the series based on it. Yeah. It’s on about five series now on Netflix. Yeah. It is. It is. It’s actually quite… I’ve watched the first two seasons. It’s good. Have you watched the Cricut films? No. What? You’re like… Well, you were born similar to me, aren’t you? I was born in 81. Aren’t you, like, around that time? Yeah. What?

Tom Beynon (35:29)
sorry, you said it was a series didn’t you? It’s a series based on karate kiss.

It’s one of them T1 as well, I’ve never seen a karate kid film.

Alan (35:50)
I grew up on the original cry case of the action figures of little Daniel Aruso and Mr. Miyagi and stuff. was like, what are you missing out there dude? But yeah, do, are you like, shall I give you what this is?

Tom Beynon (35:51)
Yeah.

If you’re waiting for

the answer, it’s going to be a very long podcast. I’m just going to sit here, not knowing.

Alan (36:03)
Yeah, okay. Okay, I’m

to tell you, it’s Cobra Kai. It’s called Cobra Kai. Yeah. Yeah, it’s on Netflix. It did begin on, I think it began on like YouTube Red or something odd. yeah, it is good. I’ve only seen the first two seasons, but I should watch more. Okay, zero out of one so far, Tom. Not the best start, not the best start. And this, it gets a bit harder now. It gets bit harder.

Tom Beynon (36:09)
Okay, I have heard of them, yes. Okay.

Okay, good start.

Alan (36:27)
Okay, so this is a limited series. It’s only like four episodes, okay? And it was quite recent. That’s a clue. Norwegian family vacationing in La Palma faces chaos when a researcher discovers imminent volcanic eruption signs that could trigger a massive tsunami.

Tom Beynon (36:29)
dear.

No idea.

Alan (36:49)
No, I’m sorry that’s

quite hard but it’s quite recent so I I’d it I got it. I guess that’s called La Palma. La Palma. it’s, yeah.

Tom Beynon (36:57)
No, I’ve

not heard of that. That actually sounds like something I quite like. Have you seen it? Okay, that does sound like something I’d like. Yeah.

Alan (37:01)
Yes, it’s really good. Yeah, it’s only like four or five episodes. Yeah, it’s good.

It’s good. And when you watch things like that, I always watch them not dubbed. So with the subtitles and the original language. Do you do that? you watch it dubbed, you?

Tom Beynon (37:12)
see, no, I do it the other way around. So I’m one of these people that watch…

I watch Squid Game dubbed rather than with the subtitles. I’m quite badly dyslexic. So if I watch something with subtitles, I have to concentrate so hard on the subtitles that you then can’t really see what you’re actually supposed to be watching. So I just take the hit on the dubbing. And my only experience of Squid Game is via the dubbed one. So I’ve… I don’t know what…

Alan (37:17)
Dude, what’s that like? I’ve not even tried that. It was a game.

Okay.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Tom Beynon (37:41)
would it be like non-dubbed? So, and I got the feeling watching it that some of the characters are fine-dubbed, like whoever was doing the voice acting for that obviously nailed what they were supposed to be doing and some of them were a bit more ropey, but I can’t do it the other way around. So, which is frustrating actually, because one of my favorite films is a French animation called April and the Extraordinary World, and it’s quite a niche film.

Alan (37:41)
Yeah, to compare to… that makes sense then. Yeah, that makes sense.

I don’t know, that’s interesting though, it makes sense.

Tom Beynon (38:11)
and it’s in French obviously and it’s not being dubbed into English even though it’s an animation and you could very easily dub it without it looking strange but that’s in that I have to watch that as with the subtitles which is frustrating because I really love the film and it’s an animation so it looks good but I have to spend so much time watch reading but I don’t really get to enjoy it much.

Alan (38:28)
Ugh.

yeah,

that’s annoying. What’s that called? I’ve heard of it. What’s it called?

Tom Beynon (38:37)
It’s called April and the Extraordinary World. It’s a kind of a dystopia alternate history thing. It’s set in France in the 20th century and it’s set in a world with mass pollution and it’s kind of an environmental thing.

Alan (38:54)
Sounds

good, interesting, I should check that out, I should check that out. Okay well, zero out two so far, Tom. So the only way is up, the only way is up. Last one. Okay so this one, last one, it’s a series, it’s on Disney Plus it has been I think. Yeah, okay, you ready?

Tom Beynon (39:03)
No it’s not. The only way is to keep getting zero.

Alan (39:15)
Yeah, let’s do it. So, a neurotic mid-20s suburbanite called Dave is convinced he’s destined to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. Now he just has to prove it to everyone else.

Tom Beynon (39:33)
idea. I knew this was happening.

Alan (39:33)
No!

dude, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. That is really good. It’s called Dave. It’s just called Dave. Yeah, it’s on Disney Plus. It’s… no, but… It’s really good on Disney Plus. It’s like three seasons of it. It’s really, really good, really good. But okay, let’s add up your score a second. One minute.

Tom Beynon (39:41)
UGH

Okay, I mean the clue was there wasn’t it? It was called Dave.

Let’s add up all those zeros.

Alan (40:00)
No, you either know or don’t, you? yeah, yeah, and like I said, this… You go.

Tom Beynon (40:03)
Yeah, yeah. No, I knew this would

happen, that it would just be stuff that everyone else would be like, obviously it’s Dave, come on. And they’ll all be screaming into their phones right now.

Alan (40:14)
Well, these

are trickier as well because I have done this is like I’ve done over 140 episodes now So I generally did start off with like, you know game of Thrones and stuff like the very easy one So it does as you said earlier, right? It is getting a bit more obscure as well. So yeah, it’s tricky, but they are all good programs people I know photographers always looking for like Netflix recommendations and they’re all good La Palma that is really good. It’s Netflix. Yeah, it’s on Netflix

Tom Beynon (40:18)
Yeah.

Yes. Yeah.

Yeah, that middle one, the volcano one, what’s that on? Is that on Netflix? See,

I should have said this as well. I had a Netflix account up until 18 months ago and I got rid of Netflix because I was so bored with everything that was coming around because I’d just seen everything that I’d wanted to see or not seen it that I haven’t had Netflix for 18 months because I’m going to go back and hopefully it will all have refreshed and there’ll be load more new stuff to go into. Yeah.

Alan (40:58)
That’s a good idea to do that. Yeah, that makes sense.

Hmm. It’s cool. Okay, Tom. So, as I said, right at the very beginning of the episode, you were fifth in the world overall and fifth storyteller in the world in TRL 2024, which is a proper awesome achievement, dude. It really was. Was that fun to find out? Was it? It must have been quite exciting to find that out.

