Est. 1997
Andi Bensyn
Founder + Lead PHotographer
My Journey Took awhile to land on wedding photography
I have always loved photography - I begged friends to model for photoshoots at a young age, I brought an orange digital camera everywhere, and half of my mom's salary was probably spent developing my film rolls. But somewhere between there and now, I also fell in love with high fashion and thought I'd be a designer one day, I made my own custom clothes (I still do for good occasions like a Lady Gaga concert or two), and at one point I thought I'd launch my own music album. I went to university to study English because I loved the great love letter authors so much. After years of trying to figure out how to blend all of this into one love, I came back to photography. Wedding photography is an artful blend of all things fashion and design, the photos are just as important and one off as a good album cover, and nothing screams love letter from Dickens, Fitzgerald or Bukowski quite like a wedding day.
I am canadian but I live in Wellington NEw zealand
I am so blessed to have been raised in a safe and supportive country like Canada. Canada taught me to love all things its landscapes have to offer, to be grateful we have the opportunity to document our love stories in such a beautiful part of the world, and that nothing has as much art in it as the great outdoors. While you won't catch me backpacking the outback anytime soon, I do have a great appreciation for the outdoors and now that I am in New Zealand I have a whole new landscape to learn, appreciate, and document in my love stories. I am so grateful to be here for the long run and to get to know a whole new culture and the incredible people that come with it.
My own love story is being written by my beautiful wife Amber
I thought I knew love before I knew my wife. I had relationships that I thought would end in a proposal, I thought I knew my definition of love and what it looked like, what it felt like, what it meant to me. I thought I saw the world in colour, I knew every note and read every possible good love story. Until I knew her, I knew nothing. I see colour in places I once saw dark voids. I hear notes in all my favourite songs that I never noticed before. I read old love letters and it's like a brand new chapter has been added to them. She is familiar, she is home, but she is also everything I didn't know I needed. She made my art a million times better than before and it translates in how I document others love stories now that I know my own.
How DO i Describe my style?
At first I went with "cinematic" until I realised I like a different editing style. Then we landed on "documentary" until I realised I like directing and helping pose my clients for their dream photos. I quickly realised I love the high-fashion artful element of editorial photography, with just a sprinkle of raw emotion added in. I love weddings that have a lot of thoughtful details, weddings that push the limits of what's "bridal" in an anti-bride type way. I love celebrating love in all its forms and recognising not all weddings have a bride (hey groom + groom). I love taking a wedding with a grand venue and a unique or intimate reception space placed within it, like the weddings you see at villas in Italy with a random circular wedding table on the front lawn at dusk - dream wedding. I also love taking someone's wedding who doesn't have the budget to rent an entire villa in Italy, but has a part of them inside that always wanted that big editorial wedding and wishes their photos could pan out that way. While lighting, venue, design and fashion all do come into play in making that dream a reality, there is a way of shooting someone's wedding with the same editorial posing and lens that I would if it were their dream Italian getaway, and producing meaningful editorial-vibe images from it. With that in mind, my style has landed on what is known as "modern editorial" with a touch of documentary still in there.
Modern
Modern to me means keeping with the times, which currently means pushing the boundaries of what a wedding is, creating aspects of the day that are non-traditional and honouring the traditions that stay. It means keeping with the trends and knowing the boundaries of where to push it. It's effortless whites and brights, with the deep contrast of a dark and moody black and white edit. It's dutch angles (don't come for me I'm a lover) and documenting on film, and creating timeless editorial poses in a way that feels fresh and new.
EDItorial
Editorial means approaching your wedding portraits with the same lens I would if I were shooting your wedding for a high-fashion magazine or wedding blog. It means custom direction and tailoring to your styling, with guided portraiture to capture you in the best light. It's timeless simple poses with big effect, large landscapes and balances natural interaction with editorial framing. I focus on feeling luxurious without feeling stiff or like a production instead of an authentic day. It's refined and reflective of the art that you are.
