Professional wedding photographers/videographers and bffs, Pete & Laura Lawson and Liam & Bee Crawley invite you to join them for a morning coffee. They'll be chatting all things work and life.
Liam and Bee have recently moved and we all now live in the same little village; not quite the commune we always used to talk about but we do get to hang out every day. This podcast is an offshoot of our daily conversations, sometimes creatively inspiring, sometimes just having a good moan, but always fun.
Are your couples actually enjoying their wedding? When did the real wedding day stop being enough? Can we help couples see that their actual life is worth capturing over a day-long wedding shot-list?
This week Pete, Laura and Bee dig into a wedding in the Scottish Borders where the couple wanted no posing, no portraits and no social media, and why it made Pete work harder (and enjoy the day more) than ever. It leads into a bigger debate: are flat lays and long shot lists something couples really want, or something they’ve seen online?
How much should we educate couples about what posed photos cost them in time on the day, and when does guidance become patronising? And why does so much “documentary” wedding content look exactly the same? Our fear is that couples are seeing so many aspirational images that they can become focused on re-creating these perfect images at the expense of living their own unique moments (and taking a risk these are missed).
We also tackle editing. With couples asking for suits to be refitted, bags removed and bows fixed in every frame, how much retouching is now expected, and where do you draw the line?
Also this week: Liam is off learning to be a motorbike instructor, the never-ending editing list, and the return of midweek weddings. We turn down enquiries for Silverstone weekend, shoot a wholesome christening, and hear about Liam’s first roll of film (and the frames he wasted finishing it) and flash floods in Spain.
Pete explains how Claude rebuilt our LUTs and presets, while Bee sticks with ChatGPT and its slightly underwhelming Monday briefings. Plus highs and lows, including autumn TV, table tennis ups and downs, and the best flask ever made.
Our Creative Commune is four wedding photographers and filmmakers chatting about photography, videography and the wedding industry, just like we do over coffee most mornings.
Do you guide your couples on timings and posed shots, or let them lead? Let us know, and if you enjoyed the episode, please like, subscribe and leave us a review.
Are those "best wedding photographers of the year" lists really the best, or just a list of who paid to advertise?
This week Pete, Laura, Liam and Bee dig into the backlash against a big industry list: accusations that it's pay to play, complaints that everyone on it shoots the same on-trend editorial style, and why the wedding industry seems to be splitting into bubbles that each crown their own favourites. Would we do any better if we made our own Top 50? (no, we'd never agree.)
That leads into a bigger conversation about being open-minded after 20 years in the industry. Why do suppliers keep telling couples what they won't want, especially when it comes to content creators? Is there such a thing as good light, or is it all taste? And are we allowed to call a photo unprofessional, or are we just turning into the grumpy old guard who once refused to do spot colour?
Also this week: Liam's trusty Canon 35mm dies mid-wedding and he upgrades to the RF 35mm VCM, we ask for your recommendations on where to get lenses repaired in the UK, Pete shoots two new Scottish castles, Bee and her mum stumble into a Blackpool bingo brunch, Laura's mum used to walk elephants on Blackpool beach, we discuss whether folding phones might finally bring landscape back, and the quiet winter looms as the wedding season winds down. Plus a robot cat litter tray, a last-minute booking bonded over fruit flies, and our highs and lows of the week.
Our Creative Commune is a relaxed catch-up between four wedding photographers and filmmakers, chatting all things photography, videography and the wedding industry, like friends over a coffee (or tonight, a glass of wine).
Where do you get your lenses fixed? Let us know!
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro and Blackpool with Bee's mum
07:43 Photographer meetups and filming in Blackpool
10:31 Pete's two Scottish castle weddings
15:02 Liam's Herefordshire wedding
Is Your Wedding Photographer Too Old For You?
Episode 137
Monday, September 14, 2026 • Duration 40:23
A pair of LA photographers went viral for all the wrong reasons with a post telling couples their wedding photographer is too old for them, and explaining why Gen Z couples need Gen Z photographers and videographers. It got deleted, it got apologised for, and it got us talking. Is there anything in it, or is it just generational nonsense dressed up as marketing? We are, as usual, about the last people in the industry to get round to discussing it.
