Category Archive: Wedding photojournalist
Lains Barn wedding photography | Kris and Helen
In wedding catering terms, Haggis could be considered a bold choice for couples planning the culinary portion of their day, unless, vows are being exchanged on the 31st December; Hogmanay. Of Scottish blood, Kris married his uni-sweetheart Helen surrounded by their closest friends and family on a date where it seemed a rite of passage to toast speeches with Scotch in hand, where wedding favours became the tools of first footing, where a piper announced the arrival of the main course and the groom’s father delivered Robert Burns’ address to the Haggis. New Year isn’t an invention of the Scots, but there are times such as these, where you may be forgiven for thinking that it was, or indeed should have been. Every man wore a kilt, and every announcement heralded a Scottish twist where it was encouraged to find the inner Wallace in ye. Lains Barn seemed a perfectly fitting backdrop for a coming together of the wedding clans; this restored historic barn boasting an honest rustic backdrop, the stuff of Stirling Bridge perhaps, and an inviting winter interior theme pieced together by the Lains team and Essentially You’s Julie Tooby. Before you ask, until the day a supportive Sporran is developed with compartments for lens and lens hoods, my suit remained the uniform of choice on this occasion.
Posted in Lains Barn, Oxfordshire wedding photographer, Oxfordshire wedding venues, Oxon wedding photographer, Oxon wedding venues, Reportage wedding photographer, Reportage wedding photography, Wedding Photographer, Wedding photojournalist
Tagged Available light wedding photographer, Documentary wedding photographer, Documentary wedding photographer Oxfordshire, Documentary wedding photography, Wedding photographer Oxfordshire, Wedding photographer Wantage, Wedding photojournalist, Winter wedding photography
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WEDDING 365#3 | Wedding photojournalist
WEDDING 365 PROJECT – A favourite photojournalist wedding photograph selected each day from my catalogue, collated from time spent photographing these unique events. Ethos provided for prospective brides and grooms, shooting data for the wedding photographers intrigued by that kind of info. Please comment, it makes a World of difference.
SHOOTING DATA: 5DMk2, 24mm, F1.4, 1/1600.
VENUE: Lains Barn.
ETHOS: I’m a massive fan of the true grit contasty black and white, the type of print that Robin Bell would produce in his famous London darkroom. This was from 2011′s New Year’s Eve wedding, captured in an exceptionally dark corridor where pin spots were the only available light source. You wait, you wait, you wait, then someone offers an opportunity. I must have hovered around these guys listening to their conversation develop for five minutes or so.
Craig and Liz – Notley Abbey wedding photography
Here’s one I’ve been meaning to post for a while, and it’s as much a mention too for wedding photojournalism and what it is, or can be. A good wedding photographer friend of mine sums it up sweetly; observation not orchestration. It’s nigh on impossible to be purist about our ‘sport.’ Sooner or later someone will ask or expect me to orchestrate a group shot or I’ll ask the bride and groom to simply hold hands for a portrait. Then my cloak of PJ invisibility shreds itself. I just mention this because of late, and following my article in Professional Photographer magazine about church coverage, I’ve exchanged a number of mails with fellow togs about working as a documentary wedding photographer and what that actually means to me. I use many terms to describe my work and yes, I do use wedding photojournalist as it’s a phrase championed by wedding magazines; so I embrace it for search term reasons. In reality though I’m a documentary photographer. If you will, I have a ‘light touch’ on the day. I do help arrange a handful of portraits because when the dust settles and the cake becomes crumbs, this is what is left. This is the legacy of the wedding. Only a small percentage of my work requires any orchestration, and even then I’ll work in my described professionally brisk method, as I want key members of the bridal party to get back to the main event. This is after all a wedding day, not a photo shoot. So, the photographs within this post demonstrate my creative take on the subject of docu-coverage. Notley Abbey, sublime venue, superbly charged atmosphere of excitement, a bride and groom who desired some portraits, but equally wanted to relish time with their friends. Craig, Liz, what a day!
