Evolve Photography is one of the most experienced and highly recommended photographers in the South West. They specialise in providing high quality, good value wedding photography also providing videos to compliment your photos as well. Here they share their story along with some in-depth advice on choosing a photographer based on years of experience!

What do you need to know from an organiser in order to provide a comprehensive quote?

To provide a comprehensive and competitive quote we would ideally require the customer to provide the location of the event, an idea of the amount of coverage required in terms of time, and if possible an estimated start and finish time and what the client is looking to achieve from the images. This could involve providing a brief of the event and proposed use of the images afterwards. Based on this information we can plan the shoot concisely and provide a stunning set of images on brief at a budget to suit the customer.

What advice would you give to a customer looking to hire a provider in your area of work?

My advice would be to try and source a photographer with good provenance, a proven track record & the portfolio & reviews to back them up. Try and find a full-time professional photographer who is experienced in the field of work you are aiming to commission. For example, a sports photographer might take amazing photographs of a football match but the skills needed to photograph sport are quick reactions and a full understanding of the game, people skills needed in the organizing or coercing of subjects for a PR shoot might not be their forte. A professional photographer cannot be the master of all genres of the discipline, so try and find a good match for your job.

Please tell us a little bit about how and why you started the business.

Evolve Photography was created in the year 2000. I had already been a professional, full-time photographer for 10 years prior to this, learning my trade and gaining experience working for another photographer. I saw a gap in the market, and once I had enough experience to feel confident on my own I set out to fill it. The photographers in our area seemed to be very inflexible with their work, preferring to have a set rate and a set way of working. My first year was a success just by offering something different, a friendly and flexible approach. A lot of photographers also had the reputation of being quite bossy, so I broke that mould and did what comes naturally to me, I traded off of my friendly approachable personality and it has served me well ever since.

Please tell us about a booking you've had through Add to Event, how did it go? Would you recommend us to others?

Referring to an intimate wedding booking I have received, the couple had sourced ALL of their suppliers from Add To Event. I had been recommended to try t Add to Event by a colleague who raved about it & so I signed up.
The lovely couple were from Hertfordshire and their event was in Devon and they told me how invaluable it was to be able to source suppliers from another county without crawling through the Google listings, the whole event was booked from one place.
This worked really well for all of those involved in their event as the venue they had booked was relatively new and a lot of couples were only using suppliers who had previously worked there and were recommended by the venue.
The 5-star review they provided me will hopefully go on to ensure many more bookings from Add to Event and I hope to prosper as more people use Add to Event for their event planning.