We look into the claim that younger suppliers speak the same visual language as their couples, with the massive contradiction buried inside - the current wedding aesthetic is nostalgia for a time Gen Z never lived. We suspect they've mixed up age with cultural fluency. You can absolutely be twenty-five or fifty-five and be making exactly the same work.
Has age ever changed how we shoot or how we connect with a couple? Since starting at age 21, we've always just ended up bonding with the parents first. Maybe we're just old souls. There's also now this really annoying problem; we're proud of having shot weddings for over 20 years, but that also makes us sound sixty on our websites.
Before that we catch up after an accidental two month disappearance, compare backlogs (48 items on one to-do list, ten weddings deep), and run through a summer of travel including a wedding near Paris with a two hour ceremony, eight plus speeches, surprise fireworks and a boat trip that meant abandoning a full camera setup mid day. Laura shoots her first roll of Super 8 with a broken light meter and guesses the exposure all day long, we weigh up whether film only bookings are worth the risk, and we get into the TikTok row about couples writing wedding speeches with AI.
Plus tennis elbow, a dead boiler, no sleep, and Bee's spiky cucumbers.
Timestamps:
00:00 Welcome back after an accidental two month break
02:53 The run up to Christmas is the worst part of the year
03:23 48 items on the to-do list and ten weddings still to edit
06:01 Where everyone has been shooting this summer
Is the summer booking lull actually real?
Episode 136
Monday, July 20, 2026 • Duration 01:02:28
Is the summer booking lull real, or is it all in your head?
This week the Commune is back in the garden (briefly) to unpick why enquiries seem to vanish in peak season, why couples always book the second you go on holiday, and why raising your prices might be the easiest win you're avoiding.
Along the way: whether the European heat is quietly killing summer destination weddings, a genuine ding-dong about how much AI belongs in a premium wedding business, the death of the hashtag and where Instagram reach actually comes from now, and Pete's theory that a COVID relationship gap is behind the quiet patch (and why the floodgates are about to open again).
Plus the anxiety that never quite leaves this job, a missing bride with no phone signal, a Japanese wedding pint race, and the hotel Liam booked without realising everyone else would be naked.
Honest, unfiltered chat about wedding photography, videography and running a creative business, from four people who actually do it for a living. Grab a coffee and settle in.
Timestamps
00:00 Welcome and a rare sunny garden
01:43 Air con obsessives vs the camping tent
03:48 A 40 degree wedding in Spain
04:38 Is the heat killing summer destination weddings?
07:56 The hotel Liam didn't realise was a naturist resort
12:36 The missing bride at Iscoyd Park
16:08 Why every wedding still makes you anxious
20:14 A Japanese wedding, a pint race and language shame
22:39 A weekend off and a run of last minute bookings
25:42 Is the summer booking lull real or all in our heads?
Charging Couples for Privacy?
Episode 135
Monday, July 6, 2026 • Duration 57:33
Happy birthday to us! Our Creative Commune turns four this episode, and Bee's marked the occasion with a homemade cake and a look back at four years and well over a hundred episodes of the podcast. But birthday chat aside, this one's got plenty in it.
The team compares notes on surviving back-to-back weddings in a proper heatwave (electrolytes, hotel rooms with zero aircon and one particularly ill-advised propped-open door), talks through why a hired zoom lens didn't live up to a trusty 35mm prime, and shares stories from a stretch of weddings that took in a sweltering Jewish ceremony in a listed barn, a sunny Tuscan estate, and a very loud town hall ceremony that got soundtracked by the bar next door.
The main event this week is a proper debate sparked by a TikTok claiming the wedding industry is "cooked" because photographers charge extra to keep couples' images out of marketing. The team breaks down what UK GDPR actually says about using wedding photos commercially, why consent matters more than most people realise, and whether charging for privacy is ever fair, alongside genuine reasons couples ask for it and why you some photographers never post photos of children.
There's also a chat about guests becoming noticeably more camera aware, a surprising discovery about eyesight and viewfinders, and the usual round of highs and lows, including a recurring ankle injury that's becoming a running joke.
Timestamps:
00:00 Birthday celebrations and four years of the podcast
04:41 Coping with a heatwave on wedding days
10:23 Why a hired zoom lens didn't make the cut
13:53 A run of weddings: Harrow, Spain and an old friend's big day
17:04 Bee's new (old) film camera
18:08 The town hall ceremony that got gate crashed by the bar next door
20:26 Convertible Mini chaos in Spain
21:22 A hot wedding in Tuscany
Finally putting our prices up!
