Wedding Photographers in London – The Royal Wedding Preparations

April 27, 2011 By admin

Wedding Photographer in London and Cambridge

I was in London yesterday to meet a client in Pall Mall so thought I’d just take a walk down the road when I was done and look at how ‘The Wedding’ preparations were coming along. I’ve never seen so many wedding photographers and TV crews in one place before. Clearly its big business for the media in the UK and abroad.

I have to say that Hugo Bernand, the royal wedding photographer must be feeling pretty nervous by now. I normally get the nerves before a wedding, but he really does have to come up with the goods, and is in competition with the worlds media. So no pressure then !

Sneak Peek – Lynsey and Andy – Hinchingbrooke House | Wedding Photography in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire

April 3, 2011 By admin

Here’s just a sneak peek at a couple of images from yesterdays wedding of Lynsey and Andy, taken at Hinchingbrooke House near Huntingdon.

It was a glorious spring day, with the weather being particularly kind. A fantastic start to the wedding season for me, and it must of shown, as one of the guests even commented how I must love my job so much as I never stopped smiling.

Hinchingbrooke House Wedding photos

Filed Under: Wedding Photographers Tagged With: Cambridgeshire, Hinchingbrooke House, St. Neots, Wedding Photography

Wedding Photographers – The Invisible Man

March 31, 2011 By admin

Invisible wedding photographer

One of the things my clients always tell me after the wedding day, is that they hardly noticed I was there. I’m the invisible man.

It’s not something I’d considered before, as I take it for granted that the focus of the day is the bride and groom. I’m often told horror stories by guests, of weddings they’ve attended where the photographers ego is bigger than the congregation and people are ordered, lined up and shot ! Not quite the relaxing day they expected.

The only time I’m ever asked to take charge of proceedings is the group shots and formals. Every wedding I’ve shot has asked for formal shots and lineups, and whilst I’m not keen on them myself, its probably the parents and grandparents who still expect this type of photograph. Photographically they aren’t always that appealing today, however historically tradition still hangs on to them, a hangover from cameras on tripods and shallow depth of field, where everyone had to be the same distance from the camera and keep still. Thankfully this is no longer the case. I still worry that generally speaking, guests really hate lining up for photos, and if with that in mind I try to keep the formal shots as quick as possible if they are requested. Hopefully thats all they remember of me, until they see the final album.

With modern digital equipment, fast lenses and digital processing the constraints on the photographer are gone, allowing for more creativity and a reportage style giving that fly on the wall look. I don’t use flash if I can avoid it, and certainly not during the ceremony, where in most cases its frowned upon. I tend to stay out of the way and shoot the fly-on-the-wall images that capture the emotion of the day.

Of course this relaxed style of photography means that guests are free to take their own photographs without concern for ‘getting in the way’ and I actively encourage guests to ensure they have their own shots. Its often the case that I’ll even take a few family groups on the cameras of guests just to be sure they can all be in their own photographs.

Clients are buying my style of image, something only I can produce, and remaining mostly invisible means I’m better set up to capture the emotions of the day.

Filed Under: Information - Photography, Professional Wedding Photography, Wedding Photographers Tagged With: Guides for Brides, professional

Resources for Brides – Wedding Photography – Affordable Wedding Photography

March 31, 2011 By admin

Wedding Rings - Wedding Photographer London

I was listening to a podcast from The Butterfly Journal this weekend and it made me think in a different way about what its like for the bride putting together all of the details of the wedding. Its really difficult understanding the vast array of photographers, packages, album types, and copyright, not to mention actually choosing a wedding photographer.

The podcast interviewed Julia Boggio, one of the most successful UK photographers who also writes articles for Photo Pro Magazine. Brides may know her for the famous Dirty Dancing wedding video on her own wedding day, that went almost viral on YouTube.

She makes some very interesting points that perhaps we wedding photographers take for granted.

Experience and Trust

I wrote an article on this subject in a previous blog post, listing the most important areas of choosing your wedding photographer. The post is here, but talks about how to look for experience and trust. A summary of this post was featured in Velvet magazine.

How many pictures do we get.

Typically I’ll take around a thousand images for a 12 hour wedding. Only the very best of those are presented to the bride and groom, and most albums contain roughly a hundred images. Additional images are available digitally, on slideshow or DVD. So why take so many ? Well there’s the inevitable blinking, particularly in group shots, knowingly taking a multiple shots to capture the split second of the kiss for example. Children rarely keep still. This is where you’ll see the results in the photographers portfolio or sample albums. Ask for some examples of this when you meet with your photographer.

Price

Julia sits at the top of the industry, deservedly so. This allows her to command the type of fees she does. But actually I think its not about fees, its about value. At any price, the bride has to know that she is getting value for money, and all that she feels she deserves, at the budget she’s set.

Copyright

I confess this is not one I’d really encountered much until a bride I met this week asked about it. A friend of hers had a few problems in getting copies of images from their wedding.

The copyright remains with the creator of the images, the photographer. But this shouldn’t really matter to you if you have an album of printed images, as I can’t see any bride trying to put their wedding album in the scanner. For digital images, this is quite different. Again the photographer owns the copyright. The key question for the bride should be, what do I want to do with the digital images ? Then they can ask the photographer if they can do this within their wedding agreement. A couple may see copyright offered by one photographer, and may assume it adds additional value without fully understanding what this means.

Food

Do we need to feed our photographer ? Yes, definitely. For a photographer, its a long day. For most, the only break they get is when everyone sits down for the wedding breakfast or buffet. Personally this is a chance for me to backup photos, while taking a reasonable break for food and drink. ( Your guests won’t appreciate being photographed while they are eating ). Some photographers will specify eating to the same standard as the guests, but all will welcome a bite to eat and some soft drinks.

The photographer on the day

I’ve heard on podcasts and read on blogs, that the bride and groom have ended up with someone different to photograph them on the day. Fortunately I’ve never heard of this happening in real life. Always ask, and take a look at the details of your contract with the photographer you’ve chosen.

I hope the information is of value and would love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Here’s a link to the podcast on the Butterfly Journal.

Filed Under: Affordable Wedding Photography, Information - Photography, Professional Wedding Photography Tagged With: Guides for Brides, professional, Wedding Photography

London Wedding Photographer – Sneak Peek – Rob & Charlotte

June 6, 2010 By admin

London Wedding Photographer

Here’s just a sneak peek from yesterdays wedding in London.

The very first London wedding I’ve photographed that did the whole of the wedding proceedings in two languages, English and Danish, and the dual theme was carried through the whole of the wedding day, even to the first dance. The only dance I’ve seen where everyone joins in, and where there’s a first and then a second first dance.

A thoroughly enjoyable days wedding photography in London, and wow was it hot !