There’s a line in my conversation with Lisa of The Light Photo & Film that I love: “I want you to have images that no other couple could possibly have because no other couple is you.” It says so much about how she approaches a wedding, and about the couples who are drawn to her work: people with their own ideas, an appreciation of photography as a craft and a willingness to trust the person behind the camera.
Based in Australia and available for weddings internationally, Lisa combines digital and 35mm film photography with Super 8 filmmaking, offering both photography and video. Film is a particular love of hers, for the way it records a fleeting gesture or a grand moment with something of the emotion we attach to our own memories. She’s drawn to couples who bring imagination and enthusiasm to their celebrations, whether that means a gloriously exuberant gathering or something small, secluded and deeply personal.
I wanted to introduce you to the woman behind The Light Photo & Film, whose warmth comes through so readily in her answers. We talked about her love of analogue, the trust between a couple and their photographer, and knowing when to offer a little guidance and when to let a moment happen. For anyone choosing who will photograph their wedding, there’s much to take from the care she gives to how her couples experience the day itself.
The Need to Know
The Light Photo & Film is led by Australian photographer Lisa Noble, who welcomes wedding bookings across Australia and internationally. Her work combines digital and 35mm film photography with Super 8 filmmaking, with photography and video coverage available.
Before we talk about photography, tell us a little about yourself.
My name is Lisa. I am an artist, a mother, a wife and a lover of Jesus and of life in all of its forms. I enjoy creating art for the sake of art, but art with a purpose (gardening to eat, sewing to wear and photographing to immortalise your love) is the most exquisite form of creation.
Born in Papua New Guinea and raised in country Australia, I’m a small-town girl at heart, able to have a conversation with anyone and everyone. I enjoy a hot cup of tea and copious amounts of sunshine and treats.
I adore art in all of its forms, but I love people more, and my genuine hope is that that translates into my work.
The Light Photo & Film has such a distinctive identity. What are you hoping to create for the couples who invite you into their lives?
I want to create a space for couples that gives them permission for humanity, for things that aren’t on trend lists but are written in their hearts, for rest and presence, and space for living to happen on their days. I have always been able to produce my best work with couples who know who they are and express that with passion, whether they are reserved and calm or rambling and restless.
My biggest asset in creating art is my couples themselves, highlighted by bountiful florals, beautiful churches and incredible gowns, but never overshadowed by them. For my couples’ ease to translate well to their galleries, there needs to be an ease to their day, and I am so privileged to help facilitate just that.
One of the best compliments I have ever received after a wedding is, ‘You fit in so well, everyone thought you were part of the family.’ I love people and, while I love the unposed, I would never leave a couple on their own if they are feeling a little uncomfortable in front of the camera! Knowing when to step back and when to guide is one of the skills that I have sharpened over the years to allow the most ‘you’ to show through in our images.
I want you to have images that no other couple could possibly have because no other couple is you, and I think that requires us to unmarry ourselves from particular results in your final gallery. Just the simple desire that your day and your love be captured. We will always get the favourites, but stepping into the nuance of your love is where the art happens.
There is something so incredible about capturing the humanity of your day, surrounded by flowers, bellies full of cake and champagne, but the humanity is what sticks and creates those timeless images.
Your work combines digital photography, 35mm film and Super 8 filmmaking so beautifully. What does each medium allow you to say that the others can’t?
If I could only shoot weddings on film for the rest of my career, I would be so, so happy! It is the most freeing, human medium. I love film for the moments that feel fleeting: the quick grab of hands, the cluttered dresser as you get ready. For moments of grandeur, like a wide shot of your wedding venue as you approach it or your walk down the aisle, film has the power to instantly immortalise them.
When people speak of the nostalgia of film or Super 8, it is because the analogue media remind us of the skewed way we as humans perceive moments. We see a kiss, but it is coloured by the love we feel, the sunshine on our backs, the excitement of what is to come. Not always razor-sharp in detail but filled with the emotion we experienced in the moment, film gives us that gift to take into the future and for future generations.
Your photographs have such a strong sense of atmosphere. When you arrive at a wedding, what are you looking for that other people might not even notice?
I love moments that simply could not be prompted or scripted if we tried: the synchronicity of newlyweds as they greet their guests, the chaos of last-minute preparation, the giddiness of realising you are actually married. I love observing your love, and I think having a very high level of emotional intelligence allows me to work within your natural characteristics to allow you to be more yourself than maybe you thought possible in front of the camera.
Another of my favourite pieces of feedback from couples is how at ease I made them feel. What a joy and a blessing to help enable you to be present for your day! To take you from the stress of ‘Do I look good in this moment?’ to ‘I can’t wait to relive the emotion of this moment.’ Apart from allowing you to enjoy your day more thoroughly, this also allows me to capture you in your true element. A win-win!
Over the years, I have learnt that helping a couple who may not feel at ease in front of the camera is far more about a nudge than going into a situation to create an atmosphere. Like a friendly face or a glass of wine at a party where you know no one, one of my favourite ways to help is to create ease in the moment rather than take them out of it.
If I am able to capture a soft moment after you have walked back down the aisle, there is no need to recreate one. If I have been able to capture the passion of a fleeting moment, there is no need to recreate it. It is such a beautiful flow between observation and curation in the moment!
You often describe yourself as photographing creative souls who are wildly in love. Tell us about the couples who feel like ‘your people’.
