Priston Mill Wedding Photographer

Priston Mill is two venues in one hidden valley six miles south-west of Bath, on the Duchy of Cornwall’s Newton Park estate: the eighteenth-century Tythe Barn, a stone barn with far-reaching views that seats up to a hundred and fifty, and the Watermill, which has stood on the stream since at least the tenth century and suits smaller weddings. The mill has hosted weddings since 1992 and it shows in the way the day runs. I photographed a May wedding in the Tythe Barn, with the gardens at their best.

It’s a place that gives a photographer a lot without asking anything in return: the barn’s stone and timber, the gardens and the pagoda for the drinks, the stream and the mill wheel for a quiet portrait, and the hills around for the big picture at the end of the day. Confetti on the barn steps and sparklers at the end are both Priston traditions, and both make good pictures.

How I photograph a wedding

Documentary first. I don’t run the day or stage it; I pay attention to it, and I keep the formal part to ten minutes of group photographs and twenty minutes of portraits in the best light we can find. Natural light, no flash during ceremonies, and editing that will still look right in twenty years. I take a limited number of weddings a year, which is partly how I get to give each one my full attention.