Photo Chat with Matt

This week I wanted to ask a really simple question: are you better than you were a year ago? I’m not just talking about money, bookings, followers, or whether you bought a new camera. I mean are you actually better at what you do? Are you a better photographer? Are you better with people? Are you calmer when things go wrong? Are you better at running your business? Are you happier with the life yo...

That’s the question I wanted to talk about this week, because I think fear holds us back from way more than we realize. Maybe you know you should raise your prices, but you’re worried the bookings will stop. Maybe you want to change your style, try film, move into a different niche, start something new, or finally go after an idea you’ve had in your head for ages. A lot of the time, we already kno...

“Community over competition” gets thrown around all the time in photography, but I wanted to actually talk about what it means to me. I don’t think being part of a community means you have to stop being competitive. I want to do well. I want bookings. I want to make more money, improve my work, grow my business and be the best version of myself I can be. I think healthy competition is a good thing...

I photographed a wedding in Italy, spent some time in Firenze, then came home to a hotel with no power the night before photographing another wedding in West Sussex, England. It was quite a week. This week on Photo Chat with Matt, I’m catching up on the Italy trip, what it was like photographing a wedding abroad, the flight home and the power cut that made getting ready for my next wedding a bit m...

This week I’m joined by my good friend and fellow photographer James Evans, recording from the middle of Tuscany just a few hours before we photographed his sister’s wedding. We didn’t really have a plan for this one, so we just sat down and chatted about photography. We talk about our nightmare journey to Italy, shooting destination weddings, how we prepare for a wedding day, backup cameras, hars...

We’ve made it to episode 100 of Photo Chat with Matt. For this one, I wanted to look back through every episode I’ve recorded since starting the podcast in 2024 and pull out one thing I’ve learned, talked about or still believe from each one. So this episode is 100 lessons from the last couple of years of photography, wedding photography, running a business, creativity, confidence, client experien...

This week I wanted to ask a pretty simple question: would you actually hire yourself to photograph your own wedding? It got me thinking about everything that comes with being a wedding photographer beyond just taking nice photos. Would I like the way I communicate? Would I actually want myself around all day? Would I feel comfortable being photographed by me? Would I be happy with the way I handle...

A bonus episode this week about something I feel quite strongly about in business: I don’t think saving money should ever come at the expense of your client experience. I talk about things like deleting online galleries after a certain amount of time just to save on storage, overselling people into bigger photography packages than they actually need, charging for every tiny extra, and cutting corn...

This week I wanted to talk about something that’s been on my mind a lot recently: following the crowd, waiting for permission and putting things off because you think there’ll be a better time later. I talk about how easy it is in photography to copy what everyone else is doing because it feels safe. The same trends, the same ideas, the same way of running a business. But if everyone is doing the...

I think a lot of us say we want to improve as photographers, but how often do we actually stop and ask ourselves what are we doing to make that happen ? In this episode, I'm talking about the difference between being busy and actually getting better, why copying everyone else can keep you stuck, and how easy it is to focus on the wrong things in your business. We get caught up in cameras, lens...

This is a bonus episode where I’m just chatting about motivation, discipline and how I actually keep myself on track running a photography business. I think there can be a weird pressure that photographers put on themselves to constantly be working. Answering emails at midnight, working every weekend, never taking a day off and making everyone believe you’re grinding 24/7. I’m not really intereste...

What do you do when a wedding is running an hour behind? What happens when a couple doesn't like their photos? How do you deal with a guest who keeps getting in your way? What if you realise you've missed an important photograph? What happens when a client asks for the RAW files? And what do you do when something goes seriously wrong? I'm going through some of the most common problems...

What are you actually bad at? I know, it's probably not the nicest question to ask yourself, but I think it's one that's worth asking every now and then. We spend so much time talking about our strengths, our best photos, our bookings and everything we're doing well, but how often do we actually sit down and admit where we're struggling? In this episode of Photo Chat with Matt,...

Over the last few years, I've realised that the biggest changes in my photography business haven't come from buying a new camera or finding some magic marketing trick. They've come from changing the way I think. In this episode, I'm chatting through some of the mindsets that have genuinely changed my life, from the way I make decisions about money to how I deal with setbacks, succe...

I thought I'd just sit down, press record, and have a proper catch up. Let's chat about a couple of brilliant weddings I've photographed recently, a journey home that seemed determined to go wrong, and one of the most inspiring people I've ever met at a wedding. The first wedding took me down to London for an elopement, wandering around places like Tower Bridge and the South Bank with a lovely cou...

For a long time, I thought I knew what success looked like. Being recognized. Growing an audience. Making more money. Having people know who you are and feeling like you've finally reached a point where you can say, "I've made it." But the older I get, the more my idea of success has changed. In this episode, I reflect on a time when I experienced what I thought was success after...

After a few really busy weeks shooting weddings, I've realised something... I'm genuinely excited about photography again. In this episode, I wanted to chat about where that inspiration has come from because it definitely wasn't one big thing. It was lots of small things that all came together. Watching Toy Story 5 reminded me how powerful storytelling can be. I started adapting my vin...

This week's episode is exactly what the podcast was named for. Just a good old photo chat. I'm catching you up on a few things I've been trying recently, including the new Insta360 GO 3S, my latest AirPods, and why I've completely fallen in love with using Pro Mist filters at weddings. We chat about buying gear with intention, avoiding unnecessary upgrades, and focusing on equipmen...

Whether you realise it or not, the way you talk about yourself and your business has a huge impact on how other people see you. In this episode of Photo Chat with Matt, I'm talking about confidence, personal branding, and why photographers need to stop making themselves smaller than they really are. From calling it your "little business" to apologising for your prices, I think far to...

In this episode, I'm talking about something I think photographers spend far too much time worrying about: things that clients simply do not care about. From camera gear and social media metrics to editing labels, photography awards, website tweaks and pixel peeping, there are so many things photographers obsess over that make little or no difference to the actual client experience. Meanwhile,...

Being a wedding photographer comes with a huge amount of responsibility, and in this episode of Photo Chat with Matt, I’m talking about the standards I think our industry should be holding itself to. Lately, I’ve seen more and more stories about photographers missing weddings, forgetting bookings, turning up late, gear failing with no backups, and blaming things like calendar apps or poor organiza...

Nearly missing a wedding ceremony because of a parking mistake was not how I planned to start my photography career. In this week’s episode, I’m sharing some of the biggest mistakes, funniest moments, hardest lessons, and most chaotic experiences I’ve had as a wedding photographer over the years. This episode is much more of a relaxed conversation than a structured teaching episode. Just real stor...

In today’s episode of Photo Chat with Matt, I’m chatting about a recent trip to the dentist that randomly turned into a much bigger thought about photography businesses, client experience, and the way we treat people. I went in for what turned out to be a tiny issue that took less than a minute to check. I paid the consultation fee, completely understood why there was a charge, but I still left th...

I'm chatting through my top tips for photographing a wedding, straight off the back of this season and honestly just years of figuring it out the hard way. This one is basically me pulling apart everything that actually makes a wedding day feel calm, controlled, and creative without you spiraling or trying to micromanage every second of it. Prep before the day, reading the room when you get th...

I’ve been scrolling Instagram a lot recently and I swear I keep seeing the same reel over and over again… just from different photographers. Same edits, same poses, same transitions, same kind of vibe. And at the same time I’m seeing people say they’re not getting bookings or not getting noticed, and I honestly think the two are probably linked more than people realize. This isn’t me having a go a...