Tom Beynon (41:14)
Okay.

Well,

it was fun, although waiting for the last round of results to come out was agonizing because I knew, you know, you could see how everything was going through the year. And I knew if I have a good final round, I could place really well. And that was kind of nerve wracking waiting, because I thought I’m probably never going to have a better chance of like breaking into the top 10. And but I knew I needed to have a good round in the final round. And

You never know how it’s going to go because there’s six rounds each year and last year two of the rounds I didn’t win a single thing. So you just don’t know what the judges are going to are going to pick up on. yeah, waiting for that font. Sorry. I won two stories and an individual, I think something like that.

Alan (41:54)
You do never know.

Yeah. Well, how many did you win in the last round? How many did you win in the last round?

It’s so good to get two stories, especially in

one round, to get two stories is mental.

Tom Beynon (42:15)
Yeah,

I’ve really struggled with story awards since this is Repetage has, or since I’ve been a member of this Repetage because individual frames, know, individual moments are kind of self-explanatory as to what they are and how that works in an award sense. Whereas stories, because it was such a kind of new thing, it took me a while to kind of get my head around how to…

curate a story and I’ve had to get help from that. Like I’ve spoken to Patrick and Holly about it, about like how to curate for a story award. So in the past I have entered story awards but I’ve kind of half-heartedly entered a couple here and there. I’ve never really done it with much hope because I think I got stuck, I kind of got bogged down in the idea of telling the story of the wedding I was at. So…

If there was something unusual that happened at a wedding, felt like you had to include it because I’m trying to show you what happened at this wedding, where it’s not really that, it’s more of a self-contained set of 15 images that just have to make sense within those 15 images. So there was a wedding I shot in 2022 that originally the couple inquired with me and they also inquired with Paul Rogers and they actually went back to book Paul. But in that time, Paul had taken a different booking.

Alan (43:14)
Alright.

Hmm.

Tom Beynon (43:40)
and Paul messaged me and said I’ve kind of I’ve recommended you to the couple and the couple don’t know that I know this but they’ve come back to book me after having to be turned down by Paul but they think I think that I was just first choice but I remember being at that wedding it was a really good wedding it’s one of my favorite weddings I’ve ever shot and I remember being at it thinking you know Paul was here he’d be taking all these award-winning photos because you know how good Paul is and I’m like

Alan (43:49)
Right, okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Tom Beynon (44:07)
I felt like I wasn’t doing a particularly great job. And I remember at the end of that wedding, trying to piece together a story award, because I knew this was the kind of wedding that would be a good story award, and not really managing to do it and entering it and never really getting anywhere with it. And after talking to Patrick and Hollie (Mateer) about story awards and how to curate them, I went back to that wedding this year and I ended up taking out five of my favourite images from that wedding.

And suddenly the story became a much more cohesive thing throughout the frames and I entered it and it won straight away. So it’s taken, it’s taken me a while to sort of get my head around how you piece together the images for a story to make it make sense within those 15 to 20 frames. And actually the fact that the best image from that wedding isn’t in that story doesn’t matter.

Alan (44:39)
That’s really interesting.

That’s really cool man, that’s really cool. Really interesting again, people are feeling that, I think they’ll find that really useful to hear as well. And again I didn’t interrupt you, was like, yes this is great again man. Sound bite number two at least. And one of your recent stories, it, it like, you begin with a kind of shot and then that shot at the end, it looks like it’s shown on a screen as well. Are you doing like a same day, same die, same day slideshow? you doing that?

Tom Beynon (45:05)
Here we go two yes, a success.

Peace.

same time.

So that wedding was while I’m an associate shot for Rafe. So Rafe had booked a two-day Indian wedding but he wasn’t available for the second day. the couple booked him knowing that he would be there on the first day and the second day would be someone shooting on his behalf. And so I second shot with Rafe on the first day and then did the associate shooting with one of Rafe’s other regular seconds as my second. So that was the first time I’d ever

actually been a primary shooter at an Indian wedding. I’ve second shot 10 or 12 of them now, but I’ve never actually been fully in charge of one before. So the first shot is the groom on the horse as he’s coming in, doing the procession in the morning. And the last shot is him on the horse on the big screen at the back during the speeches in the evening, and he’s giving his speech in front of that picture.

And it’s bit of a happy accident really. At no point did anyone mention anything to me about a same day slideshow. And as we were there on the day, the couple said to me, we did the mandap and the ceremony in the morning and we did some couple shots. And then there was that break before the second half of the day. And the bride just said, would it be possible to get some pictures up on the big screen? Because we’ve got a slideshow going through from an engagement session that we did.

and it’d be good to get some wedding photos and I’m like, yeah, sure. And then they go off to get changed and have a break and I’m like, shit, I’m now going to try and do a same day slideshow and I’ve not got my laptop with me. So all I’ve got is my phone and my camera. So I could send pictures from my camera to my phone and I just went through and found six or seven pictures to send to my phone that I could then email to the DJ.

Alan (46:54)
Yeah!

Tom Beynon (47:16)
to say, can you please put these up on the big screen? So I just went through and found six or seven pictures and they looked awful on the screen because I made the mistake of not just sending the out of camera JPEGs but I tried to edit them on my phone a little bit and I kind of oversaturated them a little bit. So they were a little bit oversaturated on the screen and…

The photographer who did their engagement session was not Rafe, it was just some other random photographer who had a very different edit to mine. So it was mixed in with these very cool, crisp, nicely edited, but quite cool images. And then suddenly my bright orange images would flash up on the screen. But I included that one because I thought the groom will really love this picture. I remember the time taking it and thinking, that’s a really cool shot. And I thought, bet he’ll enjoy that.

And I actually was with him when he saw it on the big screen for the first time. And I’ve got a picture in the album of his face looking at the picture for the first time. And he’s just got this amazing eye. Oh my God, I look amazing. Which was really nice. yeah. So I knew there was a story in there, but the dance floor was not a particularly good dance floor. They just weren’t a party couple at all. And…

Alan (48:10)
That’s cool.

That’s cool, man. There’s a great way to open and end the story award as well.

Tom Beynon (48:35)
so I didn’t know how to end it. And I thought topping, telling it this way with the first image and last image was, was something that would stand out to the judges as well. And you could see that kind of complete storytelling. So that’s something that I’ve heard people say before with story award is you don’t need to include every part of the day with it. So, you know, if, if prep is no good, you can just start with, you know, the confetti shot, or if the evening party is no good, you can just end it a little bit earlier. As long as the image is.

those images themselves create a story, it doesn’t matter that other stuff’s not in it as well, you’re just showing a story. I think that for me that was a thing to get my head over. It’s not the whole wedding, it’s just a story from within that wedding that you’re trying to show. As long as it makes sense on its own, the fact that some part of a wedding day got missed out doesn’t matter too much.

