Great Big Photography World

In this episode, Perrin sits down with John Leech, a UK wedding photographer, to talk about how he approaches a wedding day and where he finds the real emotion in it, from the getting ready to the walk up the aisle.

John talks about picking up a camera at about six or seven, learning to develop and print in his dad’s darkroom, and why he likes going into a wedding blind with no shot list. He gets into why the getting ready phase helps couples accept him as a background element, why the signing of the register is such a hard shot to get, and why the moment a couple walk up the aisle on their own is one of his favorites. He also covers bouncing flash and never using it direct, when he goes black and white, photographing the main ceremony at his daughter’s wedding, the first time he felt really nervous at a wedding, his Morecambe Bay photo books, and his advice for anyone shooting their first wedding.

Want to talk photography with me outside the show? Join the Great Big Photography World community. I’m in there regularly, and you’ll get your own free photography listing page for others to discover you too. Free through December 2026: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/

Want to help us build new features and steer the direction of the community? Don’t forget to check out our Founders Deal which gives the first 100 people 50% off the yearly membership as long as they are a member. It comes with a direct line to our team to help shape the culture of the new GBPW. Offer ends November 30th or when the last spot is gone: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/deal/

In this episode, Perrin sits down with Neil Selkirk, a London-born, New York-based photographer who assisted Richard Avedon, took Diane Arbus’s masterclass, and went on to become the only person authorized to print her photographs since her death. They talk about his career and his new book, Why Photographs?

Neil talks about how a job with Irving Penn that fell through over a visa led him into Avedon’s studio, the Arbus photograph he saw on a wall in London that devastated him and took fifteen or twenty years to live with on his own wall, and the winter he spent searching through 7,000 rolls of film to find her negatives. He gets into why he believes photography is about discovery rather than creation, what the camera reveals that we never notice when we press the shutter, why he considers composition deadly to a photograph, and why he thinks photographers should keep it simple and keep it straight at a time when no one knows which images to trust.

Want to talk photography with me outside the show? Join the Great Big Photography World community. I'm in there regularly, and you'll get your own free photography listing page for others to discover you too. Free through December 2026: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/

Want to help us build new features and steer the direction of the community? Don't forget to check out our Founders Deal which gives the first 100 people 50% off the yearly membership as long as they are a member. It comes with a direct line to our team to help shape the culture of the new GBPW. Offer ends November 30th or when the last spot is gone.

For 300 episodes, you've been listening. Now you're in the room.

Episode 300 is a big one, for two reasons. Perrin says thank you to every guest and every listener who got the show here, and he takes you on a first look inside the new Great Big Photography World: what we built, why we took our time, and how you get to decide what comes next.

He talks about where it all started with Photographycourse.net, why the community works like a camera system (the community is the body, the podcast, Prime Classes and the directory are the lenses), and why a good print comes up slowly in the tray. He walks through the Great Big Photography Directory, where photographers are found by their work and not their ad budget, Prime Classes taught by working photographers in about 45 minutes, and the Roadmap, where members propose, vote, and we build. He also shares why the community runs on TribeCrafter.

Founding Member deal: the first 100 Founding Members get 50% off the yearly paid tier, for as long as they stay a member. Open until 30 November 2026, or until the 100 spots are gone: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/deal

Want to talk photography with me outside the show? Join the Great Big Photography World community. I'm in there regularly, and you'll get your own free photography listing page for others to discover you too. Free through December 2026: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/

In this episode, Perrin sits down with Craig McGowan, a Brisbane-based landscape photographer who balances a career spent in offices and meetings with a passion for some of the world's most remote places, from the frozen landscapes of Ellesmere Island to the old growth forests of Tasmania.

Craig talks about how a teenage Olympus OM-1 and a library full of technical books first drew him to photography, the free Saturday morning photo walks in Fremantle that introduced him to a community of fellow photographers, and the Patagonia workshop where a woman using a camera she barely knew how to operate completely changed how he thought about composition.

He gets into why he heads out when the forecast looks bad, the morning his fingers stopped working while photographing musk oxen at minus 30 degrees, and how printing his work during COVID became the single biggest influence on his photography. He also shares why he states that every image is made without AI, the little jetty he has photographed hundreds of times, and the multi-year forest project that keeps drawing him back to Tasmania.

Check out the episode article here

Want to talk photography with me outside the show? Join the Great Big Photography World community. I'm in there regularly, and you'll get your own free photography listing page for others to discover you too. Free through December 2026: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/

In this episode, Perrin sits down with John Shephard, a panoramic landscape photographer who has spent over 30 years shooting exclusively on slide film with swing lens and rotating lens cameras, a format that has all but disappeared from serious landscape work today.

John talks about his four year apprenticeship under renowned panoramic photographer Ken Duncan, including a trial by fire two week trip that taught him what real dedication to the craft looks like, and the moment Ken sent him to shoot the closed Statue of Liberty with a single instruction: figure it out.