Episode 134
Monday, June 22, 2026 • Duration 53:16
Drone audits, drizzle disasters, and the eternal question of whether putting your prices up is ever a good idea. This week Pete, Laura, Liam and Bee dive into Pete's upcoming CAA drone audit and the surprisingly strict "flying currency" rules that come with it, before getting into a deep discussion on shooting weddings in bad weather, including the bride who left a bad review because it was too sunny, and the violinist who nearly walked out over a bit of drizzle.
The conversation moves into the business side of things, with Bee and Liam unpacking a recent price increase that coincided with enquiries dropping off a cliff, and whether that's down to pricing, a fiddled Google Ads budget, or just a quiet patch. There's also a chat about website portfolios, ad spend, and Pete and Laura's attempt to make their photography site sound less negative without losing what makes it them.
On the gear side, Liam debates renting an expensive lens for a castle wedding in Spain, Pete and Laura talk through their new 85mm lens and a Lightroom preset fix using Claude AI, and the group ends up arguing about which AI chatbot has the best personality. Plus reunion highs, root canal lows, and a real-time cat-versus-bird incident that derails the recording entirely.
As always, it's highs, lows, and everything in between for wedding photographers and videographers trying to navigate the job, the business, and each other.
Timestamps:
00:00 Cold open: memory card chaos and a lost SD card
02:01 Pete's CAA drone audit and the flying currency requirement
05:51 Eyeing up a new drone after seeing one at a wedding
06:46 Liam's Scotland wedding at Dunglass Estate
07:55 The sock-on-the-smoke-alarm pub incident
09:49 Pete's rainy Watermouth Cove wedding in Devon
11:06 Handling bad weather and difficult outdoor ceremonies
12:42 The violinist who nearly walked out
Do Your Couples Actually Feel Cared For?
Episode 133
Monday, June 8, 2026 • Duration 49:40
What does it actually mean to care about your couples? Not in a vague, wholesome sense - but practically, between the booking email and the wedding day? This week the four of us are back together after a busy stretch of weddings (and one very long drive to Skye), and this question pops up in most of what we're talking about today.
Liam kicks things off with tales from the road - a 22-hour round trip to the Isle of Skye for a four-hour elopement, accommodation that shared a building with a funeral director, and a mid-ceremony nature emergency that he handled with more resourcefulness than dignity. There's also the heartwarming news that Bee's daughter Betty shot her very first wedding and, by all accounts, absolutely smashed it.
Pete and Laura relive their Paris trip - a 1920s indoor fairground, a ringmaster officiant, Britney-soundtracked backup dancers, and the "Inception bridge" - before the whole group spirals into debating whether they should all move to Scotland (Pete: no; midges: also no).
From there, things get deep: a recent opinion arguing that photographers and videographers should position themselves as "creative leads" on wedding days. The group picks that apart honestly - where the idea has merit, why it mostly doesn't work (for us), and what actually happens when the makeup artist is still doing BTS portraits while you're trying to shoot.
Pete raises something that's been coming up in consults lately: couples are booking "editorial" photographers thinking the word signals a natural, unposed approach - because "documentary" now sounds old-fashioned to them - when editorial often means the opposite. The terminology has become almost meaningless. It's the same problem that existed when everyone called themselves documentary photographers but still whisked couples away for two hours of portraits.
And then: a TikTok from a wedding-industry bride saying no vendor made her feel cared about. Do we? Should we be doing more between booking and the big day - automated check-ins, WhatsApp groups, gifts? Or does showing up fully and delivering exceptional work speak louder than any amount of pre-wedding communication?
Honest, warm, and occasionally extremely disgusting - this is a good one.
Less Website, More Bookings
Episode 132
Monday, May 25, 2026 • Duration 48:45
There's a photographer out there who has received 430 enquiries since January. We don't fully know how she's doing it - and that's kind of the point. Is this level of success replicable, or largely accidental?
This week Pete, Laura, and Bee dig into what's really going on in the wedding photography and videography market right now: why some people seem to break through while everyone else is fighting for scraps, whether your website might actually be working against you, and the uncomfortable truth about pricing: most of us haven't raised our rates in nearly a decade, even as everything around us has got more expensive.