Alan (49:10)
Yeah.

Yeah, that’s so cool. Great advice again. All these great advice bombs man. Advice bombs, just made that up. But yeah, it’s so good, it’s so good, it’s so good. And I was thinking that because I said about how you were fifth overall and fifth storyteller. It’s our amazing awards. You also though got an even bigger kind of achievement last year when you were the overall Premier Inn Spotter of the Year! Tom, congrats on that. That’s gotta be bigger than the TIR awards, surely.

Tom Beynon (49:30)
That’s one.

Thank you. That’s the big one all the kids

are talking about, Alan.

Alan (50:00)
No, so it’s funny, if anyone, probably have no idea what I’m talking about. On my own Instagram, @alanlawphoto, I was just, because I stay at Premier Inns all the time for weddings, I was putting up photos and seeing if people could guess which Premier Inn, and Tom was the overall winner. I forgot how many you got, you got loads, about nine or 11 or something, yeah, what was it, that’s, that is crazy, man. How do you do it? People want to know, you’ve got to give advice.

Tom Beynon (50:15)
I’ve got all of them. Yeah, I’ve got all of them. Yeah. It’s just a little insight.

It’s just a little insight into how sad my life is that I’ve got nothing better to do than just sit on my laptop and try and work out what Premier Inn Alan’s staying at from a random picture of the side of the building. Some of them are quite easy because one of them you showed you up in Norwich somewhere and you showed the road sign.

Alan (50:24)
Hahaha!

Tom Beynon (50:43)
and was a really unusual name. can’t remember what it was now, but it’s like they can’t be many roads in the UK with that name. So I just Googled that and it was like Norwich and I’m like, well, it’s the Premier Inn in Norwich. know, so I think I got lucky with the first one because I remember the first time you did it, you were shooting up, were you in Leeds or York or somewhere like that? And you said you’d had to drive home, but you stopped overnight halfway at a Premier Inn. Now I used to look…

Alan (50:52)
It’s good skills though.

yeah, that was the one that no one else got.

Tom Beynon (51:12)
Yeah, I used to live in Bromsgrove and I know my geography is quite good. So I instantly knew, well, if you’re driving from there to back to the Arsene Cornwall, where I lived in Bromsgrove on the M5, that is pretty much halfway, but there’s no Premier Inn in Bromsgrove, but I knew there was one down the road in Worcester. So I just Googled the Premier Inn in Worcester and it was the same photo. You know, the Google photo and your photo are basically the same. I think that was probably, I think that was probably the hardest one.

Alan (51:34)
That’s so good. I love that. That’s proper hardcore detective skills.

Tom Beynon (51:41)
to and I was just lucky that I had that. But what I found out about two weeks ago, I said there’s no Premier Union Brom’s Grove. which is why I knew it was, I can’t remember how, why I was looking at a map of Brom’s Grove for some random reason. There is a Premier Union Brom’s Grove. I never knew. Yeah. So I might’ve got that wrong if I’d known that.

Alan (51:42)
Yeah, no one else got that. No one else got that, you were the only one.

Oh there is, there? Oh there you go.

It’s a funny link actually. don’t know if I’ve told you before, I was born in Bronzegrave.

Tom Beynon (52:08)
Yeah, you grew up in Redwich, just down the road. Yeah. Yeah, no, I temporarily lived in Bromsgrove for a bit of time. went traveling in 2015 and didn’t have any way to live when I came back from traveling. I was away for most of the year. So my dad happened to be living in Bromsgrove at the time. So I moved in with my dad and stepmom temporarily. And that was when I got into wedding photography.

Alan (52:33)
And

which I haven’t asked you about that. Let’s do that. Let’s do that. How did you get into it? We’ve talked for eight times. Let’s do it. What’s your origin story?

Tom Beynon (52:36)
Okay.

my origin story. Do you know what my origin story is incredibly long? And it could just be this entire podcast. did a talk for a camera club in Cambridge last year. And it was an hour’s talk about how I got into wedding photography. So I’ll try and give you, I will give you the abridged version that I went traveling and I took a camera with me not knowing how to use it.

Alan (52:51)
okay. Well maybe don’t do that. Do the cliff notes or whatever.

Tom Beynon (53:05)
I didn’t want to rely on my phone for pictures. I thought I’d take a proper camera. So I took a, I think they’re called bridge cameras. They look like DSLRs, but they’re a bit smaller and you can’t take the lens off, but it kind of looks like a DSLR. And the first place I went was New Zealand and I just got hooked on taking pictures straight away. There’s something about holding a camera rather than your phone that makes you think more about the craft of photography.

and taking a picture and thinking more about your composition because this had a zoom lens so I could zoom, whereas on your phone you just kind of, I know you can pinch and zoom but no one really does that, you just kind of hold it up and that’s your shot so you don’t really think about it too much. So that was the first thing that kind of got me into the enjoyment of taking photos and very quickly my travelling became about taking pictures and I remember when I got back to Heathrow I’d just spent three months in America.

and my dad came to pick me up from Heathrow and we were traveling back up to Bromsgrove and I was talking about my trip and about photography and I said, you know, I’m really getting into photography. I want to learn to use a camera properly and maybe think about doing it professionally. And my dad said to me that that’s great. What type of photography do you want to do? And I said, I don’t know anything but weddings. Yeah, because in my mind, wedding photography was

Alan (54:23)
Did you really?

Tom Beynon (54:30)
portraits and group shots and all that kind of thing. I hadn’t considered it could be anything else. And I think most people who aren’t involved in wedding photography would probably assume the same sort of thing. You know, I remember when I got married, we went off for 45 minutes to do portraits around our venue and missed our drinks reception. And we didn’t know that we couldn’t have done that. We didn’t know there was an option to actually go and see our friends. Like that’s one of the things I remember about my own wedding is not seeing my friends because we were off doing pictures.

So I kind of thought that kind of photography, that kind of stage photography, kind of instinctively knew that wouldn’t be what I would enjoy doing. And so when I got back, I started taking the camera, I got a proper camera, a proper camera in inverted commas, and started taking it just everywhere I went. before somewhere I had the camera with me and I was…

shooting a lot of like family and friends stuff and I was making a concerted effort to photograph the people in my life a lot because a few years earlier my mum had died from a brain tumor and she was diagnosed with a brain tumor and went through all the chemo and radiotherapy and everything else and after she’d been through that course they said the tumor’s grown back to the same size it was three months ago whilst we’ve been doing all of the

all of the treatment for it and there’s nothing we can do. And you’ve probably just got a few months left to live. And so when we were going through all of that, we were going through all our old family photos and I realised how little I had of my own mother. Like I was 33 when she died and I think I’ve taken like three photos of her in my entire life. And I just couldn’t find anything. There’s only one photo of the two of us together with me as an adult.