Documentary
While I do run modern editorial for portraiture and details, I do also run documentary style for moments that don't need guidance to produce. Key moments are your ceremony, candids during canapés hour and during speeches or dinner at your reception. In these moments you'll find me taking a step back and documenting things as they come, with only some interjection for moments that would make great portraits - like asking guests if they'd like a proper photo together. In moments like your ceremony, things will flow as they planned and it's my job to document the authentic way they unfold.
Why working with andi Is different in today's modern age
I'll be candid in saying this - there are probably 10 photographers right now that you could find in your area. that will all produce your way in a beautiful way that you'd be happy with. I have so much respect for other photographers that I have learned from, grown with, and those I haven't met, that it would be unfair of me to say that I am the only one who could capture your day perfectly - and not everyone will admit that. Part of being an artist is recognising the beauty in the artists around you and supporting that, and part is trying to discover what makes you different. What set's you out in a crowd as an artist in an industry where someone else could possibly do what you do? What makes your work special?
I recently helped my best friend Jordan find a wedding photographer for her upcoming wedding - and while both of us are wedding photographers of our own, we found the task painfully hard. Do we choose the one she has a gut feeling about that she simply adores her work and cannot explain why? Do we choose another one with a similar style that has a better budget? How do we know if they will actually continue being cohesive with their emails and communication once booked? How much will they help us plan the photography? Even though we should have all the answers as photographers ourselves, we still had so many unknowns about trusting someone to capture her big day who we didn't know before.
Your entire experience will be handled by me - no assistants checking my emails, no secondary editor or AI culling your wedding photos, no associate shooter working without me.
When my best friend Jordan and I were looking for photographers for her upcoming wedding, a shocking amount of photographers admitted to using AI to cull and edit their photos or had associates shooting for them. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with this approach, it doesn't feel authentic to me or my photography. There is a time and place for AI in wedding photography, and while I love it to edit the phone out of your Aunt Matilda's hand at your unplugged ceremony, you won't find me using AI to cull or mass edit your photos. I treat your photos as art pieces, heirloom pieces that your family might be looking at in a wedding album in 100 years from now. I believe something of that importance deserves to be handcrafted and uniquely yours, and I personally don't see that coming from AI. I compare it to high fashion that has been hand-crafted and only has 2-3 copies of it... it feels different than something you bought at a mass produced store, even if just in artefact it does feel different - and wedding photos are all about feeling. Similar to this, I have seen so many photographers double book dates for 2 weddings, and then finding an associate to shoot one wedding for them, then they handle all the client contact and post-production curating. Again, while there is nothing wrong with this and many very successful photographers handle business this way, it doesn't feel authentic to me. I want to be there from the first inquiry email, through hearing your story for the first time on a zoom call, seeing your body language in your engagement session and learning what works best for you, and there to help celebrate and document your wedding day. It isn't just one day and a paycheque to me, it's an honour to be a part of and I simply couldn't pass that on to someone else to do half of the work for me.
Your goals and dream photos genuinely matter to me. If you're planning a day that doesn't align with these, I will tell you and help fix it.
I often remind myself that wedding planning seems more straightforward to me because I've been to a lot of weddings, I've seen a lot of wedding planners pull together dream weddings, and 90% of my social media feeds are just wedding inspiration. While I don't have the training to pull off planning a large scale wedding, I could plan the concept for probably 100 different weddings each telling unique stories, and sometimes I forget normal people don't always plan this many dream weddings in their heads. I realised this even more when helping Jordan plan her day. Do we do grapes on the tables because it gives the editorial vibe she wants? Does her dream venue have the right lighting to produce the editorial images she wants, or is the orange wood in the background the wrong shade? So many questions, so many different ways to plan the same day each producing a different vibe in her documenting of it. As your photographer, if you come to me wanting a light and airy spring wildflower wedding and I don't think your venue or timeline allows for that I'll be honest with you so we can replan our photos based on the vibe your wedding is creating. If your portrait session is midday and you want some flash outdoor portraits, I'll remind you we need a 10 minute gap in the schedule for those at the reception. If you want a ceremony with straight lines and a curated look to it, I'll remind you to tell your bridal party exactly where to go so that everyone is actually in a straight line. I'm there to help remind you what's in our control and what's out of our control, and to create realistic goals and dreams for your photos that match your day.
