Bayly & Moore

Simon and Sophia of Bayly & Moore are a couple that works together to produce beautiful wedding imagery. We asked them about their relationship and the romance of shooting at weddings.

How did you two meet?

Si was in the music industry, touring and recording, while Soph was working as freelance designer for a few different ad agencies. We met backstage at a music festival that Soph was shooting. Cue: awkward business card exchange and the rest is history.

How did your professional relationship evolve?

We both had fingers in a wide variety of creative pies (music, film-making, design, ads etc) and we were each starting to explore photography as a way of doing something for ourselves when we met, so it was pretty natural to figure out a whole new discipline together. Pretty quickly we found that we enjoyed working alongside each other, so we took on a few small jobs, and before you know it we’d started a company, hit the road, and were making it up as we went. We’ve pretty much been ‘all in’ with each other right from the start.

What points of difference do you both bring to your work together?

We’re very much in the ‘people’ game - documenting couples and their loved ones going through one of the most wonderful experiences you can have with everyone you love around you - and we both bring different things to the table. Soph has a quiet and serene nature that’s wonderfully calming and well-considered in the midst of what can be a fairly wild emotional day, while Si tends to always be forging ahead, right in the thick of whatever’s going down. Actually, that sums up our creative and business personalities as well. In the early days we had to work hard to find our ‘fit’, but now we find a lot of strength in knowing that we’ve got each other’s backs - whether it’s in the midst of a shoot, or planning a long-term strategy.

Do you think being a couple gives you a different perspective on taking wedding photos?

Definitely. It’s a constant reminder of the complexities of being together with someone - whether it’s love, business, a creative partnership or whatever - and how relationships are very much living and dynamic things that need to be tended to in all sorts of ways. Especially in the fragile moments of a wedding day, and how that expression plays out. We’re very much ‘long-haul’ people, and we’re always looking for the backstory and future in a couple’s story, even while we’re shooting their ‘now’, and that definitely comes from looking at our own experience together.

Can you tell us about a recent career highlight?

Oh, we have far too many ‘high-five’ moments. We’re always finding ourselves looking at where we are and who we’re shooting with and just being amazed at what’s going down. And that’s less about the glamorous locations and more about the genuine of people and how they’ve included us in their plans. Some of the most humbling moments come not from shooting a high-society shindig in a castle in Croatia or wherever, but from being with a wonderfully-in-love couple eloping in some wild place where they decided that they’d spend all of their hard-earned money on having us capture their commitment. That floors you every time.

Getting accolades from our industry is always a highlight and amidst the massive amount of ‘noise’ from wedding bloggers and websites handing out awards we’re lucky enough to have been recognised three years in a row by Rangefinder Magazine in NYC as being near the top of our game. We’re not big fans of being measured, but when it’s by benchmark people from a legendary photographic magazine in the big apple we get a lil bit of a proud glow.

SOPHIA BAYLY + SIMON MOORE
NEW ZEALAND / WORLDWIDE

Photography, Stop Motion, Film.
Phone / +64 21 990 618 (NZ)
Email / hello@baylymoore.com