birmingham wedding photography for people who don't want to perform
Meet Paul Phipps-Williams
#1
From COBR to Camera-Boy.
Birmingham Wedding Photographer.
Former professional crisis manager.
Now I’m the calm one on your wedding day, so you don’t have to be.
#2
That sounds... dramatic...
It often was!
I spent 24 years as a civil servant. I worked for Cabinet ministers, represented the UK abroad, and stood at the front of more emergencies than I can count. I was good at being the steady one when everything was on fire.
Then I worked out I’d rather spend my time in rooms full of people who love each other than the COBR rooms in a crisis.
Same skill, better day. So on your wedding, I’m the one quietly keeping things on track. You don’t have to manage a thing.
#3
I've brought life back to what matters most.
Most of my life happens in Birmingham, and I wouldn’t have it anywhere else.
Home is me, my husband Gareth, and two cats named off Batman characters who contribute nothing but opinions. Gareth’s the one who tells me to sit down and rest occasionally, which I mostly ignore until he’s right.
When I’m not shooting I’m probably in a tattoo chair adding to the collection, watching an old TV programme in 4:3, or driving somewhere singing the entire Bastille back catalogue at a volume no one asked for.
It’s a quiet sort of full. Suits me just fine.
Hours being tattooed
Favourite Doctor Who
Cats named off Batman
Favourite Star Trek Film
Novels written
meet my team
Likes a coffee
Sits on the keyboard
Gets paid in Dreamies
Tells me to rest sometimes
#4
My Simple Philosophy: Here to help you feel Seen and Celebrated
Yes, that’s a giant tattoo of Billie Piper next to Camille Coduri.
Two things worth knowing. I’m a queer man, so I understand that families and relationships and wedding days don’t all follow the same script, and you’ll never need to explain yours to me. And I’m a card-carrying geek, the kind you’ll work out pretty quickly from the rest of this page. You can find me every month taking photos of Doctor Who folk over at Fantom Events.
Put those together and you get a photographer you don’t have to translate yourself for.
Celebrating the camera-shy, the gloriously geeky and the beautifully queer. Bring your people, your in-jokes and your weird and wonderful traditions.
That’s the good stuff. That’s what I’m here for.
#5
A photographer who just gets you
Here’s how this works, and it’s deliberately easy.
No surprise phone calls. Ever. We can do the whole thing over WhatsApp or email, whichever feels less like effort.
We’ll have a gossip about your day at some point, but we’ll chat in the way that suits you best.
If you’re the nervous one doing the research, that’s exactly who I built this for.
Message me whenever. I’ve got you.
Photography that feels like you
LET'S CHAT
Tell me about your Birmingham Wedding
See if I’m free on your date and let me know what you’re most excited about.
No pressure, and no calls out of the blue. You’ll get a gif or two, and potentially a cat.
