In the latest in our series of profiles of real wedding businesses, we feature London based wedding photographer Mark Columbus.

1. What does your business do?

I’m a wedding photographer; my style is creative-photojournalistic

2. When did you start?

I 1st started June 2008

3. How did you get started?

I started by doing 4-5 free wedding where I didn’t charge anything. I was actually surprised how difficult is was to find a bride and groom who wanted to take the gamble with someone who had no experience as a wedding photog, I was lucky enough to have a good portfolio, and the quality of my images helped.

4. Why did you choose this particular business?

I love photographing, and I love weddings – it was a no brainer for me. Every time I shoot a wedding I feel so lucky to be a part of their day.

5. What’s been your best moment so far?

The best moment for me so far is shooting a wedding in St.Mary under croft; this is a small chapel under the Houses of Parliament. You can only be married in there if you’re a life peer, Member of Parliament, lord etc. I was made to sign a long piece of paper that said I’m not allow to publicly show the images from the wedding – something about 5th nov :-)

6. And the worst?

I haven’t really had a worst moment or if I have I’ve repressed it.

7. Anything you wish you had known when you started?

I wish I had known how physically demanding being a wedding photographer was, 12-13 hours on my feet. probably would have invested in some orthotics earlier.

8. What’s your biggest challenge going forward?

My biggest challenge going forward it expanding my area of coverage, at the moment I mostly cover London, next year I’m expanding to cover London and the South East.

9. Do you have a top tip for someone starting out in the wedding business?

Practice, made sure you can handle all lighting situations and your equipment is to standard. Also make sure you have a good business plan, it doesn’t matter if you’re the most talented photographer in the world, if you're not business savvy you will struggle.

All photographs © Mark Colombus

Visit Mark's website at http://www.markcolombus.com/