Posted in Buckinghamshire wedding photographer, Buckinghamshire wedding venues, Bucks wedding photographer, Bucks wedding venues, Notley Abbey, Wedding Photographer, Wedding photojournalist
Tagged Documentary wedding photographer, Documentary wedding photography, Wedding photographer Buckinghamshire, Wedding photographer Bucks, Wedding photographer Oxfordshire, Wedding photojournalism, Wedding photojournalist
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Michael and Natalie – Warbrook House wedding photography
“Hello Neale, I’m Bob.” All wedding videographers are called Bob. There are a handful of exceptions of course, as equally I’ve worked alongside WVs called Barry, Jeff, Mark, Danny and Julie. But in the main, they’re called Bob. Fact. This Bob looked pretty proficient behind his four cameras, and equally proficient hoovering up the canapes and champers. And thus the good humoured banter commenced. (Reference the ‘Bob hoovering’ image if you click more.) Humour was order of the day, and in a second factual revelation; that’s usually the case when a fair proportion of the congregation come from the Emerald Isle. Hosted at Warbrook House, a pretty Georgian country house hotel on the Berks and Hants border near Hook, most guests, and I’ll include myself, seemed to sport an inane grin for the day. This was a wedding that had a smile. It also had a Bob.
Posted in Hampshire wedding photographer, Hampshire wedding venues, Hants wedding photographer, Hants wedding venues, Reportage wedding photographer, Reportage wedding photography, Warbrook House, Wedding Photographer, Wedding photojournalist, Winter wedding photography
Tagged Berks wedding photographer, Documentary wedding photographer, Hampshire wedding photographer, Hants wedding photographer, Photojournalism at weddings, Reportage wedding photographer, Wedding photographer Berkshire, Wedding photojournalist, Wedding photojournalist Berkshire
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Silchester House wedding photographer | Steph and Chris
“It’s been almost eight years since I fell in love with you. And if I could go back and tell my seventeen year old self that I would marry you, I think I would just about die of happiness. As I read these vows, I know that before me stands a man who has captured my heart with all his brilliant light. I promise you all my heart’s devotion, and a hand to hold yours through each tomorrow. I promise to love you in good times and in bad, with all I have to give, completely and forever, in sunshine and shadow. I promise I will laugh with you, not just at you, and to make your dreams as important to me as my own. I promise to bake you lots of brownies, and to always kiss you good bye before you go to work. You are my pillar of strength, my soul’s fire. I love you.”
Posted in Berks wedding photographer, Berks wedding venues, Berkshire wedding photographer, Berkshire wedding venues, Documentary wedding photography, Silchester House, Wedding Photographer
Tagged Berkshire wedding photographer, Civil wedding ceremony, Documentary wedding photographer, Jewish ceremony, Jewish wedding ceremonies, Wedding photographer Berks, Wedding photographer Reading, Wedding photojournalist
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Queen’s Eyot wedding photography | Dan and Steph
In workflow terms, on the day, for me it works thus. Photograph wedding, return home, consume tea, download images, consume tea, catalogue images, consume more tea, blog a little, consume even more tea etc and so on. I’ll admit an element of distraction the evening of this one however. It was the night of Saturday 6th August and something rather brutal was festering in North London. Listening to it unfold on the radio as I drove home rather stalled the process of blog composition. And so only now do I get the opportunity to enthusiastically wax lyrical about a fabulous island called Queen’s Eyot (pron ‘eight.’) A four acre island on the Thames just upstream from Windsor, QE is a quintessentially English clubhouse, built for Eton rowers to enjoy the fruits of their physical labour, more latterly shared with couples keen to underline the word exclusive in venue terms. For you can’t get more exclusive than a venue where the only way of getting there is via a ferry. Flowers by Stubbings of Maidenhead, pipes by James MacPherson and dress by… Mum. Fabulous.
