About Smiling Tiger Studios
It started with a way of seeing
Smiling Tiger Studios grew from a fascination with people.
The expressions between the obvious moments. The glance across a room. Someone trying not to cry. The friend who absolutely cannot behave themselves when everybody else is being serious.
Those things have always interested us more than perfection for perfection’s sake.
I’m Linus, founder and Creative Director of Smiling Tiger Studios.
Before weddings, I spent more than 15 years working as a professional photojournalist, learning to observe, anticipate and react to real life as it happened.
That instinct became the foundation of Smiling Tiger.
To protect the experience of the wedding while preserving the truth of it.
People first. Always.
Photojournalism taught me something that still shapes how we photograph weddings today:
the photograph usually begins before you press the shutter.
You watch.
You notice who matters.
You sense when something is developing.
And you learn that real life rarely repeats itself for the camera.
Weddings turned out to be the perfect place for that way of working.
Families, friendships, nerves, humour, love, history and complete chaos all happening at once.
The interesting part has never been making people perform.
It’s noticing what happens when they don’t.
Why Smiling Tiger?
The name is about awareness, instinct and quiet confidence.
Reading the room.
Knowing when something is about to happen.
Being ready without needing to interrupt it.
Looking beyond the obvious.
And occasionally noticing something brilliant happening ten feet away while everybody else is looking in the opposite direction.
That way of seeing has become what we call:
The Smiling Tiger eye
Curiosity.
Anticipation.
Humour.
Humanity.
Timing.
Connection.
It isn’t a preset or a formula.
It’s the standard behind the studio.
From one photographer to a studio
Smiling Tiger began with the way I photographed.
It no longer needs to depend entirely on me.
The photographers who represent STS aren’t chosen because they can copy my work.
They’re chosen because they already speak the same visual language.
They notice people.
They watch the edges.
They anticipate.
They understand when to step in and, just as importantly, when to leave something alone.
Different photographers bring different personalities and instincts.
What we share is the standard.
People before poses.
Moments before perfection.
Observation before interference.
The people behind the tiger
Linus Moran
Photojournalist turned wedding photographer, filmmaker and professional people-watcher.
I still photograph and film weddings, but my role now reaches beyond the camera – shaping the creative direction of Smiling Tiger, developing the team and protecting the standard the studio was built on.
My own neurodiversity has undoubtedly influenced the way I see too. An ADHD diagnosis in adulthood helped me understand the heightened awareness, intense focus and sensitivity to human behaviour that have always been part of the way I work.
Away from weddings, life usually involves Dorset, the gym and Rhodesian Ridgebacks.
Will Bazlinton
Will has worked alongside me for around eight years and is a huge part of Smiling Tiger Studios.
A UCA Photography graduate with two decades of experience, Will brings his own eye, personality and instincts to a wedding.
What makes it work is that we notice many of the same things.
The reactions.
The relationships.
The humour.
The moment happening somewhere other than where everybody expects it to be.
After years of working together, very little needs explaining.
A little more than photographs
We spend a lot of our lives documenting incredibly happy moments.
We also know how quickly life can change and how important photographs of people can become.
That’s why Smiling Tiger supports Campaign Against Living Miserably – CALM, with a contribution from every wedding booking going towards its work supporting people through difficult times and helping prevent suicide.
Because ultimately, everything we do comes back to the same thing.
People matter.
So, that’s us.
A studio built from photojournalism.
Obsessed with people.
Interested in what happens around the edges.
More concerned with a genuine moment than photographic perfection.
And surrounded by photographers who speak the same visual language.
You live it. We pay attention.
