The person behind the camera
Your wedding, as it actually felt.
Photographed warmly and honestly, and without me ever getting in the way. I'm Francis, a Gold Coast wedding photographer, and happy to travel for your day.
Documentary wedding photography · Gold Coast · Brisbane · Byron Bay
The story
I / IIIA boy from a Cornish fishing harbour who ended up five minutes from the beach.
I grew up in a small fishing town in Cornwall, the kind of place where summers meant being out on the boat to Lantic Bay with your mates and not much of a plan. These days I am about five minutes from the beach on the Gold Coast, which is not a bad trade, and I still do my best thinking near the water.
Before photography I played music for a living for a few years. That is where a lot of this comes from, honestly: reading a room, knowing when to hang back and when a moment is about to happen, and loving a good dance floor more than most. A wedding is really just a brilliant, emotional, slightly chaotic live show, and I have spent a long time learning how to catch the best bits of one without interrupting it.
On the day
II / IIII'm the calm one in the corner.
My job is to be close enough to catch the real moments and invisible enough that you forget I am there, so the day feels like your day and not a photoshoot. I plan the logistics carefully in the background, which is exactly what lets everything feel relaxed and unplanned at the front.
When something goes sideways, and at a wedding something always does, I do not panic. I have photographed a surprise wedding squeezed into about ninety minutes, when it is usually a whole day, and everyone walked away happy. That, honestly, is the main thing.
I don't always work alone. My partner Emma often joins me as a content creator, filming the day as it happens so you have a same-day highlight to share while the excitement is still fresh. She captures the moving, of-the-moment side of the day while I focus on the timeless frames.
They're happy. That's the main thing.
Francis Kurth · Photographer
Off the clock
III / IIII will plan a nice dinner like other people plan a holiday. I will spend a full day fishing Tallebudgera Creek, go through every lure in the tackle box, and catch absolutely nothing. I bake a decent banana bread and make a Negroni with double the Campari. And I am a sucker for a wedding that turns into a proper dance floor.
If a relaxed, documentary approach sounds like your kind of day, tell me about it. I read and reply to every message myself, and I would love to hear from you.
Francis