Alan (56:00)
man.

Gosh.

Tom Beynon (56:27)
And

so that really homes me this idea of how important photography is. But originally when that happened, I wasn’t thinking about the craft of photography. I’m like, well, I’ve got my phone. I can just take more important photos than the nonsense that I’ve been taking up until now. And so when I came back from traveling, the two things started to sort of merge together, this idea of taking important photos, but doing it well with a camera.

Alan (56:31)
Hmm.

Right,

Tom Beynon (56:56)
Two of my friends got married and I didn’t take my new fancy Sony a7 II camera to the wedding because I don’t trust myself around this £1,500 camera when I’m drinking with my mates. So I didn’t take it to that. then I did take it about a month or two later to a party we were all at. And I took a load of photos of every one of the party and the next day I put them on Facebook. And my friend who got married, she said,

Alan (57:07)
Yep.

Tom Beynon (57:24)
these are really great. It’s a shame you didn’t bring your camera to my wedding because we’d have loved these pictures from our wedding. And then this little light bulb went off in my head. They’re like, I wonder if you can do these types of photos at a wedding. And I thought, you know, I wonder if anyone’s ever thought about my doing like wedding photography, but not in a traditional way. So I went to Google and I Googled something, something I can’t remember what I Googled, but it was something like natural candid wedding photography. And I sort of typing this in thinking,

Alan (57:44)
you

you

Tom Beynon (57:53)
You’re a genius. No one’s thought of this before. It’s a million dollar idea. And you know, hit enter and then the computer blows up because there’s just five million results have come back because it’s 2016 at this point and everyone’s calling themselves, even if they’re not documentary, they’re all using natural, unposed, candid, whatever it was. But that didn’t kind of put me off because I looked at all these websites that were coming up. I’m like, you all talk a good game about candid, but I can’t see any candid images on your

Alan (57:55)
Hahahaha!

Tom Beynon (58:23)
website at all, you know, so, you know, there are still a lot like that, but I think in 2016 it was everything, like everyone’s websites look the same, they were all, you know, the white background with the fancy writing and all the kind of classic wedding imagery to them. And I’m like, no, I don’t want to do this. I want to do, I don’t really care about weddings or wedding photography. It’s not what I’m interested in. I’m interested in the people side of it. So, and it took me a while to…

Alan (58:24)
Yeah, still a lot like that.

Tom Beynon (58:52)
get the idea of learning that phrase, wedding photography or reportage and actually trying to find photographers whose work I liked. So as I said before, I learned to use a camera and was going to weddings very quickly. So it was quite a steep learning curve of trying to be a good photographer, which I was not to start with. Because if you look at the stuff I used to shoot when I first got my camera, it was a lot of landscapes and stuff. And I was actually quite good at that.

because the landscape doesn’t move. You just sit there and wait for sunset. It’s quite easy. Suddenly you start trying to photograph people and people do this annoying thing where they move. they don’t, you know. And so I was kind of learning to kind of read the room and spot moments and all that kind of stuff. I found that quite difficult to start with. And I did what I think a lot of people do when they start off is I thought, I’m documentary. So I’ll wear a suit and a tie and I’ll blend in.

Alan (59:23)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, that is annoying.

Tom Beynon (59:50)
and I’ll stand in the corner and I’ll just kind of zoom in to everything. And it took me a while to kind of learn to get in close and to shoot through moments and all of that kind of stuff.

Alan (1:00:01)
Did it come from second shooting and stuff or was it just from doing your own more?

Tom Beynon (1:00:05)
so I did, I did my first sort of year. I just, basically, just put, use Google ads. was 600 quid and I was crap. but people have got 600 quid and they’re going to get a crap photographer. I deliberately branded myself and put photos up that were, that were not classic wedding images. So if you’re looking around at that low price point, everyone’s stuff looks the same at that point and mine look different.

So a friend of mine who was a photographer was asked to do a wedding local to them in Shrewsbury and they didn’t want to do it and I happened to be with them when someone emailed them and I’m like I’ll do that. You know it’s just that it was a wedding in a pub it was 250 quid and I hated it. Every single person at that wedding was a cunt.

Alan (1:00:35)
Right, okay, that’s clever.

okay!

Tom Beynon (1:00:59)
They were, honestly, it was a miserable

experience. And the funny thing was, when I was outside the pub, the couple, they’d got married at the registry office and they were walking to the pub, which they were the landlord and landlady of. We got to the pub, they were walking in. My friend happened to be walking past me at the same time. And I was already not enjoying it because the bride didn’t know I was going to be there. I was booked as a surprise by their kids.

and she got out of the car at the registry office and she saw me and she had a face like thunder she was like at me and I’m like hi I’m Tom I’m here to take some photos and she’s like I said don’t worry I’ll stay out the way and she’s like yes you will stay out

Alan (1:01:33)
no, that’s not a good start, is it? That’s not good start!

That’s funny.

Tom Beynon (1:01:48)
So I was made to feel very uncomfortable straight away and as we were walking back into their pub which is in the city centre, my friend happened to be walking past and we sort of said hello to each other as a bit of a strange coincidence and we went into the pub and the problem with pub weddings is that particularly if it’s local people are just back at their local pub is from their mindset is well we’ve just done the wedding the wedding’s over and now we’re just all back at our pub.

having drinks at our pub, why is there still a guy here taking photos of us? Because the wedding’s stopped and it was just an incredibly uncomfortable experience. And a couple of days later I was talking to my friend and he said, if I knew that was the pub that wedding was going to be at, I would not have let you shoot that wedding. That is the roughest pub in Shrewsbury. The police are there every Saturday night arresting people for doing drugs in the toilets and all of this kind of stuff. It was a really horrible experience, but it was enough from that.

Alan (1:02:37)
Goffs

Tom Beynon (1:02:42)
and a second shooting gig that I got to sort of cobble together a website just to get some kind of candid shots of people. And, you know, I think the first person who booked me booked me for £100 for an hour at Coom Abbey near Coventry, which is quite a nice venue, but then they were on a budget. They just needed me for an hour. And again, that was something else I could then put into my portfolio. So it just kind of snowballed from there.

Alan (1:02:50)
right show.

Okay.

