PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER | OCTOBER 2019
photography because it entails all genres:
portraiture, fashion, photojournalism, food,
boudoir, art.
“Wedding photography is a perfect place for
someone who is starting out to be a jack-of-
all-trades and a master of none,” he says. “And
you will master some along the way and learn
what you love.” Through Craigslist he offered
free wedding photography for practice, and
out of a couple dozen responses, he worked
three weddings. Meanwhile, a friend hired him
to shoot her wedding at Kiawah Island near
Charleston, South Carolina. He built a website
and, with his analytics know-how, peppered
it with the keyword “Halifax.” Google began
listing it high on Nova Scotia searches, and
couples in Canada’s Maritime region were com-
ing across a seemingly local photographer do-
ing photojournalism-style wedding photog-
raphy like they’d never seen before. When Susie
got a government job in Halifax and they re-
turned to their hometown, Cooke booked 50
weddings in the first year. “Well, I guess I’m
a photographer now,” he told himself.
With business growing wedding by wed-
ding, he formally named his studio Cooked
Photography in 2014 (inspired by a drunk
groomsman who asked, “What are you cook-
ing up next?”) so that his associate, Nauss,
could begin building her own client base.
He’s expanding into food and corporate pho-
tography, relying on his studio’s downtown
Halifax location and his tried-and-true busi-
ness model: making friends with neighbor-
ing restaurants and businesses.
Among the first weddings he worked, that
of his friend on Kiawah Island was perhaps
the most important. Not only was it a paying
gig, but it showcased him as a destination
wedding photographer. A photograph of the
couple on a beach amid palmettos became
his first advertisement. But what set this
wedding apart from others wasn’t the loca-
tion; it was the circumstances. “It was with
people I love. I knew I needed to show beau-
tiful light and a beautiful couple and beauti-
ful places, but for me, this was a marketable
wedding because I felt a connection with the
people. The stars were aligning.” •jeffcookephotography.caEric Minton is a writer and editor in
Washington, D.C.