He gets into what makes his swing lens Noblex and fixed lens Hasselblad X-Pan 2 so different from standard cameras, why he still shoots on Velvia 50 slide film for its rich saturation despite how difficult it is to source, and the decades-long America Wide book project that has taken him across all 50 states. He also opens up about his closing philosophy on photography: staying out of his own way, remaining open to what a place wants to show him, and never wanting to feel like he has mastered anything at all.

Check out the episode article here

Want to talk photography with me outside the show? Join the Great Big Photography World community. I'm in there regularly, and you'll get your own free photography listing page for others to discover you too. Free through December 2026: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/

In this episode, Perrin sits down with Felix Inden, a German landscape and nature photographer who has spent over a decade chasing dynamic weather and demanding conditions around the world, building a career that blends photography expeditions, workshops, and years of patience in the field.

Felix talks about why some of his favorite images sit unedited for up to ten years before he's finally ready to work on them, how a background in mountain biking taught him to stay out in rough weather rather than retreat from it, and the field method he developed for quickly reading a scene, from finding a dominant anchor subject to keeping distracting elements away from the edges of the frame.

He gets into what it means to be full time in photography without necessarily being a full time photographer, the imposter syndrome that creeps in when a shot doesn't turn out the way he pictured it, and why he has learned to let go of Plan A and embrace whatever the day actually gives him.

Check out the episode article here

Want to talk photography with me outside the show? Join the Great Big Photography World community. I'm in there regularly, and you'll get your own free photography listing page for others to discover you too. Free through December 2026: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/

In this episode, Perrin sits down with Skaistė Gulbė, a photographer and serial entrepreneur from Lithuania who spent years shooting weddings, newborns, birthdays, and pretty much anything clients would book her for, before a three month COVID lockdown pushed her toward the bold, black and white, deeply personal style she is known for today.

Skaistė talks about the self portraits that sparked it all, the moment she looked back at years of client work and deleted her entire portfolio to start over, and why she refuses to shoot models for her creative work, choosing instead to find a woman who catches her attention and study her online for a month before ever reaching out. She gets into how her mother's background in psychology shaped the way she works with people, why she thinks of her studio sessions as something closer to a confidence building experience than a transaction, and why after thirteen years of learning to take a good picture, she is now chasing something much bigger: learning how to take one that actually means something.

Check out the episode article here

Want to talk photography with me outside the show? Join the Great Big Photography World community. I'm in there regularly, and you'll get your own free photography listing page for others to discover you too. Free through December 2026: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/

In this episode, Perrin sits down with Jasmine Lawrie, a Scotland-based product, food, and drink photographer who turned a point and shoot camera from her mum and a teenage beauty blog into a full time career built on striking, scroll-stopping imagery.

Jasmine talks about the ghost mannequin technique, the layering and Photoshop wizardry behind those clean, catalog-ready product shots that most people have never heard of, and how being made redundant from her in-house ecommerce role pushed her to finally go freelance.

She gets into her philosophy that every image has to earn the stop, whether that means the colors, the props, or the lighting, why balancing a client's brand identity with her own creative instincts is one of the trickiest parts of the job, and why she is now exploring food and drink photography, as the next stretch of her creative growth.

Check out the episode article here: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/jasmine-lawrie

Want to talk photography with me outside the show? Join the Great Big Photography World community. I'm in there regularly, and you'll get your own free photography listing page for others to discover you too. Free through December 2026: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/

In this episode, Perrin sits down with Steve Gettle, a nature and wildlife photographer who has spent close to 40 years turning a childhood love of creek beds and dragonflies into a full time career leading photography tours to 35 countries around the world with his wife and business partner, Nicole.

Steve talks about the difference between taking a photograph and making one, the tiers an image has to climb through before it becomes something truly special, and the moment his eye felt like it was smoking after chasing a sunrise shot in the Serengeti with a 600 millimeter lens. He gets into why he refuses to gatekeep his knowledge, offering free workshops and seminars while charging only for the trips themselves, how he learned humility the first time he brought his work to a camera club, and why he believes the most powerful thing you can give a photograph isn't a perfect edit but the story behind it.

Check out the episode article here: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/steve-gettle

Want to talk photography with me outside the show? Join the Great Big Photography World community. I'm in there regularly, and you'll get your own free photography listing page for others to discover you too. Free through December 2026: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/

In this episode, Perrin sits down with Stuart Rawlinson, a longtime member of the Great Big Photography World community whose photography career began at 18 years old as a general field assistant at McMurdo Station in Antarctica, and who later wintered over at South Pole Station in temperatures as low as minus 103 degrees Fahrenheit.