Yeah, it makes sense

to do it like that building a portfolio lower prices. I did that as well. Yeah,

Tom Beynon (1:03:12)
Yeah, yeah,

no, I think our industry is very good at people get to a point where they don’t need to do that anymore and then they get quite snooty about people shooting for low prices or just couples who haven’t got big budgets as well. But we all needed those people when we started out and we’re all very grateful to them. But then our industry can get quite snooty about it very quickly. And I feel like some people only have 500 quid to spend on a wedding photographer. You know, that doesn’t mean they don’t.

Alan (1:03:33)
Yes.

Tom Beynon (1:03:39)
deserve to have a nice wedding or, you know, they’re not terrible people. They just don’t have huge amounts of money to spend on it. And that side of the industry needs people to cater to it. And obviously it’s going to be newer people and people who are, you know, aren’t as good or whatever, but that does need to be there.

Alan (1:03:44)
Yeah, totally. Totally, man.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it’s so true.

Yeah, it’s so true, man, it’s so true. And you just rocked it though from then, I’m sure, yeah, you’ve just done so well,

Tom Beynon (1:04:02)
Yeah, so basically

I’m a little bit stubborn in that I don’t like to be told how to do things. I will buy something from Ikea and I will not look at the instructions. I’ll just kind of like work out how it goes together. So I saw I didn’t want to do any kind of training or anything like that. The first thing I actually did was I went, so I wanted to do wedding photography. I went on a workshop with a wedding photographer and he was very traditional.

Alan (1:04:11)
I really did! Let’s call it.

Tom Beynon (1:04:29)
But because I’ve been on that workshop, he said, if you want, you can pay me £100 and I will let you second shoot a wedding with me. And I’m like, that’s great. I’ll pay you £100 and I can get some stuff in my portfolio. and actually work shooting that wedding with him was a great education in how not to be a wedding photographer. A lot of what I do is a direct opposite of what he does because he was very traditional. And.

Alan (1:04:51)
You

Tom Beynon (1:04:57)
It was all wedding photography by the numbers and he’d been booked for eight hours and we got to eight hours and the first dance hadn’t happened. So he was saying to the couple, you know, like, well, I’ll stay for half an hour to do your first dance. But if I’m here for another hour, I’ll have to bill you for the hour. And I’m like, why are you having this conversation with a couple on their wedding day? Like, I’m sure it’s common that weddings run late. And obviously now I do know no wedding runs to time ever. A lot of first dances just happen when they happen pretty much. And the way he was at that wedding.

was very kind of business minded and I don’t really think he was enjoying it, it was just do it by the numbers. And at one point he was in photographing the set up for the dinner whilst the groom and his mates were messing around on the grass. And at one point they picked him up and they ran into the other side of the grass and back. And I was taking pictures of it because I’m like, surely this is what we should be taking pictures of right now. And he was in the room for about…

Alan (1:05:51)
Yeah.

Tom Beynon (1:05:53)
What I felt was about 45 minutes just doing room detail shots. And at the end of the speeches, the best man did his toast, like the final toast. And he said, you know, to the bride and groom, they all did a cheers and the photographer stood up, walked past, I was at the back of the room, walked past me and says, oh, that’s the last thing now till the cake cut in about an hour. We can go put our feet up. And he walked out of the room and I looked back at the top table.

Alan (1:06:05)
Hmm.

Tom Beynon (1:06:24)
And you can probably guess what’s happening at this point. The groom’s gone over to the best man and they’re having a hug. And then the bride’s hugging the best man and then the groom’s hugging the dad and everyone’s just hugging the fuck out of the place. And it’s like, should we not be photographing this right now? He’s like walking through to the bar area to go grab a drink. And it’s just like, it was really, I was really glad I did that because I saw it really, it really cemented my mind of what I think wedding photography should be.

Alan (1:06:37)
Thanks

Yeah, that’s crazy.

Yeah, it can be just as good couldn’t it? Seeing what you don’t want to do can be just as good. It really can. And I have to say, I was going to say I don’t offer that £100 thing to come along with me anymore. Yeah, so that was a… No, I’m joking. That wasn’t me. That wasn’t me. But yeah, no, sorry.

Tom Beynon (1:06:54)
And

Yeah, yeah, I think if I’d actually gone…

Yeah.

Um, so, and I mean, there’s a few things as well that I’ve photographed. He delivered four sets of images to the couple. So he got full, they got full color, full black and white. They also got sepia with a really like a strong, like a vignette and then something else as well. And I was like, I don’t understand why they’ve got four copies of every image. And there was well over a thousand images there. And the groom said to me, like, he’s basically delivered us too much and

if he just cut it down by two thirds, we’d really like our wedding images. But because he sent us all, he sent us like two or three copies of similar kind of shots. And it’s like, if we’ve not got the bad stuff, the good stuff would look even better. So I’ve always been quite tight on my culling to just to make sure it’s a really good set rather than offering. I will offer variations of images sometimes, but they still have to both be good shots. can’t just be

Alan (1:07:45)
Okay

That makes sense.

You’re calling. Okay.

Tom Beynon (1:08:11)
his four images, you know. Yeah.

Alan (1:08:11)
yeah, almost like outtakes type thing, yeah. Now that’s all super

interesting, and we’re talking about single images. Let’s talk about one of your specific images actually. And if people are watching the video version, they’ll be able to see it. And if you’re not, can head to YouTube or Spotify where you’ll be able to see it. Or if you’re still listening, just head to thisreparatise.com and I’ll include it there in the post as well. But yeah, let’s try and share my screen on here.

not there yet is it? Come on. okay it’s coming, it’s coming. There we go. I could cut this bit, I could cut this. I probably won’t though but can you see that now? yes that’s cool. Okay let’s make it full screen. no, oops, wrong thing, sorry. Smooth out, smooth. Okay, full screen there as well. Cool and yeah so Tom this is one of your Reportage Awards.

Tom Beynon (1:08:52)
suspense.

Yeah, I can see that, yes.

Alan (1:09:12)
was an awesome shot so if people are not watching just to explain it, it appears to be, it’s the first kiss isn’t it? It is first kiss. Yeah it was the first kiss but he’s taken it focusing on the mirror in the background which is just something that I don’t think I’ve really ever seen before. It’s so cool and so different. So yeah can you tell us about this shot, you know your whole thought process.

Tom Beynon (1:09:33)
yeah, so, so the couple, they’re Johnny and Alice, I’ve known Johnny for about 10, 15 years now. so they’re friends of mine. and I don’t know if you’ve shot wedding for friends of yours, but I find that more nerve wracking because they’ve like, knew Johnny from before I was a wedding photographer. So he’s kind of seen me go through the process and his mum was when I had a Facebook account, I used to post everything on my Facebook account.

