Now living (the dream) in Cornwall. Still shooting all over the UK & Abroad.

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boudoir

MUSE

Weddings

byLUMIERE

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Portraits & Personal Branding

CREATE

Food & Drink

CREATE

sea & sky

CREATE

About Kate Hopewell-Smith (Kirkman)

CORNWALL BASED SONY AMBASSADOR

Hello and thanks for taking the time to look at my work. I hope you can see that I love what I do – which is all about the unique combination of the craft and the people. People like you who appreciate the value of great photography. It is really hard to try and sum up the ‘why’ behind choosing to be a photographer/visual storyteller. What lies at the heart of my ‘why’ is a fascination and respect for human relationships – how we all love and live.

I live and work with my husband, and fellow Sony Ambassador, Brent in beautiful Cornwall. We made the massive life change and relocation at the end of 2023 and now shoot under the following 3 separate brands for Weddings, Boudoir and Commercial.

I want to create really beautiful stand alone images that you will love and cherish for your lifetime and beyond. My favourite subject at school was art and back then my medium of choice was oils. I studied History of Art at degree level and now when people describe my work as ‘artistic’ I couldn’t be happier. Following graduation I always worked in creative industries – TV marketing, fine art publishing and brand design. I looked after the clients, ran the projects and helped the team create and deliver a vision. Then I moved out of central London to raise my children – studying photography in my precious down time – but loving every minute of it.

I cut my teeth taking pictures of my children, then my friends’ children. I was asked to shoot a wedding and finally I listened to those close to me and decided to set up my photography business. I’m convinced you can only do this successfully if you enjoy making connections and building relationships. It matters to me. I want to give you something individual and personal by taking the time to know you a little.

My time in the industry has been amazing – I have represented Nikon as an Ambassador, written monthly columns and articles for all the leading publications, filmed a 10 part series on Food Photography for Planet Eat and currently represent Sony as a European Imaging Ambassador and Rotolight as a Master of Light.

If you would like to see more of me – of the woman behind the camera then you can take a glimpse into my life and business on my personal branding gallery here.

In 2018 I made a significant shift from shooting on DSLRs to Sony’s full-frame Alpha series mirrorless cameras. Shortly after this, both Brent and I were made Sony Europe Imaging Ambassadors, a brand we are excited to represent and a role we were both delighted to accept. What does all of this mean? That you are in safe hands – which is actually quite rare in an unregulated industry.

It has been great to discover the kind of photographer I want to be. One who wants to give you something a little bit different, more considered, more unique if you will. So if that’s what you are after then get in touch and let’s work together to create something special. I don’t shoot hundreds of weddings a year because I want to give 110% of my energy and creativity to each couple I am lucky enough to work with. As different as all of my couples are they all have a love for photography in common and usually consider it to be an important element of their wedding day as a whole and are generally looking for a fine art wedding photographer – but also one that loves to document the story and moments of a wedding. I’m very happy to travel if you are planning a wedding abroad and looking for a destination wedding photographer. As important as it is to try and give you a sense of who I am I would much prefer to have a chat with you on email, zoom or the phone so please get in touch about possibly working together to tell your story.

SONY EUROPE IMAGING AMBASSADORS

Representing the Sony brand within the wedding sector of the industry is something I’m very proud of. Brent and I are part of Alpha Universe – Sony have built this platform with the mission of it being ‘the most engaging platform for visual content creators by empowering them to reach their full potential through education, inspiration, and innovation‘. I enjoy sharing my work, techniques and tips to help those of you who also shoot Sony and for all photographers who want to be better and push themselves creatively.