Polly
Del Sol Associate Photographer: weddings, trash the dress, underwater and portraits
Polly joined Del Sol in 2014. She has been working in MANY positions at Del Sol: Studio Manager, writing, designing, and publishing on the website, quality control, client communications, and scheduling and logistics for events. She has a degree and masters in Fashion Design and spent 9 years on the London and Paris fashion scene working with fashion giants such as Givenchy, Louis Vuitton and was a designer in the studio of enfant terrible Jean Paul Gaultier. Polly is British and speaks English French and Spanish.
Polly left fashion and Paris behind to spend 3 years backpacking up the east coast of Africa. She traveled from Tanzania back to the UK by road via popular holiday destinations as Sudan, Somaliland, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Syria, and Iraqi Kurdistan. During her travels, she became a diving instructor and technical diver. She came to Mexico to dive in the world-famous cenotes and achieved her Full Cave diver certification, one of the most demanding courses for a scuba diver. After teaching 100s of people to dive, she realized she would rather take pictures of them doing it and worked as an underwater photographer before her desire to create beautiful images led her to Del Sol’s door.
Polly is a high-energy photographer. She commits fully to everything that she does and gives her all. She loves hard, contrasty light and playing with graphic structures and shadows. Polly is an international award-winning photographer winning awards for her cenote photographs. She’s also super stoked to have had the MERMAID proposal she designed and photographed go viral on Huffpost, Buzzfeed, Good Morning America and more!
“Thanks for the photos they are AMAZING!!! Some made us really laugh and others made Louise cry. You are a very talented Geordie lass and we couldn’t be more grateful for how wonderful you have made our photo’s. These photo’s will be treasured memories of the most perfect day that we will be proud to show off to friends and family for years to come. Quite simply Louise and I had the best time with Polly and the Del Sol Photography team. Their imaginative ideas towards photography and their ability to cater to how you want your photos is second to none. We would recommend them to everyone and anyone. We wouldn’t change a single thing and only wish we could do it all over again because it was so much fun. On behalf of Louise and myself we would just like to say a massive, massive thank you to Polly and Valeria for making our day such a blast.”
“Polly – you are simply such a gem to this life. When I didn’t have my closest friends & family with me you played a part of them all. From helping me into my dress, rehearsing my vows to reminiscing our relationship to helping me get drunk by holding my wine & suggesting lounges :) Your photography skills were only half of your amazingness. Your positive energy kept me happy & upbeat. Missing my family & friends & nervous/excited about walking down that beach trail you kept me focused on what was important. My day will be remembered with laughs & excitement. You embraced my day, um… Our day lol!”
“Polly and the del Sol team were amazing, incredible, and talented. Not only that, but they went above and beyond to make it a seamless wedding day. Some may still not even know that Michelle’s wedding dress took a dive into a black puddle moments before arriving at the venue. Polly and Val ran to the nearest vendor and brought back water to wash her dress. It was like it never even happened! I know we are a teeny demographic, but when planning a wedding, the same rules just don’t apply to lesbian couples. We appreciate you being up for the cause and helping reach our community. We are seeing a massive emergence of lesbian and gay weddings, and our community is in need of more resources when wedding planning. It was a major preference for our vendors to have had experience working with other lesbian couples. All of our expectations of our big day were exceeded and we had the confidence to be authentically ourselves because everyone involved was so loving. Thank you for that!”
“If we could use one word to define Polly it could be ‘Awesome.’ In the beginning when I talked to my planner, Leila, I told her the most important to me is the photographer. Pictures are memories and all the emotions and feelings you can express through them. Polly is an artist, I really love her style, bold and different.”
“Polly was so much fun! We asked Polly to be our photographer because of her unique perspective. They say photography is all about light. In Polly’s photographs, you see light in many different ways. Not only can you see the way she uses light to show depth, mood, and color, she also uses the light to show emotion. That is from the light within her subjects. She has a talent for capturing moments that may not have been seen by everyone, but are the reason the event was so joyful. To us, that was the most important thing in documenting this special day in our lives.”
“Polly is awesome and extremely talented. It’s been an absolute pleasure working with her. She and Valeria were excellent the day of the wedding. Between the rain, chaos, last minute location changes, attention deficit bride and bridal party—they handled it in stride, and did their thing.”
“The pictures are simply awesome!!! We are really impressed of such a good job with that weather!!!!! The air was just insane!!! You are really a great photographer! Besides of very kind and sweet!!!! We loved our session with you!!! Thank you for everything and we’ll be awaiting (very exited) to receive the complete session!! Please also thank Erika!! We loved her too!!!!”