Alan (1:09:49)
Yes.

Tom Beynon (1:10:04)
his mum would like stuff all the time. So I turned up to this wedding feeling a lot of pressure, like they know, they’ve always said they’d booked me for their wedding and they’ve seen me win these awards and I really wanted to win an award at this wedding kind of for them almost. Because a lot of my couples, half my couples who are on Instagram

Alan (1:10:19)
I get that, yeah, that’s cool.

Tom Beynon (1:10:28)
sorry, half my copies aren’t on Instagram. And the ones that are seem to be the ones whose weddings don’t win awards. And I always feel slightly awkward that, you know, they see me winning all these awards for all these other weddings. So I turned up to this one thinking I really want to win an award for Johnny and Alice. I walked, so something I do at the start of every wedding day is walk around the venue, familiarize myself with it, and think about which parts of the venue

Alan (1:10:39)
Okay,

Tom Beynon (1:10:56)
why have they picked this venue? Like, what is it? Is there a unique feature about this wedding that I want to include in the photos in some way? Because if it’s a marquee or like a generic barn venue, then you kind of know what you’re going to get with those things. But some venues like this one have interesting features or things that are different about them that set them apart from other venues. And I always want to try and use that within the imagery somewhere to kind of show where they are, but not just to kind of…

Alan (1:11:15)
Mm-hmm.

Tom Beynon (1:11:25)
basic kind of scene setting shot, but just show it interestingly within the story of the day somewhere. I walked into the ceremony room in the morning and the staff were putting up decorations and things. And I just saw this mirror there and I looked and I thought, that’s funny, it’s pointing directly at where they’re going to be standing during their ceremony. So I well, I’ve got to use that mirror in a shot somewhere. Like there’s a potential there for a shot. So I sort of…

Alan (1:11:29)
Mm-hmm.

Tom Beynon (1:11:53)
kept it in the back of my mind and thought during the ceremony I need to use this somewhere in the ceremony and there’s going to be a really cool shot with that mirror because it’s just pointing directly at them. You can’t actually see it in the photo really but it’s actually angled. The top of the mirror is angled away from the wall slightly so it’s at an angle. Yeah, because if you think if it was flat against the wall you wouldn’t be able to see them at that angle. It would be going over everyone’s heads. So it’s angled down slightly.

Alan (1:12:11)
Oh yeah, now that you’ve mentioned it, yeah, I can get that semi-sense of that, yeah.

That’s so true, yeah. Yeah.

Tom Beynon (1:12:23)
And I actually thought when I did this, thought probably every wedding photographer who comes to this venue probably takes this exact same shot because the mirror is pointed directly at the couple. And what my original… Well, no, I checked their account and I couldn’t see one on there. And my original thought was that I actually wanted to be in the aisle and get her in the mirror and Johnny waiting for her as she’s coming down the aisle and try and get… That was the original shot I wanted to get.

Alan (1:12:31)
But you’ve not seen one before, I’ve not seen it.

Yeah.

Tom Beynon (1:12:52)
but it felt like too much of a risk because I thought I don’t exactly know where I’m going to need to be and I’m going to spend so much time. It’s a very short aisle walk as well. I’m going to spend so much time trying to get this image that if I don’t get it, I will get nothing of her walking down the aisle. And I thought that was a little bit too much of a risk. Maybe if it was a really long aisle walk, you could have said, well, I’ll dedicate five or 10 seconds to getting this and if it works great. And if it doesn’t, I can still turn around and get something of her coming down the aisle.

Alan (1:13:07)
Yeah.

Tom Beynon (1:13:21)
So I thought, I need to do it at a time when I can predict what’s going to happen. And obviously with the first kiss, you know where they’re to stand, you know what they’re going to do. So as the ceremony was going on, I just moved myself around back to this point for the first kiss, focused on them in the mirror and sort of got my composition and then just waited for that moment for the first kiss and then it happened.

Alan (1:13:46)
Nailed it!

Tom Beynon (1:13:48)
The one thing I’m very grateful for is the registrar isn’t trying to run out of the picture, which is what so many of them do for the first kiss is they’ll sort of say, you may now kiss the bride, and they’ll say it and then run away. And I’ve got a lot of first kiss pictures where you can see a registrar trying to dash out of the frame. It’s like, some of them will move to the side as they’re saying it because they’re aware they don’t want to be in the picture.

Alan (1:13:54)
Yeah, he-

Like a blurring registrar.

Tom Beynon (1:14:17)
but they’ll move to the side as they’re saying it and so they’re out of the way and then you’ve got a clean shot but some of them will just sort of say it and then run away and it’s like no you’re in this frame just be in the moment be a part of of the scene and he is being a part of it he’s just stood there with a smile on his face clapping and i’m really glad about that because if he if he was if he was doing something distracting it would be a really annoying element of the frame that would kind of ruin it i think i think the fact he’s joining in helps

Alan (1:14:33)
Yeah, which really adds to it.

Yes, that’s true. And also, if

he wasn’t in the shot at all, some people might even think that’s a portrait if he wasn’t in the shot, you know, it is.

Tom Beynon (1:14:51)
Yeah, that’s a good, I

hadn’t thought about that, but yeah, you’re right. No, it could easily be a portrait, because in the mirror, again, if you can’t see the image, in the mirror, you can only see, and the other thing about it, it’s a pattern carpet, a dark pattern carpet. They pop in the mirror because the aisle is a just a white strip, and they’re perfectly framed inside the white strip, so they kind of pop out. If that wasn’t there, if it was just a pattern carpet, they wouldn’t pop out as much.

Alan (1:14:57)
don’t see other people.

yeah.

Yeah, perfect. It’s perfect.

Yeah,

that’s true. The composition, the central composition is perfect man, well. The symmetry all around, the lights on either side of the frame as well, even the flowers in the middle, it’s perfect.

Tom Beynon (1:15:20)
as well. So there’s lots of little things that

Yeah.

Yeah, so

with the framing of it, they had these lanterns in the ceiling and I thought, well, I’ve got to include the lanterns and the lights on the wall either side, you know, because I think it would be very tempting, I don’t really like to shoot in portrait orientation, but it’d be very tempting, I think, just to kind of shoot it in portrait and just have the photo to just be then blurred out and the mirror above them in focus and cut out all the stuff at the side. But I think the fact that it’s all included just gives it

just gives the image a bit more, think.

Alan (1:16:00)
It’s such a great shot, man. It really is. It’s really, really cool. And it’s brave as well. I think it’s, to get these creative shots in like maybe in a drink reception when there’s kind of no pressure or something, that’s one thing. But to get a kind of creative, awesomely creative shot like this in such a big moment, like the first kiss, it’s a big, big deal. It’s awesome.

