My Future Wedding Photographer (Sarah of The Salty Sea Blog)

While I have no plans for marriage in the near future, I have already found my wedding photographer. Is that weird?

I suppose it’s kind of weird, but it feels like one of those things that when you know, you know.

I first found Sarah from doing a good ol’ Google search for other Cornish bloggers that I could connect with. Her blog really stood out, not just for the incredible imagery, but also for her knack for storytelling in each of her posts. I could sit and read about her daily life for hours.

I have since met the lady behind the lens in a Cornish Blogger meetup I organised in the Summer (and have informed her that I will be hiring her for my wedding in years to come), so I couldn’t think of anything better than to feature her and her amazing work here.

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How did you first get into photography & who inspires you?

“I first started taking photographs of the sea when I was about 14. I used to be really into surfing and spend all of my time on the beach and I kept buying underwater disposable cameras. The shots were super rubbish because I didn’t really think much about what I was doing, I didn’t start getting really into photography until I took it at A level on a whim when I was 17.

At that point, all I wanted to do was photograph people dressed up as fairies (I know…) in the woods having picnics but it helped me realise that I have a passion for storytelling. Photography is one of my favourite mediums which I use for giving life to a thought or concept, it’s a way to take this imaginary thing like a folk tale, a fleeting emotion or state of mind and give it a visual narrative that you can look at. It helps me to decode and communicate with the world better that way, if I can make sense of it in a photograph.

When I first started out, Tim Walker and his fantastical vogue images were my biggest inspiration – I loved the whimsical images of Ailiera Stone and Kitty Gallanaugh but as I grew older, I began to draw inspiration from sources other than photographers. Although I love the work of Justine Kurland and Alec Soth, and they probably stand as my two favourite photographers today, I find more inspiration in nature and writing; the ocean, the wind, sudden prose, singular words… even historical ways of living. The Ocean is my biggest muse; it fills me with endless passion for creativity.”

(The above photo is Alex from On Serpentine Shores and her fiance)

What are your favourite kinds of shoots & why?

“My favourite shoots are the kind where I can collaborate with other people and get really creative. I love story telling, especially visually, and I have a particular love for evoking feelings of a life or world long forgotten.

My ideal shoot would involve working on the coast, with the sky and sea as backdrops with fellow creatives to visually narrate a folk tale, it would be inspired by a myth or piece of sudden prose and feature something very ethereal.

I also really enjoy just documenting my life, which I normally share through my blog. Just photographing seascapes and objects is very therapeutic for me; it’s hard for me to exist without communicating the whole experience through photographs. I worry that my memory will betray me, but photos wont. They bring back not just the moments but also the feelings.”

Where are your favourite places in the world? Where are your favourite places to take photos?

“I know it’s naff to say, but my favourite place in the world really is my home county of Cornwall. I’m quite well travelled as my Dad and I have done a lot of holidays all over the globe but nowhere make’s me feel the way Cornwall does. I have an extremely strong sense of place and there’s something about those tired, white washed fishing villages and stony granite towns with the bleak winds and tossing Turquoise Ocean that really gets my heart racing.

Our coves are idyllic in the summer and woodlands bursting with flowers in the spring, there’s no place I’d rather be and I consider myself so incredibly fortunate to have been born and raised here. It’s my absolute favourite place to take photographs and it’s where I plan to stay, having said that… I’d really love to visit Norway, Iceland, the West Coast of America like Big Sur and the Olympic peninsula and I’m super excited to be visiting the French Alps in January. I love travelling, but it makes me so happy to be able to come back to Cornwall afterwards.”

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Sarah started ‘Salty Sea Photography’ as a way of making money doing something that she loves. It began as a favour, photographing a wedding for a friend, but quickly people were requesting photo shoots and so she launched her website.

She specialises in fairy-tale/alternative/folk/bohemian inspired wedding photography, and offers discounts to students and people from her and her fiance’s home parishes of Illogan and the Lizard.

If you’re interested, Sarah still has spaces for bookings in Summer and Autumn 2016, and 2017! Visit her photography website for more information.

You can read about Sarah’s adventures around the South West and see a variety of her beautiful lifestyle photos on her blog.