It was a few days after Hurricane Nicole when Langre Edwards landed her first big wedding shoot.

With no electricity at the church and a bridal party of 18, nerves were high.

“Larger weddings were something that was very intimidating before,” the photographer confessed. “I thought it was far out of my league. I was very, very nervous going into it, but I walked away thinking, you did it.”

The 27-year-old captured everything, from the hair and make-up through to the dancefloor.

“My nerves were through the roof,” she said. “But on the other side of that, going through the images, I captured memories that I know they’ll look back on and say, ‘I’d marry you all over again’.”

It wasn’t the first time she’d been thrown in the deep end.

While experimenting with the camera in college, a janitor noticed her enthusiasm. He asked her to shoot an event.

“I wasn’t studying photography or even doing it as an elective,” Ms Edwards said. “I was the typical broke college student. “So I did it and found I had an eye for it. I enjoyed it and even he was impressed with the photos.”

“Before you know it, I was charging $20 photo-shoots just to have grocery money,” she laughed.

While she has been doing photography for more than five years, she has treated it as a business for the last two.

“Now when I speak to people who are interested in photography I say, just keep shooting.”

Her career began on the other side of thec amera.

“I realised being in front of the lens that I had a vision of what I wanted the image to look like and at the time, the photographer and I didn’t see eye to eye,” the former model said.

“I thought, why not be behind the camera and then you can have an opinion. You can have a bit more control.”

She said her gender allows her a certain perspective that is a benefit in shooting other women and aims to capture qualities often missing in the world of social media superstars such as Kim Kardashian.

“You can feel empowered, you can be sexy, you can feel comfortable. You can photograph your beautiful angles, but there’s a way to to it where there is still the dignity, there’s still the class and the mystery.”

“I realised that our generation is definitely a visual one,” she continued. “We don’t read as much. We get the short version of news articles.

“A picture does say a thousand words, so you have to get very creative in order to communicate something and that’s what I believe my photography does.”

She said her approach is to “counteract” a lot of the negative images that are out there.

“If you have a lot of images promoting single parents, I try to highlight the family union. If there are articles out there about fatherlessness, I try to highlight a father holding his newborn son and isolate those photos and push that back into the community — to say, yes this is happening, but let’s also remember this is still happening as well.”

She said she doesn’t think that rapidly advancing technologies will render the professional photographer obsolete.

“The motto of my photography business is: For generations to come. My dad passed away when I was 11 years old and those photographs are some of the things I hold most dear. My aunt had one of those big camcorders that weighed you down and she has so many home videos, so many memories.

“When I meet with my clients, I photograph with the mindset that these are images that you’re going to have for ever. You’re going to be telling your children, your grandchildren and you’re going to remember that feeling.

“I look for those personal moments in the families.”

Family is her target market and Ms Edwards has earned a loyal following of repeat clients.

“I’ve built great relationships with my clients, so I’ve done their engagement photos, their annual Christmas cards, so they will push me. I’ve got the biggest cheerleaders. They have more belief in me than I have in myself.”

Professionally, she goes by the name Maetog.

MAE stands for Mark Allen Edwards, her father’s initials.

“My mom always said, you can’t do any tattoos, so versus honouring him that way, I wanted to put it in anything I decided to do,” she said.

Backwards, it reads “go team” a happy accident that has inspired Ms Edwards to look to the future as she hopes to expand the business to include more other photographers.

American-born to a Bermudian mother, Ms Edwards moved to the island when she was 15, but when asked about where she most identifies, she said: “I feel more Bermudian.”

“I love everything about the island. I love the colours. I love the people. I love the diversity, I love that’s it’s a huge melting pot.

“In Bermuda you have a great opportunity to be a big fish in a small pond. You’re open to making more connections, meeting more people without some of the stress of living in maybe New York where you have to kick down the doors.

“It’s a place where I have to build character and integrity as a business. Having that strengthened and sharpened has been really important and a great advantage to why my business has grown to a business and not just a hobby.”

Ms Edwards, who works in international business, added: “It’s such an island life to be able to say, I have three jobs. You have the day job, the on-call job, the side hustle and the entrepreneurial endeavour.”