Tom Beynon (1:16:03)
Thank you. Yeah.

Yeah,

as I stood there waiting for it, I was a bit nervous because I thought I just need everything to be the way I need it to be for this to work. And if something happens unexpected, I’ve probably not got a shot of their first kiss. So yeah, it was a risk, but that’s where the best photos come from. It’s from taking a risk and from also from having the experience to know that this is a risk, but it’s a very calculated risk that I…

I’m 90 % certain this will come off because couples don’t tend to do anything. You know, you’ll get the odd couple that do a first kiss and then he’ll like do a a swoop or something like that. But I know Jonny and Alice and I know they’re not that type of couple. So it was a risk, but it was sort of a calculated one.

Alan (1:17:06)
Do they know, are they happy that that’s awarded? They must know.

Tom Beynon (1:17:09)
Yes, and they are kind of thrilled. They love seeing it come around on Instagram when it comes around every now and again. I always tag them in it. So, as I said before, about half, probably more than half, my couples just aren’t on Instagram. I don’t get couples that use social media very much. So when I do win awards, a lot of the time I’ve not got anyone to tag in the image or to share it on their stories and things like that. Whereas

Alan (1:17:17)
really cool.

Tom Beynon (1:17:39)
Johnny and Alice are on Instagram and do use it so they can share it as well. So that’s quite nice as well.

Alan (1:17:44)
That’s win-win

as well. That’s cool. And thank you for talking about that. And for this reportage, members, Tom is gonna do an exclusive video with me just after this podcast, whereas…

It’s gonna be really insightful like that was great. So yeah, head to thisreportage.com if you’re a member or you can join there and it’s gonna be exclusive video with Tom. So let’s stop this sharing man. That’s really, really, really cool. was a big screen again. My ugly mug like right in my face. Okay, that’s good. Let’s, man, we’ve already done an hour and 18 minutes. let’s just, yeah, it’s flown, isn’t it? It’s flown. Let’s do some quick fight. No, no, it’s all, it’s great, man. It’s been so good. It’s been so good.

Tom Beynon (1:18:11)
Thank you.

Have we? Jesus. Sorry.

Alan (1:18:24)
Let’s do some quick fire though, because I want to ask you some more questions and I’m not being asked to do it. So yeah, quick fire, okay? Are you ready? Do you prefer sleeping or eating?

It’s not quick fire Tom.

Tom Beynon (1:18:37)
Sorry.

Eating.

Alan (1:18:40)
Eating okay, okay, that’s good. I sleeping interesting interesting if you could advocate for someone to watch this one TV series What would it be?

Tom Beynon (1:18:53)
god, this is not quick fire, it?

Alan (1:18:57)
I’m

not!

Tom Beynon (1:19:02)
I’ve recently got into severance.

Alan (1:19:05)
I want to watch that. Is it really good?

Tom Beynon (1:19:07)
Yeah, there’s some glaring plot holes in it, which doesn’t make sense. But if you just get past all of that, it is really good. The second season’s just started on Apple TV. I’m quite lucky because the first season came out, I think, in 2022. And so everyone’s had to wait three years for season two. But I only got into it. I got Apple TV back because the second season of Silo came on.

Alan (1:19:28)
but you’re just going to it now.

Tom Beynon (1:19:36)
So I changed my internet provider. Yeah, it’s really good. I changed my internet provider about 18 months ago and I got a free six month sub to Apple TV. And I watched Silo, I didn’t actually see Severance on there, but I got into Silo and it came back for a second season. So I’m like, just need a one month sub to Apple TV just to binge watch the second season of Silo, which I did. But then just started looking around at stuff and came across Severance.

Alan (1:19:36)
I want to watch that as well.

Tom Beynon (1:20:04)
randomly. So I’ve only had about a week to wait for season two to come around. I’m glad I didn’t have that three year gap for it because it ended on it. It ended on quite a cliffhanger. yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Alan (1:20:04)
Eh.

It’s great when that… Oh, did it? Oh, okay, so I don’t know. But that’s great when that happens, isn’t it? That’s cool. It’s like when you get into a podcast and you realise there’s like 140 more episodes of it. But it is true,

isn’t it? And recently for me, I only just discovered Sleep Token. I know we briefly messaged on Instagram about it, but I only just discovered them. And then to find that they’ve got three albums as well and the EPs, it’s like, oh my days, this is so good.

Tom Beynon (1:20:31)
No, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes.

Yeah.

Alan (1:20:37)
I am so obsessed with

Steve Toker Man. I just think the music is amazing. It’s so multi-genre. It’s like ridiculous. It’s incredible. Love it. Love it.

Tom Beynon (1:20:46)
Yeah, I did go, I had heard them before. I went back to listen to them actually after we spoke about them. And it’s good gym music, some of them, like the heavier sections of that is quite useful in the gym. Yeah, that’s what you have to be quite careful with your songs, because they can be like, from what I’ve heard anyway, they can be like 10 minutes long and there can be like a ballad section and suddenly you’re halfway through a rep and it’s like, don’t need a piano cutting in right now.

Alan (1:20:56)
of some… Yeah, but then some of them it gets that really piano ballad-y as well and like, yeah.

Yeah.

No,

that’s funny. You said you preferred eating over sleeping. What would be your meal on death row? Your last meal on death row.

This is not quick fire Tom. This is not… Tom does not do quick fire.

Tom Beynon (1:21:27)
Don’t do quick fire. Sorry. I guess it’s pizza. I

Don’t do quick fire. I you know people need to take time to really listen to what I’ve got to say Alan No, probably pizza, I think anyone who sees my Instagram will know how obsessed I am with free pizza at weddings So

Alan (1:21:45)
That’s good. You know, I’ve never actually

taken any pizza at a wedding though. Never done it. I know, it’s because I’m saving myself for the McDonald’s on the drive home, I think.

Tom Beynon (1:21:48)
What? Lynn? No, of course,

yeah, no, I, yeah, the free wedding pizza. I gorge myself on that quite a lot.

Alan (1:21:58)
It’s cool. Okay, and let’s do one last question and let’s not it doesn’t have to be quick fire this one So let’s just go yeah, what Tom Tom Bynum What would be your top tips or top tip to help someone become better at the documentary side of what we do? So yeah, there’s specifically a documentary if you had one top tip or any thoughts. Yeah

Tom Beynon (1:22:04)
It won’t be.

Bye.

