About Simon
Hi and thanks for visiting.
I’m Simon Kemp and welcome to my website. I am a Berkshire wedding photographer, based in Reading and have been in business for over nineteen years as a professional photographer. I am married and live with my ever patient wife, two young children, two ducks, two gerbils and a dog called Fred. My hobbies include photography (I still photograph all kinds of things for the love of it), optimistically trying to keep in shape, listening to live music and recently I started martial arts classes which are fun and great for fitness. I like dabbling in making little films and I’ve been known to shoot the odd Super 8 wedding ciné film. I also love using Hipstamatic on the iPhone to document my days off and my travels when I’m usually not carrying my camera gear.
Prior to starting my own business I worked for Ilford Photographic and a couple of commercial photographic laboratories. I have won multiple awards for my work and have a degree in Professional Photographic Imaging from Thames Valley University.
When I was younger I travelled a great deal and saw a lot of the world. In my mid twenties it struck me like a thunderbolt one day that I took hardly any pictures in my travels. I think when you are young it doesn’t occur to you to worry about such things and you give little thought to looking back on your youth, the landmarks in your life and what you looked like at the time. After my epiphany I bought an elderly secondhand Olympus SLR, a couple of lenses and a box of Kodachrome and started taking
From the beginning it was always people pictures that drew me so it was natural that I would gravitate towards wedding photography and portraits. A few years after starting I quit my day job and here I am now in 2012 still enjoying it as much as I ever did.
Have a look around and let me know if you need some more information about my wedding photography and my approach to a wedding. You are welcome to drop by our little studio (by appointment only please) and look through some of our books and albums. You can also check out some recent work and other things on my wedding photography blog. You can also phone me on 0118 9885088 or 07889 364269.
Simon Kemp
BA LBIPP
“There are a lot of pitfalls in selecting a professional photographer. I first met Simon Kemp when he was starting out about 19 years ago. Simon had talent even then, but it’s a credit to his professionalism and a lot of extremely hard work that he’s now a truly excellent photographer – that doesn’t happen by accident, most photographers go out of business within a year!
Anyone can call themselves a professional now and a lot of people do, even ones who spend most of their time doing other full time jobs, but there are not many really good photographers: anyone can cherry pick their best shots, you can even go on a one day course to ‘build a portfolio’ where professional models are supplied, the posing and lighting are all done for you, but that is not a true or fair representation of what you’ll end up with as a client. It’s misleading, this kind of thing really troubles me.
Lots of professionals are lazy, they become photographers because they think it’ll be easy – so they end up running a sausage machine, producing exactly the same images each time. This means they can’t produce creative work, or offer their clients genuine choice in style or approach. They aren’t interested in learning or even in improving, by investing in themselves, by going on courses etc. So there are a lot of pitfalls to watch put for when commissioning a photographer.
Photographers like Simon have the experience, technique and talent to produce consistently high quality images – this means he makes lots of good shots to give his clients quality, variety and choice. This is a sign of someone who genuinely cares, not about not just their work but also their customer service. A real professional will produce great images time after time, not just occasionally, and he’ll make it look easy…. it isn’t. This is what makes Simon what I’d call ‘a professionals professional’.”
Mike Upstone BA,
Internationally Acclaimed Fine Art Photographer.
