What a year 2023 has been! I was honoured to be named one of the best wedding photographers in the world AND one of the best documentary wedding photographers in the UK by This Is Reportage, the world’s largest documentary wedding photography competition! Not bad for a Nottingham wedding photographer, I’d say.
I was placed in This is Reportage’s Top 20 Photographers in the World, Top 10 Photographers in the UK, and Top 10 Storytellers! (mind blown)
I was also placed in the Top 10 wedding photographers of the year with Photographers Keeping it Real, recognising me as one of the best wedding photographers in the UK.
Both competitions (This is Reportage and Photographers Keeping it Real) showcase the world’s best wedding photos, where nothing staged and nothing posed is allowed – pure documentary photography. Photos like this can only be captured with a hands-off approach to photographing weddings. One of the reasons couples book me is that they don’t want to have their day turned into a photoshoot.
Thanks so much to all my amazing couples who trusted me to capture the spirit of their wedding, all the excitement, joy and random in-between moments! I’ve peppered the post with some of the wonderful things my couples had to say about their photos, you can read all the full 5-star reviews on my Google My Business profile HERE
To help with the selection of photos for this post because it was SO difficult after having shot 30 amazing weddings, I have only selected images based on the below:
1) does the photo make me feel happy 2) do I think it’s cool 3) Context – can the viewer tell what was going on in the photo even though they weren’t there to fill in the blanks (this is all part of good storytelling).
So, with that said, here are my 100 best documentary wedding photos of 2023.
Some of the venues that I have shot at this year have included: the Walled Garden, Pumping House, Whatton House, Carriage Hall, Langar Hall, Mythe Barn, The Hall Barns, Hazel Gap Barn, Prestwold Hall, Allington Manor, Norwood Park, grand church weddings and marquee weddings. I’ve photographed many wedding venues in Leicestershire this year.
If you are wondering, ‘Where are the loved-up couple photos?’, I do shoot these photos and I smash them too. However, my couples understand that wedding photography is about much more than pretty pictures.
Here, I only want to show the best of the unscripted wedding moments. 98% of what I shoot at weddings is the in-between stuff, and my couples LOVE it.
The big question is, did these photos make you smile?
If the answer is YES, I’m the right photographer for you because you want one of the best wedding photographers to capture the vibe of your big day. I’m based in Derbyshire and I shoot weddings throughout the UK.
Cheers, Nathan
PS – If you want to see more of my work, don’t miss my best of 2024