Supplier Spotlight - E&O Photo

A new week, a new opportunity for you, dear reader, to meet a fantastic supplier - or in this case, a pair of them! I am so pleased to introduce you to the powerhouse that is E&O Photo. It’s the brainchild of two (in their own words) ‘quite tall, quite hairy’, but incredibly talented and charming men, who wanted to bring something different to the wedding photography industry.

Jake & Tim - E&O Photo - Photo by Tom Russell

I’ve known Tim for quite some time, and have always known him to be forever passionate about photography - many of his photos grace this very website (thanks again Tim, I still get so many compliments about them to this day)! He teamed up with his fellow photographer and friend Jake, and together they began E&O Photo. As a team, they strive to document your wedding day exactly as it naturally was, and it shines out in the images that fill their website and (may I say, awe-inspiring) Instagram. Gone are the traditional photos that fill your parents wedding albums, and here are the creative, joyful and FUN images that scream personality and love, with you at the forefront.

On a more personal note, one of the other wonderful things about Jake & Tim is that they are so themselves in all they do. They aren’t afraid to talk candidly about the industry, including the current lockdown and it’s affect on them as a business, and it’s a truthfulness and vulnerability that makes them all the more brilliant. They value and love what they do, and they are passionate about the future of not only themselves and E&O Photo, but also the wider community and social interaction with suppliers. It’s this openness, as well as their sheer talent and drive, that makes them not just a pair of great photographers on your day, but friends that strive to get the best out of you as a couple, and you can tell each wedding betters them too. I can’t wait to watch them grow, and you too can keep up to date with them via all the links at the bottom of this page!

Firstly, please introduce yourself!
Hey! We’re Tim & Jake, and we photograph weddings under the name E&O. We’re a pair of south London boys!

Why and how did you get started?
The idea for E&O came about in December 2016, whilst we were drinking coffee and being fed up with working in retail around Christmas.
We’d both photographed a few weddings before, but it had always felt a bit odd, like being a stranger at someone else’s party. Wouldn’t it be more fun to have your housemate with you, not only so you have someone to talk to, but someone that you trust to get all the shots that you can’t get yourself.
From there we got to brainstorming some ideas, managed to convince a few friends of friends to have us along to photograph their weddings,
and the rest, as they say, is history.

Describe your style in 3 words!
Story-Telling, Emotive, Candid

Tell us about the first wedding you photographed…
It was a lot of fun, although a bit nerve wracking. Once we got going, everything fell in to place and it was pretty smooth sailing, and it was, fortunately, a beautiful summer’s day, with pretty perfect weather. We were lucky enough in that the couple were friends of Jake’s, so there was a nice bit of rapport there, and it wasn’t awkward or difficult. We had a bit of a fright where the venue switched off all of the lights for the first dance, but we managed to get some great stuff, and it all turned out okay. Getting in to the car when we were finished felt like a milestone in our careers for sure!

What’s the biggest lesson you have learnt along the way?
Less is more. We started shooting weddings with a tonne of gear, 2 camera bodies with two huge zooms on there. After 8 hours of running around after the couple or chasing guests, we started to flag and we’re not getting any younger! We now shoot with one body and a prime lens for more flexibility and to save our old man backs. The same goes for our whole ethos for shooting weddings; the day is not about photographs, so we try and stay out of the way as much as possible, and document things as they happen. The less we interfere with the day, the better. Nobody likes pushy wedding photographers.

Highlight of your career (so far)!
Just picking one is so tricky! I think I’m going to personally echo Lewis (Membery) and say for me, it was being able to go full time.
I had worked in retail for numerous years whilst plugging away at photography.
(Jake would like to pop up here and agree that not having to fold t-shirts anymore is a real treat, and that the lovely things our couples say when they get their photos is especially kind on the ego!)

One bit of advice you’d give to your couples when it comes to planning a wedding.
It can be very easy to want to please your guests in every aspect of wedding planning, by trying to plan something that they will really enjoy, but at the end of the day, it’s your wedding. Try and make sure that the day reflects who you are as a couple, instead of what you think a wedding should be. If you want an unusual dress, you go for it sis. If you want to elope and get married in a forest, do that! It’s your day, don’t waste your energy worrying about other people!

What does a wedding day look like for you?
Typically speaking we will travel together to the wedding, stopping for coffee obviously, and arriving around 2 hours before the ceremony. We like to arrive with enough time to have a nose around the venue, especially if we’ve not been there before, before any guests arrive. Then we’ll start shooting, Jake is usually with the bride as she gets ready, and I am with the groom. From there we shoot all the normal aspects of a wedding - you know how they go - up until the first dance, where we scurry off and head home for a cuppa and a biscuit (or 5). After we have photographed a wedding, we select and edit our own photos, before meeting up and putting them in to the right order over coffee and cake, which is always a nice way to finish up a job.

What are your hopes and dreams for the future?
At the minute, I hope we can actually get back to work this year haha. The current situation with
Covid-19 has obviously devastated the wedding industry, and we’re no different in that regard!
We’d love to shoot more destination weddings! We had 3 lined up for this year and couldn’t wait to travel further afield but then the thing (you know the one) happened, so they have been postponed unfortunately. We photographed a wedding in Liverpool in 2018 and it was super fun going up a day early and exploring the city.

And finally, what’s your favourite bit of a Wedding Day?
As photographers, we’re lucky enough to be able to witness the whole day and get glimpses of the more private moments.
Jake loves covering the bridal prep whilst I go with the Grooms. Taking the couple away for the couple portraits is always great as well, getting the opportunity to get the creative juices flowing to produce beautiful images for the couples.

Thank you so so so much to both Tim and Jake for being a part of Supplier Spotlight.
You can find their website and Instagram below - do give them a follow and say hey!

www.eophoto.co

@eophoto.co