Category Archive: The Swan at Bibury
The Swan at Bibury wedding venue | 365#124
There are a small number of places in the UK I would consider relocating to if the opportunity seemed right for family and business. One is Dorset, the other, without a second thought, the Cotswolds. It’s just a magical place and Cotswolds wedding photographers should bear in mind just how lucky you are to be living and working in an area so rich in mature historical architecture and landscape. As the years pass and I professionally frequent the area more, my list of Cotswolds wedding venues served grows. One of my favourites is the Swan at Bibury. The term nestled in a valley is appropriate. A river flows adjacent to this cosy venue and as the portrait above suggests, you’re surrounded by frames of reference that remind me how beautiful our green and pleasant land actually is, and why Americans are prepared to wait three hours at border control to sample architectural eye candy they simply can’t match back home. This is England. Hmmm. Someone should write a song about that.
COTSWOLDS WEDDING VENUE: The Swan at Bibury
SHOOTING DATA: Canon 5DMk2, 135mm, F2, 1/1000, ISO 200 over exposed by a third of a stop.
Documentary wedding photography | Wedding 365#46
WEDDING 365 PROJECT – one wedding photograph from my collection per day to demonstrate shooting style, creatively and technically.
SHOOTING DATA: 5DMk2, 135mm, F2, 1/250, ISO 1250
ETHOS: What goes on behind a bride and groom as the story unfolds is of great significance. Captured well, these are the moments a bride and groom can often only witness through a photographer’s photographs. Rarely will a guest take a documentary stance in quite the same fashion. During a service and selected according to size of room, light available etc, I elect to sport two camera bodies with different focal length lenses attached and ready to shoot. I try to avoid changing lenses during such an important juncture of the day. These days there is often a wide-ish lens, the 24mm being my glass of choice. And then something like a 50mm or 135mm. In this case the latter has isolated the bride’s parents well and it becomes, in my mind at least, a perfect portrait of them. Photograph captured during a civil ceremony at The Swan, Bibury.
Swan Bibury wedding photography – Nick and Georgie
A wedding in the Cotswolds. There are few places on our Sceptered Isle that possess the magic and beauty of this area. An adoptive Berkshire lad, three quarters of an hour’s drive delivers me safely into the arms of this quintessentially English domain. And if I sound loosely poetic about how I feel about the Cotswolds, it’s for good reason. You simply know you’re there. Every house carries the mantra of; “That’s what I’d do with my lottery win,” and you lose cellular connection with the World. Peace at last. Now is the time to be Jeremy Clarkson test driving a Ferrari Daytona through the steep and winding tree lined traffic-less roads leaving behind that place known as Swindon. So Nick and Georgie, you chose well. I’ve often driven past The Swan Hotel in Bibury; it was good to be working there. And ahead of a set of images from the day, another hearty round of applause for the inventive fusion of foodie underground table names; Kings Cross St Pancake, Maida Veal, Mornington Pheasant, Piccalilli Circus, Chutney Bridge and Fulham Broadbean.