Stuart talks about how a chance conversation with a fellow station worker sparked his interest in documenting his travels, what it took to keep a mechanical Nikon F and 35 millimeter film working in the most extreme cold on Earth, and the helicopter flight near Mount Erebus that gave him one of the most memorable photographs of his life.

He gets into why he still considers himself an amateur after more than five decades of self-taught photography, why he has always cared more about bringing people along on the story than simply posting a photo, and what keeps him and his wife planning the next trip, whether that means a South Pacific cruise or a cross country road trip through the United States.

Check out the episode article here: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/stuart-rawlinson

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Join our online photography community to interact with photographers just like this, get access to fun photo contests, find inspiration daily, and much more! https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/join/

In this episode, Perrin sits down with Janina Wilde, a UK-based multiple exposure photographer and educator who spent over 20 years as a science teacher before leaving the classroom this year to run the Wild Photography Academy full time.

Janina talks about how she tried landscape, macro, and travel photography before multiple exposure finally clicked for her during a creative course, why layering images together throws out nearly every technical rule photographers are taught, and how a technique that demands so much planning and composing somehow became one of the calmest, most meditative things she does. She gets into the specific in camera techniques she teaches on her workshops, from turning a camera upside down at St Paul's Cathedral to the cross hatching method that remains her favorite, and why she hopes that as the genre grows in popularity, it never loses the creative freedom and individuality that made her fall in love with it in the first place.

Check out the episode article here: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/janina-wilde

Want to support the show? Click here: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/supporter/

Join our online photography community to interact with photographers just like this, get access to fun photo contests, find inspiration daily, and much more! https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/join/

In this episode, Perrin sits down with Alexandra Nemeth, a photographer, published author, and mountain and polar guide who has climbed all Seven Summits, led expeditions to Antarctica, and built an entire career around the idea that a camera can take you places you never imagined.

Alex talks about how photography, not mountaineering, was actually what pulled her into the mountains in the first place, why she once sold her entire camera gear down to the last memory card to fund her Everest expedition, and the emotional sunrise on Gokyo Ri that she says planted the seed for everything that came after.

She gets into what it took to fund and complete all seven summits over four years while working full time in marketing, the frostbite and hardship that came with places like Antarctica, and why she eventually left her corporate job to spend her life guiding other people through the same wild places that once changed hers.

Check out the episode article here: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/alexandra-nemeth

Want to support the show? Click here: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/supporter/

Join our online photography community to interact with photographers just like this, get access to fun photo contests, find inspiration daily, and much more! https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/join/

In this episode, Perrin sits down with Mark James Ford, a chemist and astrophotographer based in Germany who spent decades photographing city skylines and macro flowers before pointing a camera at the night sky and capturing the Horsehead Nebula on his very first real attempt.

Mark talks about how a school darkroom sparked a lifelong fascination with the chemistry of image making, why he believes no other art form demands a deeper understanding of physical and chemical processes than photography, and the accidental discovery that led him from cityscapes to distant galaxies. He gets into what it means to look at light that left its source a thousand years ago, how a health scare in 2023 reshaped his relationship to beauty and connection, and why he is now bringing the saturated, luminous colors of the cosmos back into his macro work, closing the loop between the smallest and largest things he has ever photographed.

Check out the episode article here: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/mark-james-ford

Want to support the show? Click here: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/supporter/

Join our online photography community to interact with photographers just like this, get access to fun photo contests, find inspiration daily, and much more! https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/join/

In this episode, Perrin sits down with Aleksandra Dynas, a Polish-born documentary photographer and photojournalist based in Barcelona who has lived in seven countries, traveled to around 70 more, and built a photography career on a single conviction: that truth is the only currency worth spending.

Aleksandra talks about how solo travel at 16 taught her to observe people long before she ever picked up a camera, why she learned photography by shooting demonstrations in Barcelona rather than in a classroom, and what drove her to spend months living in the slums of Uganda documenting street children whose stories nobody else was telling.

She gets into why she considers herself a traveler and storyteller first and a photographer second, why she will always prioritize the moment over the technically perfect shot, and why her greatest goal is not to become a photographer who has all the answers but to remain one who keeps asking better questions.

Check out the episode article here: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/Aleksandra Dynaś

Want to support the show? Click here: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/supporter/

Join our online photography community to interact with photographers just like this, get access to fun photo contests, find inspiration daily, and much more! https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/join/

In this episode, Perrin sits down with Michael Breitung, a German software engineer and landscape photographer who has spent the better part of 15 years shooting across six continents, running yearly workshops in the medinas and deserts of Morocco, and building a photography life that most people never expected to see from someone who never quit his day job.

Michael talks about how a road trip to the Grand Canyon with a brand new DSLR and no real plan produced a photo he still considers one of his best 17 years later, why a brief attempt at going full time taught him more about creativity than any workshop ever could, and what keeps drawing him back to Morocco year after year with a new group of photographers.