Yeah,

this definitely can’t be quick fire. I reckon you could have opened with that question and just left me for an hour and you would have come back and found I was still talking because I probably got quite a lot to say on that to be honest. I think you asked this question quite a lot on the podcast and most people’s advice, which is always really good advice, but it’s always like the on the day stuff about like seeing what’s happening, the in-between moments and shooting through moments, which is all important to do. I would say

Alan (1:22:23)
For the whole hour!

Tom Beynon (1:22:48)
Probably the most important thing you can do to be good at documentaries is all the stuff you do before the wedding as well as all the stuff on the day. And what I mean by that is like turning up without an agenda. So if you think you know what the day is going to be like because you’ve been to weddings before and you know basically how they run, if you just turn up with that attitude of kind of knowing what’s going to happen, you will just see the stuff you’re expecting to see and you will photograph the stuff you’re expecting to photograph.

and you’re not going to leave yourself open to seeing the stuff that’s happening in between. So like I said before with the guy who I shot for my first wedding, when he said to me after the speeches, well, that’s the last thing till cake cut now, we can go and sit down for an hour. That’s expecting to see, he’s turned up with an agenda of the speech is finished, then the next thing is the cake cut and first dance. And on that little timeline, as you walk into a wedding where it says,

1pm ceremony and all that kind of stuff. There’s nothing in there. You’ve got the lull. So there’s nothing happening.

because you’ve turned up with that mindset of this is what happens at weddings. So you need to kind of throw all that out of the window. think probably the worst thing I think people do is they compartmentalize the date into those sections. So I’m shooting prep, then I’m shooting your ceremony, then I’m shooting your drink reception, then I’m shooting speeches, then I’m shooting a cake cut, then I’m shooting your first dance, because you just photographed them as you’re expecting to see them. So don’t compartmentalize the day.

Alan (1:23:59)
Yeah.

Tom Beynon (1:24:26)
So when I saw earlier about that first year of second shooting I did in 2019, I remember shooting with a couple of people that I didn’t know. And what I noticed what a lot of people were doing is they were walking into the ceremony after the end of prep, standing at the front of ceremony, waiting for the ceremony to start. And they would just have the camera down and they were just kind of looking around, checking their phone. And then the registrar would say, would everyone please stand? And then the camera would come up.

and they will kind of act in like we’d gone to commercial break and like the wedding wasn’t happening anymore. But everyone at the wedding isn’t paying attention to what section of the day it is, they’re just living their lives and doing the things they’re doing and there’s a groom standing there who’s twiddling his thumbs nervously or he’s chatting to the best man or he’s chatting to his parents and there’s things in there which if you’ve decided that’s not a part of the day that you recognise, you’re not going to see them happening.

So you’re not gonna think to photograph them. And you’ve got to get rid of that compartmentalization of the registrars ask people to stand up. So now the ceremony is starting. It’s like, you’ve got to kind of clear your mind of that and just think you get out of the car at the start of the day. There’s a story to be told. Yes, we’re at a wedding and you kind of know how weddings are gonna go, but try and ignore all of that and just see what’s happening in front of you. And that’s when you’re gonna start seeing all of the little things that.

that you weren’t expecting to happen. And certainly with this reportage, that’s when a lot of the best award-winning moments are going to happen as well. If you want to win a This is Reportage award or a Story Award, it’s not just all of those main beats of the day that you’re expecting to see. If you just photograph all of those standard bits, you’re not going to win a This is Reportage award because you can’t just have bride walks down aisle, first kiss, confetti.

people giving a speech because that’s at every wedding, it’s like what else is happening? That’s the interesting stuff. And you’ve got to get rid of the agenda and the compartmentalization of the day and just think there’s a story, there’s a unique set of people turning up to this day. They’ll never all be in this one place at one time ever again. And there’s something’s going to happen. We don’t know what that is. And because we don’t know what that is, we’ve got to keep alert the whole time to see what’s happening. And if you do that, you will then start to see

Alan (1:26:26)
Mm-hmm.

Tom Beynon (1:26:51)
all of the little moments that are happening and those are the interesting photos. So just keep that mind clear.

Alan (1:26:57)
That is so good dude. That is so good. That is so good. That is so good again. That is so good. Oh man, is just honestly, that is really, really good advice. And you’ve dropped so many advice golden nuggets throughout there, man. It’s been so good. And yeah, thank you so much talking to you.

Tom Beynon (1:27:14)
I’m glad that made sense because it was a bit of stream conscious so I’m not sure if that was too coherent or not.

Alan (1:27:17)
No, it’s perfect. It was so good. I was thinking again,

there are little sound bites in there. It’s really, really good. No, it’s super. It’s really, really, really good advice. And the whole session has been great, man. Really ace talking to you. And you’re going to stick around. We’re going to be doing a video for just this Reportage members where Tom’s going to talk about all his award-winning images, which is going to be super, I know. yeah, head to thisrepetage.com to see that if you’re a member or join. And man, I hope to see you in the flesh this year. I don’t know when next time I’m going to see you, but.

Tom Beynon (1:27:23)
Yeah, that’s good.

Yeah, I’m having a bit of time away from workshops and conferences at the moment, so I won’t be at Doc Day. yeah, apart from the one I’m speaking at, I’ll make an appearance to speak. I’m not going to Doc Day this year, I’m afraid, so I will not see you there. Nothing against Doc Day, which is amazing. I’ve been to the last three and they’re really good. But I’ve just decided to go to Nine Dots back in November either, just because after Covid.

Alan (1:27:52)
Apart from speaking yourself, yeah. Apart from speaking yourself like that. Yeah.

No, I’m missing.

Tom Beynon (1:28:15)
I heavily got into workshops and conferences and I basically did like three days in three years, three nine dots. went to way up north. I’ve done your workshop, which is excellent and everyone should go on your workshop. And a few other kind of one day things. And I’ve just kind of workshopped out. So probably the.

Alan (1:28:25)
No, thank you.

Yeah, I get that. I get it. Well, maybe at

the Christmas party if we do that this year or, but I hope to see you this year. Well, I’ve not organised one yet, but maybe. We had a fallow year last year, so maybe this year. Yeah, we’ll see. I don’t know. Or I’m thinking maybe even like a summer meetup as well. I don’t know. We’ll see. We’ll see. But yeah, I hope to see you, man. I hope see you in the flesh, but yeah. But we’re to talk more in a minute anyway. But yeah, thank you so much for joining me, dudes. And yeah, all the best and thanks everyone for listening.

Tom Beynon (1:28:38)
I was going to ask is it a Christmas party in December because you’ve dodged it yeah? Yeah.

Yeah, hopefully, yeah.

Thank you.

Alan (1:29:04)
going to such a high bye voice in there anyway but yeah. Bye man. Right.

Tom Beynon (1:29:06)
Thanks.