Paul Swift Photography: Lancashire’s premier award-winning wedding snapper talks tricks of the trade
and live on Freeview channel 276
But, for Paul, the awards pale into insignificance when compared to the verdicts of his subjects - the people whose special days he captures for a living. “Winning awards is great, but it doesn’t mean as much to me personally as a nice word from a happy couple,” he says. “The emotion in people’s voices - that’s what tells me that I’m doing the job right.”
Wigan-born Paul loves his job, but it’s a profession he almost fell into by accident. Previously working in shipping and supply chains, he laboured under the false assumption that the camera didn’t like him for years - he doesn’t even like how he looks in his own wedding pictures - before being bitten by the lens bug and realising he had a knack for it.
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Hide Ad“Fifteen years ago, I picked up a camera and started playing around with it,” explains Paul, 45. “From then on, I grew into different genres starting with landscapes and things around the house but, after a while, I wasn’t getting what I wanted from it. That’s when I got an SLR camera, which is when things really started.
“I did my kids’ portraits and put them on Facebook and, next thing I knew, other people were asking me to do theirs,” he adds. “A while after that, somebody asked me to do their wedding and my first thought was ‘oh, my God’, but I decided I’d jump in the deep end and go for it. I went away and studied and practised, so I think I was ready!”
And so began Paul’s career as the man tasked with capturing the innate magic of a wedding day. He relishes the job of getting the right shot, angle, and moment, and is well-known in the industry as one of its most professional and reliable photographers. Simply put, he makes couples feel at ease and always gets the shot.
“Shooting a wedding was nerve-wracking to begin with,” says Paul. “But there’s a lot of pride in the work.” Was it a hard decision to go full-time? “I had to jump when I jumped or I wouldn't have done it. I’ve been doing weddings for 15 years and it’s practically been a full-time job for 10 years, but I took the plunge to go full-time five years ago.
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Hide Ad“It's the absolute dream,” adds Paul, who lives in Rishton. “People say they can’t stand Mondays but, for me, it’s the best day of the week. And I still get those butterflies before a wedding now - the day I stop getting those is the day I’m not enjoying it anymore. I feel that way because I want to impress people.
“It’s a really special feeling when you know you’ve nailed it, you come away from the wedding just buzzing,” he continues. “With everything that’s happening in the world, a wedding is a closed-off slice of goodness where you can forget about everything else and have fun.”