“Polly was just as amazing!! She even walked the edge of the infinity pool for us just to get the perfect photo op!! I mean, who risks their life for someone they just met!? Lol it was the cherry on top to our special day and thanks to them we will have the most beautiful memories captured on film.”
“I wasn’t sure just how much Dax and I would bare during our trash the dress shoot. I’d seen the steamier pictures and I appreciated that this was a once and a lifetime kinda thing for those of us not working as professional nude models ;) When else would I have the chance to slide out of a wedding gown into nothing more than my husband’s waiting arms!?! It happened organically. We snuck into a more deserted cavern in the system of cenotes and the privacy, coupled with the complete and total level of comfort we felt with Polly (and a shot or two of xtabentún) helped us shed our inhibitions… and our skivvies. Polly made me feel beautiful and that, with the buoyancy of the crystalline water, the subtle draping of tulle or deep red satin over my curves, and the willingness of my husband to go for it made baring it all a no-brainer. Polly’s creative spirt is contagious and to complete the full circle with Del Sol presented Dax and I with a gift that will give throughout our entire lives: first with what we experienced in real time and then with the magical images we’ll treasure through our lives. To Polly, her assistant Arube and our driver Alex: thank you! You are unbelievably talented and it was a true joy working with you. The day was so special, really memorable. It was an experience I will treasure for the rest of my life and we are better people for having met you.”
“Polly joined us for our trash the dress cenote and beach session and she was absolutely amazing! Such a great imagination and creative style that delievered the romantic and sexy photos we imagined. She was personable and made us smile the entire time! She got down and dirty in the sand and just as soaking wet as we did in the cenotes!”
“Polly outdid herself and made sure she captured everything we specifically wanted and then some! She was extremely patient with our family, and captured images I would’ve never thought of having and for that I am grateful.”
“Polly and the Del Sol team exceeded all expectations, which were already high! Our photos were the most important part of our wedding to us, because our family & friends didn’t attend, and that will be how they get to experience it with us. Del Sol made us feel like celebrities with their creativity, professionalism, and ability to capture the best day of our lives. They were willing to do whatever it took (including getting in the ocean & the jungle) to make our photos the best they could be! We are beyond thrilled with the full collection of photos! They truly look like print ads! We love so many of them, it’s hard to even pick favorites. Thank you so much for capturing this amazing day so beautifully for us.”
“Polly has a true talent that we greatly appreciate! I cannot praise the work of Polly enough. She shocked us with how loving, fun, creative and energized she was… people actually thought she was related to my family! Her patience and caring was priceless. We appreciated that she took extra time towards the end of the night when she noticed fun dancing was taking place. Thank you, Del Sol for capturing our wedding perfectly!”
“First of all I must say that Polly did an amazing job! She was such a big help not only by recommending our officiant Erik, but also by creating an atmosphere of joy and easiness. To be honest, in the end, the only thing I did was dropping some headlines/ideas and Del Sol and Erik arranged everything. It was a privilege to do wedding pictures in that scenery together with such a professional photographer like Polly. Polly was just great! She actually made our day an even more positive memory.”
“There aren’t many moments in a lifetime where you can genuinely feel the passion a person has for their craft like you could with Polly and Nat. The whole day was an adventure with them. They had us running through the Caribbean Sea, hiking through the jungle, posing by Mayan ruins, exploring 5th Avenue, and most importantly embracing the love that we have for one another. What more could you want?”
The Del Sol team is incredibly thoughtful, positive, and professional. Leading up to our special day, everyone from Del Sol was so responsive and helpful in clarifying any questions. On our wedding day, Polly and Valeria accommodated all of our requests and made us feel so much more confident being the center of attention. They both were so sweet, fun-loving, and personable that it was easy to feel comfortable with them from the second we met. Beyond their personalities, they also take some pretty incredible photos!!”
“Del Sol was key since day one. I came across the company via searches and decided to chat in hopes someone could give us some guidance. I’m so glad I did because Polly and Matt were instrumental in our decisions. During our entire process, Del Sol was detailed, proactive, informative and available for any questions and recommendations. On the day of the wedding, the Del Sol team was fantastic! They kept us on track and made sure they captured the photography we envisioned. Del Sol were the first photography website we came across and we absolutely loved the style and detail of the images. Our favorite were the Xcaret images. After reviewing other sites we kept coming back to compare. When I reached out via web chat, I spent a good 30 min chatting with Polly, who gave us fantastic feedback and things to consider which hadn’t crossed our mind, which we appreciated.”
“Polly and the Del Sol team is amazing! They had a plan and were very organized together and did a good job keeping us on schedule. Of course I was not completely ready when Polly arrived as planned, but she did not rush me. Polly did a great job directing me and my wedding party to get the shots. I also appreciated how they respected our time away from guests after the ceremony and they quickly returned us back to the party.”