He gets into why atmosphere and emotion are the only things that matter when deciding which photos make his portfolio, how he learned to put the camera down and just enjoy the view when the light isn't cooperating, and why landscape photography eventually led him to street photography, astrophotography, and a growing curiosity about wildlife.

Check out the episode article here: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/michael-breitung

Want to support the show? Click here: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/supporter/

Join our online photography community to interact with photographers just like this, get access to fun photo contests, find inspiration daily, and much more! https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/join/

In this episode, Perrin sits down with Carolien Hoek, a Dutch wildlife photographer and travel writer who has spent the better part of a decade chasing birds across six continents, from photography hides in Belgium and the Netherlands to the rainforests of Ecuador and the mountains of northern India.

Carolien talks about how a bored afternoon in a photography hide with her husband's spare camera started an obsession she never saw coming, why she thinks of herself as a collector first and a photographer second, and the challenges of sitting in a hide for 14 hours waiting for the right bird to show up.

She gets into the difference between a birder's checklist and a photographer's standard, why she will never photograph a bird sitting on a feeder, and how writing detailed travel journals for every trip she takes has become just as important to her as the images she brings home.

Check out the episode article here: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/carolien-hoek

Want to support the show? Click here: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/supporter/

Join our online photography community to interact with photographers just like this, get access to fun photo contests, find inspiration daily, and much more! https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/join/

In this episode, Perrin sits down with Antoine Didienne, a San Diego-based wedding and family documentary photographer who grew up in France surrounded by Bresson, Doisneau, and the French Nouvelle Vague, and has spent his career bringing that European artistic sensibility to one of the most chaotic days in a couple's life.

Antoine talks about why he describes his work as the luxury of simplicity, what it actually means to be the antithesis of the Pinterest photographer, and why he would rather photograph a bride putting on her dress than see it hanging against a window. He gets into the friction between documentary photographers and wedding planners who expect a shot list, why he thinks of a wedding day as a three-act play, and what three months of documenting his toddler on an old Fuji X100 taught him about looking, patience, and what makes a photograph worth keeping.

Check out the episode article here: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/antoine-didienne

Want to support the show? Click here: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/supporter/

Join our online photography community to interact with photographers just like this, get access to fun photo contests, find inspiration daily, and much more! https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/join/

In this episode, Perrin sits down with Anusha Stewart, a UK-based food photographer who came to the camera through an unlikely path of finance in the City of London, math teaching, and running a group of care homes, before COVID lockdowns gave her the time to finally do something with the one constant in her life: food.

Anusha talks about growing up in a Sri Lankan family where dinner meant eight dishes on the table, why food was never just food but something she celebrated with and turned to when things got hard, and how a Nikon for Dummies book during lockdown became the start of a photography career she never planned for.

She gets into what her math background taught her about composition, why food pulled her into photography rather than the other way around, and the visual food memoir she is working toward that weaves together her Sri Lankan heritage, her British life, and everything the camera has helped her see along the way.

Check out the episode article here: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/anusha-stewart

Want to support the show? Click here: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/supporter/

Join our online photography community to interact with photographers just like this, get access to fun photo contests, find inspiration daily, and much more! https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/join/

In this episode, Perrin sits down with Frederic Paulussen, a corporate and street photographer who built a photography business after getting fired from a marketing agency, on a suggestion from his dad.

Fred talks about how photography went from a high school hobby to a full-time career he never quite planned for, why he romanticized travel photography before realizing he would never actually wake up for the sunrise, and how he ended up building two completely separate creative lives under one roof.

He gets into what corporate headshot photography demands that most photographers underestimate, why he started his own street photography podcast just to get answers to questions nobody else was asking, and what eight years of staying genuinely curious has taught him about the long game in photography.

Check out the episode article here: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/frederic-paulussen

Want to support the show? Click here: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/supporter/

Join our online photography community to interact with photographers just like this, get access to fun photo contests, find inspiration daily, and much more! https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/join/

In this episode, Perrin sits down with Daniel Wakefield, a South Florida-based headshot and branding photographer who built a six-figure photography business from scratch after a first attempt that never landed a single client outside of friends and family.

Daniel talks about how a biology degree and a career teaching high school science eventually led him to the Florida Everglades with a camera, why he walked away from wildlife photography to shoot corporate headshots, and what he had to unlearn about business before things finally clicked. He gets into the mindset shifts that separate photographers who struggle from those who scale, why genuine connection is the engine behind everything he does, and what actually happens to people when they see a great headshot of themselves for the first time.

Check out the episode article here: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/daniel-wakefield

Want to support the show? Click here: https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/supporter/

Join our online photography community to interact with photographers just like this, get access to fun photo contests, find inspiration daily, and much more! https://greatbigphotographyworld.com/join/