About Us
Storytelling with authenticity transcends through our connection with our clients. From our first conversations with you, to seamlessly integrating with your family & guests on your day, our values guide us in capturing genuine moments, understanding your story, and delivering timeless, elegant heirlooms.
hello
We know that when you choose us, we become intrinsically involved in your legacy. The dog-eared, well-loved, images-of-the-future are being moulded by our very hands. What an honour! And with this process, we leave our legacy behind too.
We adore what we do. It is a genuine privilege seeing all that is wonderful about humanity summed up in the ten-hour-whirlwind that is your wedding day. Your indelible print on the world; a brief moment in time which will be here longer than we are. A little piece of history. This is not something we take lightly and we believe our work should reflect as closely as possible the honesty of the day and the authenticity of each connection we capture.
We are Danielle and Martin, a husband and wife team, based in Oundle, Northamptonshire where we reside happily with our three daughters.
We have known each other since the early ninties as we attended the same school and even dated through sixth form and into university. Fast-forward to March 2017 when Fineshade Studios sprouted its first tendrils of life whilst we were planning our own wedding for the August of the same year. This marked start of a new chapter in our lives and the welcoming of our fourth baby has brought us over 8 years of creative adventures and a sense of fulfilment we could only have dreamed of.
Our backgrounds are deeply woven in film, literature and photography, with a collective two decades of teaching at GCSE and A Level. Martin, with his impressive background in music technology, adds a cool, rhythmic & methodical touch to our work, whilst Danielle, a Literature post-grad, brings artistic, authentic storytelling and a genuine love for humanity.
We now have a well-established team of photographers and videographers all of whom are able to lead shoot, or assist us. Martin & Danielle lead in every aspect of the process, from consulting with clients to shooting & editing your day and we wouldn't want it any other way. You might find us at your wedding covering either videography or photography – we both love both disciplines and we both edit photography and film, too. We often split weddings and so you might have Martin, Danielle alongside one of the lead photographers/videographers of our small well-established team leading the day. Our experienced team, the majority of whom are our former GCSE or college students, perfectly match & mirror our values and we trust each of them implicitly. We have literally grown together! All of our team are professionals in their own right - please believe us when we say there is no way we would leave our fourth baby in anything other than the safest hands! Read more about them below.
Meet the team
Our talented and experienced team members below have worked with us for a minimum of three years. Each accruing hundreds of weddings' worth of experience between them. Click names for example videography & preview galleries; all products are edited in-house.
Erin is another member of our little crew and we are very lucky to have her on board. She might just shoot your film or shoot photography for you! Once upon a time, Danielle taught Erin media and film as a sixth form student (and a fabulous student she was!). We kept in touch and here we are today! She graduated from the University of Northampton where she studied film and she now has very own videography production company. She's a big romance fan and enjoys periodic films, shows and books like Bridgerton and Atonement. She would love to work on a Netflix set.
You might meet Max if you’ve booked us for photography or videography. He first and second shoots with us and I’m sure you’ll love him as much as we do! He shot our very own wedding back in 2017 - we can't sing his praises more highly than that! He has shot many weddings with us now and is highly educated in film. Max was a student at The University of the Arts London following an apprenticeship in digital marketing.
He works as a full-time videographer for a corporate videography company, and prior to that, he was a freelancer creating visuals for musicians, artists
and performers for their online brand alongside managing social channels.
You could meet Ethan if you’ve booked us for videography or photography. Ethan graduated Film Practice at the University of the Arts London and has been non-stop film-focused since then. He owns a film rental company and works as a freelance videographer on numerous independent productions. He is an ex student of Martin's and believe us when we say focus and drive like Ethan's doesn't come along very often. He is destined for great things!
He specialises as a cinematographer and has worked on a variety of different productions (documentary, shorts films and music videos) but also is a talented photographer.
Emily first and second shoots with us for photography and film but she has her very own photography and videography business too. She has recently moved North and further away from us but we still have plenty of collabs in the books for the years ahead! She is the safest pair of hands and very talented. Her other super power is her ability to quietly and confidently put people at ease with her warm, can-do attitude.
Testimonials
You are truly the most amazing humans - both of you. The rare ones in life who radiant kindness Thanks again for capturing our magnificent day: you were just perfect . Not many things are in life but you were.