Posted in Berks wedding photographer, Berks wedding venues, Berkshire wedding photographer, Berkshire wedding venues, Queen's Eyot, Wedding Photographer
Tagged Documentary wedding photographer, Queen's Eyot island, Thames wedding photographer, Wedding photographer Berkshire, Wedding photographer Royal Berkshire, Wedding photojournalist, Wedding photojournalist Berkshire
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Rivervale Barn wedding | Ricky and Ellen
“But it’s good for the garden,” would have been the cheery riposte from my late mother if faced by a seemingly unending dousing of wet weather on a day where we’d otherwise planned for something less inclement. Having spent many of my childhood holidays under cover of canvas in various corners of the UK, I’m well versed with a dampened view of our country during the height of summer. I wouldn’t have appreciated it aged 12 I’m sure, but this was probably the best training I could receive for a career shooting weddings in Britain. In Ellen’s words on the day; “We chose [Rivervale Barn] for the inside as much as the outside, as we just didn’t know what the weather would hold.” And with that, I understood immediately why the rigorous rainfall hadn’t affected the attitude of the day. I often witness guests take a lead from the two key cast members of the day. If rain stops play, it could be because the mood has been dictated accordingly by displays of disappointment or dissatisfaction. It’s an important planning consideration for every wedding day. Does the venue offer ample opportunity and space if it rains etc and so on? The rain may not have let up for this one, but neither did Ricky and Ellen’s constant enthusiasm and honest joy for their occasion. Loved it. From start to finish.
Posted in Hampshire wedding photographer, Hampshire wedding venues, Hants wedding photographer, Hants wedding venues, Rivervale Barn, Wedding in the rain, Wedding Photographer, Wedding photojournalist
Tagged All weather wedding venues, Documentary wedding photographer, Hants, Wedding day rain, Wedding photographer Hants, Wedding photojournalist, Wet weather wedding
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Rivervale wedding photography | Hants wedding photographer
We love black and whites, big colours, natural coverage, shoot it as you see it. Pretty much the words used by Steve and Brenna from my meeting with them just prior to their Rivervale Barn wedding. A joy. I’m certainly not portrait session shy, and I’m definately a believer that a selection of family group shots meaningfully earn their place in an album, but thank you ‘guys’ for allowing me in the main to observe at Rivervale last week. Did I feel like I lived your wedding for the day? Oh yes.
Posted in Hampshire wedding photographer, Hampshire wedding venues, Hants wedding photographer, Hants wedding venues, Rivervale Barn, Wedding Photographer
Tagged Available light wedding photographer, Black and white wedding photography, Documentary wedding photographer, Documentary wedding photography, Monochrome wedding photography, Wedding photographer Hampshire, Wedding photographer Hants, Wedding photojournalist
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Rivervale Barn wedding photography | Hampshire wedding photographer
“What’s your favourite photo or moment from today,” I was asked, roughly 7 o clock, sun still kissing the courtyard at Rivervale Barn in Hampshire, with evening guests yet to arrive to Dan and Emma’s wedding. Usually a question asked upon my return home and whilst downloading images from a day’s wedding shoot but not one proposed by guests, it didn’t in reality take long to answer. “Speeches.” Hardly a hesitation. “Yes, speeches.” See, for me, I’m engaged by clients to be professionally nosey. I’m allowed to do the one thing parents forbade us from for much of our childhood. I can stare. All day. All day, staring. Sometimes with a camera to my eye, sometimes just observing minus an eye piece. Perhaps I should rephrase this as observing, for the documentary aficionados. It’s why I am primarily a wedding photographer. I do get asked to shoot commercial work, and usually because a client wants to achieve the results seen within these pages. But you simply can’t recreate some of the emotional highs (and lows) I observe during weddings. So, a favourite moment; our groom Dan turns to his father and thanks him. It’s a simple gesture, and one I see often. If you click ‘read more’ you’ll hopefully see what I saw during the exchange I reference here. Dan doesn’t need to use a microphone to say ‘thanks Dad.’
Posted in Hampshire wedding photographer, Hampshire wedding venues, Hants wedding photographer, Hants wedding venues, Rivervale Barn, Wedding Photographer
Tagged Available light wedding photographer, Berkshire wedding photographer, Documentary wedding photographer, Hants wedding photographer, Wedding photographer Berkshire, Wedding photographer Farnborough, Wedding photographer Hampshire, Wedding photojournalist
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