How I evolved my photography business from weddings to purpose-led visual storytelling
The transition from wedding photography to purpose-led visual storytelling and branding photography didn’t happen in one single moment. It unfolded slowly, like a tide turning, making itself known long before I was truly ready to name the shift. For nearly a decade, from 2010 to 2019, weddings were my world. I photographed love in all its forms, travelling across the UK and Europe most weekends, weaving stories of connection, joy and fleeting human tenderness. I cared deeply about the work, and I gave it everything. Yet gradually, another truth began to rise.
I was missing my own life.
Weekends slipped away in a blur of timelines and travel. Evenings disappeared into editing. I was witnessing monumental moments in other people’s lives while quietly losing the spaciousness in my own. I didn’t resent the work, but I could feel myself outgrowing the rhythm of it. The seeds of change were there, stirring beneath the surface, waiting for the right season to unfurl.
The quiet beginnings of a transition
By 2018 and 2019, branding and lifestyle photography had started to grow alongside my weddings in a gentle, organic way. Purpose-led founders, creatives and small businesses began reaching out, looking for visual storytelling that centred who they were and what they believed in. This work felt expansive. It allowed me to slow down, to collaborate, to blend people, place and deeper meaning into one visual narrative. I found myself craving that spaciousness, craving work that aligned more closely with my values and the way I wanted to live.
So in last 2018 into 2019, I made the decision to cap the number of future wedding bookings, since the lead time was so far ahead my 2020 wedding bookings at twenty, roughly half of what I would typically take on. It was a quiet commitment to myself, a clearing of space so this new direction could breathe, since the lead time for branding and lifestyle work is a much shorter turnaround.
Then the world shifted.
2020 as the crash and catalyst
When the pandemic arrived, every wedding I had booked was postponed. Almost overnight, the business I knew disappeared as couples faced the devastating reality that their weddings were not going to be able to happen as they hoped due to restrictions. The space I’d been preparing for became vast, and branding and lifestyle photography moved into the centre far earlier than I had anticipated.
It was a moment of profound realignment. With weddings on pause, and I’d processed the shock, very quickly, a deep resilience of fighting for my business kicked in. I am always an optimist and worked relentlessly to follow the threads that had already been tugging at me, the ones tied to purpose, nature, creativity and deeper human connection. That period sharpened my clarity. It asked me what kind of photographer I wanted to be and what stories I wanted to tell. In the stillness, those answers rose quickly.
The transition from wedding photography to purpose-led visual storytelling and branding photography wasn’t just a logistical shift. It was a reclamation. A choosing of spaciousness, presence and work that felt truer to who I was becoming.
From the shoreline to the wild edges
Around the same time, something else transformative happened. A late-in-life ADHD diagnosis (more on that here), brought medication that cured my lifelong motion sickness. Suddenly, I could be on the water without getting ill. That shift changed everything. With travel restricted, I turned to the Walpole Bay Tidal Pool in my homeland of Margate and began exploring underwater worlds with a Fujifilm X-T2 and a Seafrogs housing.
Those first snorkels cracked something open. I felt myself at the threshold between worlds, seeing the coastline I’d grown up beside with new eyes. That experience, combined with this creative redirection, set me on the path I walk now, where my work is rooted in rewilding our connection to nature, in storytelling from the wild edges where earth, sea and sky meet.
Visual storytelling and branding photography evolved into something much deeper. It became a space for people and purpose, a way of supporting founders, visionaries and organisations who care about the planet and want their stories held with intention. And in parallel, ocean photography, conservation storytelling and nature-connected education rose as equal pillars in my practice.
It wasn’t a clean break from weddings. It was a gradual, intuitive shift of gravity. A turning toward the work that felt like home.
A creative life aligned with purpose
Looking back, the transition feels inevitable. Though at the time it was a series of small decisions made with trust rather than a five-year plan. The slow shift from weddings to branding, the commitment to limiting wedding bookings and holding space in 2020, the abrupt catalyst of 2020, the ADHD diagnosis, the curing of motion sickness, the first underwater photographs, the pull toward wild places. Each moment shaped the next, deeply entwined in a forward trajectory.
Today, my work sits at the intersection of purpose-led visual storytelling, nature connection and education. I photograph people, place and planet at the wildest edges of earth, sea and sky. I collaborate with organisations doing meaningful environmental work. And I teach from lived experience, offering what I’ve learned about building a creative life that is sustainable, intentional and aligned with values that matter to me and the souls I co-create with.
Many photographers reach out because they feel the same tug I once did. A knowing that the work that once fit is now not aligned to their story, their passion, their mission. They have a longing for something deeper, more spacious, more aligned with who they are becoming.
If that’s you, you’re not alone. And the shift, however daunting, is possible.
If this kind of transition is tugging at you
Creative evolution is rarely linear. It stirs gently at first, then all at once. If you’re feeling the call to reshape your work or step into a new chapter of purpose-led visual storytelling, my talks, workshops and 1:1 mentoring explore this process in depth.
- RIP Reynisfjara: Dramatic coastal erosion at one of the world’s wildest edges
- Shooting to a word: yūgen, japan and the art of noticing
- How to prepare for a creative residency in a remote place
- Snæfellsjökull and the stories glaciers carry
- Drone ethics: the importance of responsible flying when capturing conservation stories in fragile ecosystems
- How to see the aurora borealis from a plane: tips for spotting the northern lights at 30,000 feet
- Ghost Fluke: a story of coastline and creation at Arctic Canvas
- Inside Arctic Canvas: The beauty of creative retreat and intentional design
- Sjórinn Talar: the sea speaks through story and soul
About me
Hey my love, I’m Rebecca, a visual storyteller, unleashing the power of photo and video to rewilding our connection to nature.
By illuminating the liminal space where myth, magick and intellect meet, we ignite collective curiosity, enchantment and awe to empower the healing of people and planet.
My work as a photographer and ocean storyteller has taken me from the wild coasts of Scotland to the wild edges of Iceland.
It was with immense gratitude and a sense of deepening purpose that a story I captured gain 2nd Place in the Conservation (Impact) category for Ocean Photographer of the Year 2024.
As President of the Board of Trustees for Whale Wise and a Marine Mammal Medic with BDMLR, I advocate for our blue planet through powerful visuals and purpose-driven narratives.
Together, let’s embrace the wild edges where of people, place, and planet meet.
Add some wonder
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Fill your winter nights with wonder
Chasing the aurora borealis
A BEGINNER’S GUIDE: HOW TO SEE AND PHOTOGRAPH aurora borealis
There are 7 sections & 34 lessons which dive into, guiding you step-by-step through my framework for chasing the aurora. There’s a handy checklist you either print off or save to an album in your phone gallery – super handy for when you’re out and about on your aurora adventure.
