Featured Photographer - Lyndah Wells

With her upbeat personality, Lyndah Wells is an award winning wedding & lifestyle photographer living and loving life in the beautiful islands of The Bahamas. A mother of 2 energetic girls and married to Doug who she met on on her 10 day vacation to Bahamas, Lyndah's energy and risk taking spirit has pretty much led her through this thing called life.

Lyndah is a Fearless photographer award winner, speaker and brand Ambassador for Magmod & Visual Flow. She has been featured in F-Stoppers, SLR Lounge, Huffpost and many other prominent publications. Lyndah continues to share her knowledge of photography with workshops and speaking engagements in The Bahamas, LA, Aachen, & Las Vegas as well as her online mentoring platform.

Her approach to life is visible in the bold, colorful and emotive images she makes for her clients.

WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK

HOW DID YOU GET STARTED IN PHOTOGRAPHY?

I've always been interested in the Arts and so I enrolled in a 1 year Art & Design Foundation course to get me prepared for a college degree in design because I wasn't really quite sure where exactly I wanted to end up. It was during that foundation year that I was introduced to photography. I was in my early 20's & so excited to learn and experiment with different art mediums. Photography quickly became one of my favorite classes. My brother ended giving me his old Nikon F 35mm film camera and I was excited to head out and complete my assignments. They included still life, portraiture, and street photography. We were also taught to develop our own film in the darkroom. There is something so magical when watching the image you first visualized, then create, develop slowly in the red-hued space of a darkroom. It's like a love story and I fell head over heels.

After that year, I enrolled in a four University course and got my degree in Furniture Design & Technology. But it wasn't until a few years after I relocated to the Bahamas in 2005, that my career in photography career took off. It was quite serendipitous. In 2009, I was on a beach with a friend when we met a recently engaged couple and began chatting with them. They mentioned that they were planning a wedding in the Bahamas. My girlfriend blurted out that I was an amazing wedding photographer, even though I had never shot a wedding! Fast forward six months later when they returned and I shot their intimate wedding on the beach. I remember being very, very nervous. I had only had my Nikon D80 for less than a year and up till then, I had been shooting fashion editorials, local events, & real estate. Shooting that wedding was different in every way. It wasn't long after that that I caught the attention of a local wedding planner. She gave me a huge opportunity. She listed me as one of her preferred photographers and I slowly began to build up clients. I've haven't looked back since.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR STYLE?

My style feeds from who am I am as a person. I'm bold, I'm a risk-taker, and I have a vibrant personality which definitely comes from my roots as Nigerian-British woman. I hope when you look at the photographs I make you feel some of that. You see the vibrant colors and bold compositions. Living in The Bahamas also feeds into my style, how can it not? So you're going to see a lot of the beauty of the Bahamas reflected in my work.

WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR IN AN IMAGE?

Light or lack thereof is where I begin. I'm cool with both. I actually realized I shoot a lot of dramatic silhouettes. There should also be a balance of composition to keep your interest, & emotion, not just the emotion depicted in the image but how it makes you feel when you look at it. A photo that allows the viewer to feel something, Whether its a sense of identity or belonging, or curiosity, anger, or even a sense of calm. That's what I look for in an image and what I want viewers to look for in my images.

WHAT INSPIRES OR MOTIVATES YOU?

My children definitely motivate me. I have 2 girls, Layla 9 & Sadie 6. I do what I do as an example for them. So they know they can follow their dreams, take risks, and build your dreams from scratch. It doesn't matter if you're living on an island of fewer than 40 thousand people. If you have a voice and are strong about your convictions, there's always space for you. I also am inspired by my friends that are pushing forward and making sure the voices and talent of photographers of color are being given space. Right now as I write this I've been on panels and zoom calls speaking to various publication editors and community leaders about how to see and include the many talented photographers of color and I'm happy to be able to do my part in getting our voices heard.

WHAT CHALLENGES YOU?

A few things to be honest. Being a working mother that travels frequently., That's a hard one. I try my best and ensure there's a balance. Doug is amazing and we do have full-time help so we're covered on the home front. I used to feel guilty for even admitting that but it's what helps us ensure our girl's taken care of, especially with so much travel, I'm usually gone on Friday and back on Sunday or Monday. It can be hard on the girls. Thankfully over the past 3 years, I've started blocking out 6-8 weeks over the summer for an extended family vacation. This has helped tremendously. I'm also aware I push myself pretty hard to become a better photographer. I try and focus on one particular area at a time, so a while ago it was challenging myself to be able to see and capture emotion more creatively in my photographs. Then I focused on better composition and framing. I'm constantly pushing myself to make better and better photographs for my clients.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MOMENT OF A WEDDING?

I love ceremonies, there's always one moment when the couple shares an intimate look with each other or a parent is just overwhelmed with emotion. I love documenting those moments because I've found that it usually comes to a wonderful surprise when they look through their photographs. I also love children at a wedding. There's always a great photograph waiting to happen with children.

OF ALL YOUR IMAGES, DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE ONE?

When I first began to answer, this I had an image in mind. After speaking to a dear friend, he asked me: When you die, what photo do you want to be buried with you, and that really put it in perspective. And so I do. It's a black and white photograph taken at the birth of my oldest daughter Layla on June 8th, 2011. She's being held upside down, her body covered in vernix, mouth open in a cry, umbilical cord still attached to me. In the background is Doug, you can see his eyes wide through his glasses and he's looking at her in wonder. I'm on the bed completely exhausted and smiling wide. This moment was when life changed for all us. It represents one of the happiest moments we've shared as a family, our journey, and the beginning of our transition to parents. I'm so thankful to my Doula for capturing it for us.

ANYTHING ELSE WE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT LYNDAH?

I know a lot of people are surprised when they hear me speak as I have a British accent. I love running and I typically wake up at 5.10 am to start my runs which are usually between 10-14 miles. I've been able to really clock in the miles due to COVID-19 and SIP. I love to travel and have recently started traveling for street photography. I can't wait for travel to resume. I actually have an open ticket to Cuba and I'm just waiting patiently to go. If you follow my stories on social media, you'll usually see me on a small 4-10 seater plane, on a golf cart, or on a boat, heading to my latest wedding destination.

TELL US ABOUT DVLOP / VISUAL FLOW

My good friend Jide Alakija introduced me to DVLOP. His Zauberchroma collection is a favorite of mine! His vibrant presets work well with the environments I shoot in and make it easy for me to edit especially for darker skin tones. I also love Two Mann Studios' Two Mann Studios' Mystical Potions (Amarone & Espresso). Davina + Daniel's Passages (Prague) is one I use also.

I am also in love with the Visual Flow presets and for which I recently became an ambassador. Modern and Crush packs are truly game-changers. I love that they are based on lighting conditions that we shoot in most frequently. I immediately gravitated to Soft Light preset in both the Modern pack & Crush. I'm also a big fan of the retouching brushes.

VF has allowed me to accelerate my editing workflow without any headaches as I just know it's going to give me my required base once I bring my photos into Lightroom. I can then delve deeper into fine-tuning each photo using the retouching brushes. The Sky & Cloud and Quick Dodge & Lift are my most used brushes. I love that I also don't have to take photos into Photoshop as frequently and that's a huge time saver.