I try to be a calm presence for you on what can sometimes be a hectic day. Your wedding is about you and enjoying it, its not just another a production for me.
When I think of a good vendor team for a wedding, I know every single one of those people will be a hype girl/guy when needed, they will be fluffing and fixing you all day, and they will inevitably help keep things on schedule throughout the day - an unwritten rule of our jobs. I also know some amazing photographers can end up putting the production of your day above your needs on your wedding day, and that just isn't me. While I love coming home with beautiful images to use in my own portfolio, your day is yours and the focus should always be that. If we have planned something but it gets bumped on the day of, no biggie. I recently had a wedding where my brides were so overwhelmed with the day that we cut out some of our planned reception and outdoor night flash photography, and that's okay! In those moments, I'll do my best to be the calm and bring you a drink and give you a minute to take it all in and come back to what its really all about - celebrating you and your love story. You enjoying your day will always come over the production of our images, and if something is really important we will find another time to make it happen before the day is over. Your wedding will always be about you.
I am proud to be part of the LGBTQ+ community and support whatever your love looks like.
I know the fear of telling someone you're a girl who likes girls, or has a wife, or feeling like you need to check your vendors to see how comfortable they are with shooting a LGBTQ+ wedding. Are they comfortable or are they just politically correct? You need someone you connect with and feel truly safe around in order to capture the best photos of your day, especially in your couple portraits. I would be honoured to be. that person, no matter what your love story looks like, or what friends or family you have there, or how fancy your wedding is. If you love an editorially produced portrait, you love a good docu-style film photograph of a reception table, and you vibe with me - I'll see you there.
My passion is in shooting passionate couples at mid-range artful weddings. I don't want to focus on the grandeur of it all, even if your wedding is grand. I want to focus on the details, the composition, the emotion in your refined photos.
Again, when planning my best friends wedding we found photographers we would LOVE to book but who cost more than the entire budget for the wedding. I personally support whatever any artist charges for their work - you want to make a purse for 35K? Pop off. You want to charge 35K for your wedding packages? Look at you absolutely killing it! For me, I want to charge accessible rates because I found my niche in everyday couples who may not be budgeting 100K for their wedding. I found my joy in telling their story, in finding the editorial beauty in their simple garden wedding or reception at a local 35-seat Italian restaurant. My joy isn't in luxury high-end weddings with 10 vendors and camera equipment that costs more than my house. My joy is in documenting authentic day-to-day couples on the biggest day of their life, that brings back that little version of them that dreamed of a princess (or prince) wedding, or the anti-bride wedding I dreamed of in an old Italian villa. And maybe one day I will evolve into the photographer who does shoot intimate weddings in Italy, but for now this version of me is happy shooting normal weddings that crave that refined style and artistic touch.
I will be there every step of the way, you wont catch me leaving you on read for weeks on end.
My goal is to reply to all messages or emails within 24-48 hours - even on the busy days. There is the odd time I take time away from my computer and socials to rest and recharge, but I usually post about it online so clients know it's not me ignoring them. I am always surprised when I hear couples say "you're the first photographer to reply to us, some haven't even replied in weeks" or that they have reached out for advice or styling help even on engagement sessions and have been left on read for weeks on end. It's just not something I think helps build trust in me as your photographer, so I prioritise communication where I can. I set "out of office" reminders, I reply saying "hey let me put some inspiration together and get back to you" and I check in when I haven't heard from you. I value you choosing me as your photographer and therefore I make sure I value your time.
The Atelier collections
For details on our packages + ways we can customise to your day.
All about andi + the process
Because you have to know the girl you'd be inviting to the biggest day of your life!
