April Payne turned down New York Bridal Fashion Week the week her daughter's first theater show fell on the same Friday and she'll never regret it. An honest conversation about what a creative career actually costs when you also have people at home who need you.

April is a Houston-based wedding and editorial photographer who describes her work as "taking pictures of good parties." We talk about her route in from the oil and gas industry with a master's in English to seven seasons shooting weddings. The diminishment that can come with parenthood, the FOMO that runs both ways when you're away on weekends, and why, for both of us, building a business you can live inside has meant working with fewer people, not more.

In this episode I talk with Yazmine May, a wedding photographer whose work is grounded in human connection, cultural traditions, and a distinctly film-forward approach. We unpack how Yasmin moved from a decade in finance into photography and how motherhood, COVID, and a camera that had been sitting unused became the catalyst.

A big thread running through the conversation is feeling over settings. Yazmine describes working intuitively: knowing when to step in with gentle direction and when to step back and let moments unfold, with an emphasis on presence, observation, and people being able to “speak” through images.

Today I am joined by London-based photographer Sophie Davidson, whose work spans author portraits, musician portraits, and editorial commissions. In recent years, weddings have become a significant part of Sophie’s practice, and they have approached that shift with the same guiding idea that runs through all their portrait work: make the person in front of the camera feel comfortable enough to be themselves.

We talk about Sophie’s reactive approach to portrait sessions, and why they avoid over-planning in favor of responding to the person in front of them. A simple but powerful tactic is asking someone which side of their face they prefer. It signals that the point of the session is not to “create” a version of them, but to make them look good in the way they already understand themselves.

During the episode, we discuss how Charlotte transitioned from a successful career as a fashion designer to wedding photography, her unconventional journey through the creative industries, and her commitment to shooting almost exclusively on film in an increasingly digital landscape.

Reliable income funds creative experimentation.

Talented London-based photographer Haris Ahmed tells us how he managed to fund his and comedy/celebrity photography with corporate, startup and event photography!