I love creative couples! This doesn’t always just mean couples who work in creative fields, but couples who are so decidedly themselves, so sold out for their own vision that they intentionally or unintentionally create days centred around themselves to the point of creativity. I love enthusiasm; I adore it, bathe in it. If we aren’t enthusiastic about our day of love, then what are we being enthusiastic about? I love when a couple reaches out and bares their souls, their loves, their dreams.
I know I am not owed this privilege, so it is so beautiful when it happens, and I will always do everything I can to find a way to work with them. I actually used to edit my email responses to enquiries so harshly: make sure there are some full stops to dull the barrage of my exclamation marks, no ramblings, no hearts! But I have changed that so much. I want my couples to want to be invited to be themselves, so why would I dull myself before they have the opportunity to do so?
I think excitement and creativity can sometimes be seen as extroverted qualities, but some of my most memorable days have been with deeply introverted couples who tailored their days to their passions. A love of food, of beautiful views and seclusion, of rich experience. My ideal couples value their ‘me-ness’ over all of the noise that can come from putting a wedding together, and dive deep into the creative vulnerability of being themselves on a day that can so easily snowball into a life of its own.
This can be sentimental details in the ceremony, the dress, love notes before the wedding because that is how you start every day, or a breaking of normal tradition to fit who you are. True creativity, born from love.
You’re based in Australia and welcome international bookings. If a couple were planning a wedding overseas, what do you think you bring that goes beyond beautiful photographs?
No matter where in the world your wedding is, I will be capturing your love as a priority! I love travelling to capture weddings, whether in the smallest village, in the hills or at the most elegant venue.
My goal will always remain the same. I will always capture the beauty of your destination with the wonder and enthusiasm of adventure, but ultimately will always be guided by the universal language of lovers: lingering embraces, shared looks, moments stolen together.
I think finding a photographer you resonate with and whose work you resonate with is such a rare and special thing that the distance seems more and more irrelevant.
Weddings rarely unfold exactly as planned. How do you help people feel calm, present and completely themselves when emotions are running high?
I love the spontaneity of each day, both planned and unplanned. Rarely has there been a wedding that I have been a part of where we have not had to pivot in one way or another. My focus is always on your experience of the day and the deeply romantic realisation that, no matter what happens, you will be married to your love at the end of the day.
I feel my role goes beyond documenting your day as an artist or fly on the wall to also helping to guide you as a professional. This is in your portraits (in the same way I would never overdirect, I would never leave you feeling uncomfortable or awkward without direction), as well as the expectations of particular moments throughout your day. There is so much comfort to be found in trusting who will be capturing your day.
I think couples rarely realise that what they invest in is the person behind the camera. I really don’t mind compliments about my cameras taking good photos (I’m glad they do, haha), but the person behind the lens will be the one to carve out the scenes that will be immortalised as your wedding. Of all the moments and all of the angles and all of the formats and all of the variables at a single event at your wedding, I have the honour of pulling frames out of your day and presenting them to you and your future generations as a love note of your day.
To expect yourself to feel completely at ease in front of someone you may never have met before your wedding day is an odd thought as you invite them into your intimate worlds. The person you invite in has to be an artist, yes, but a facilitator of humanity as well. The human aspect of the work, I think, has been what has held my attention in the art form of photography for so long. I love your stories. I love the intricacies of relationships, all of the emotions of the day, not just the love and the joy.
What could feel like a disaster and a massive change in plans on your day can so easily become a highlight, a reflection of those around you, a reminder of your love for one another with the right team and hearts around you.
If every couple knew one thing before choosing their photographer, what would you want it to be?
Unlike other creative suppliers you will have on your day, your photographer will be with you through it all, capturing and helping create the moments you will want to relive over and over again. As much as you can, get a feel for who they are as a person. My reviews are filled with past couples who came in unsure about how they would feel being photographed and left with images they love (and love themselves in!), reflecting on the warmth, ease and confidence I was able to bring to the day.
Outside of making sure the photographer herself will blend with and even enhance your day, ensure your styles align! Scroll through their work and see what is prioritised: polish, emotion, portraits, movement, light. Are these your priorities too? How do you feel when you see their work? View full galleries to see how the flow of the day is captured.
When a couple invites you to photograph one of the most important days of their lives, what responsibility do you feel you’ve been trusted with?
Like a sculptor being entrusted with an invaluable piece of marble to bring out the beauty already within it, a photographer doesn’t just capture; she draws it forth. What a wild responsibility to be entrusted with. I will always feel such privilege to do something I love that captures such a singular moment in a couple’s life. Trusted to be in the moment with them and enable it to live on.
Good communication has been the kindest gift I can offer my couples in the lead-up to and following their wedding. Getting to know them, their day and their vision has served over and over to lay the foundation for trust on the day and has allowed so much friendship to blossom from the day.
The biggest gift I can give my couples, however, is the moments of their day back in their hands. Moments where they were led, captured quietly, encouraged to play, to laugh, to linger. Moments that came out of larger events, planned or otherwise, significant or mundane, moments that allow them to see themselves as they are in the beauty of the day they had dreamed up.
Connect with Lisa at The Light Photo & Film
To enquire about your wedding date, photography and video options, or an international booking, contact Lisa through The Light Photo & Film’s website. You can also explore her Love My Dress directory listing.