We also get into a debate that's been doing the rounds on photographer socials: where does your responsibility end for how your couples look in photos? Should you be straightening ties, smoothing dresses, and fixing every wrinkle - or is that just not the job? With AI making clients think any edit is a simple fix, is that expectation about to get a whole lot worse?
Plus: Bee's extraordinary doctor's appointment, Pete and Laura reflect on what it feels like to shoot a wedding together again, Bee & Liam's daughter Betty is about to second shoot her first wedding, and Liam is, once again, somewhere on a motorway.
Honest, unfiltered chat for wedding photographers who are trying to figure it all out alongside everyone else.
Timestamps
00:00 - Intro: post-yoga chaos and sweaty coats
03:00 - Saturday's wedding at Middleton Lodge - why it felt like the good old days
06:40 - The joy of switching between photo and video
09:00 - Upcoming schedule: Paris, half term weddings, and Scotland
09:59 - Liam's Isle of Skye elopement: 11.5 hours of driving, and the great mattress debate
11:19 - Betty's first wedding as second shooter
Please, stop making it so hard to book you
Episode 131
Monday, May 11, 2026 • Duration 54:25
Half the episode was recorded before anyone noticed the mic wasn't on. That's the vibe this week.
Pete, Laura, and Bee (Liam is off conquering Scotland and London simultaneously) are talking about the real pressures hitting the wedding industry right now - and what, if anything, we can do about it. Bookings are shifting. Budgets are tighter. Midweek and shorter-coverage weddings are on the rise. And one person out there reckons full-time wedding photography might not even be viable anymore.
Then there's the ghosting. Bee's Instagram post on the subject got 30,000 views and 122 comments, almost entirely from suppliers saying same. So why is it happening - and is it actually couples being rude, or are we just making the booking process too hard? The Coda Podcast gets a mention, contact forms get a roasting, and Zoom calls are on trial.
They also untangle the word "editorial" - which apparently now means "natural and relaxed" to couples, despite meaning the opposite to everyone who actually shoots it. And when a content creator couple rocked up in a Lake Como wedding group claiming to be the only people capturing candid, in-between moments, the documentary photographers and videographers in the room had some thoughts.
Plus: Bee's Super 8 film comes back from the lab. Pete's British Gas bill arrives and it is not good news. Table tennis glory. And the completely startling realisation that this podcast is nearly four years old. Oh, and then we end with Pete being packed off to live on a narrowboat survivng on only Huel, and no cushions.
Timestamps
00:00 - Didn't record the first half, Pilates is evil, and Liam is everywhere at once
01:50 - Work lethargy: the post-holiday slump is real
04:07 - The Mandela Effect: both Pete and Bee have vivid memories of uploading galleries that never happened
08:05 - The state of the wedding industry: midweek bookings, shorter coverage, tighter budgets
Should We Stop Doing Client Zooms?
Episode 130
Monday, April 27, 2026 • Duration 57:47
The busy season has officially arrived, and we are already feeling the heat (literally and figuratively).
This week on Our Creative Commune, Pete, Laura, Liam, and Bee sit down in the sun to catch up on a wild few weeks of local weddings, destination showcases, and the ever-changing landscape of booking clients. Are we all suffering from Zoom fatigue? We debate whether it’s time to stop video consultations altogether and build a brand enigma instead.
We also share some wild on-the-job stories, including a dream local shoot at Rivington Barn, the chaos of tracking fire-breathers in Spain, and Liam’s incredibly awkward encounter with a "secret" second photographer hired by the mother of the bride. Plus, we dive into some massive business milestones - including the joy of finally paying off that dreaded COVID bounce-back loan!
Grab a coffee (or a matcha) and join us as we chat through our highs, our lows, Pete's foray into the EV world, the heartbreak of airport security ruining analog film, and a surprisingly mind-blowing fact about apples.
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and review on your favourite podcast app - it really helps us grow the commune!
Chapter Timestamps
00:00 - Catching rays and the start of the busy season
03:20 - Zoom fatigue and changing client booking psychology
05:13 - A dream local photo & video shoot at Rivington Barn
11:10 - Bosh! Smashing out a one-week video edit turnaround
13:26 - Wedding horror story: Dealing with a secret second photographer
17:18 - A rapid road trip to France and scanning questionable family negatives
19:30 - Destination wedding showcase at Castell d'Empordà in Spain
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