Some of my favourite images from Fiona and Leo’s Zimbabwean wedding in Norwich on 14 April, with the service at Chapelfield Methodist Church and the reception at the Sprowston Manot Hotel. A really interesting wedding for me as there was so much enthusiasm,. happiness and commitment – quite a momorable experience, really. All pictures taken with a Canon 400D wiith a Tamron SP AF17-50mm f2.8 lens.
A couple of weeks ago I went out with Matt and Hazel, whose evening reception I photographed not long afterwards, for a pre-wedding shoot in Norwich. They chose the church of St Helen Bishopgate and the view of the city from just off Britannia Road. Here is a small selection from the photographs from the day.
This month’s image is one of my favourites from a family wedding in September 2009. The bride and groom have just stepped out of the church into the bright September sunshine and it’s confetti time. Luckily I was able to get right in there and capture the bride’s expression as confetti catches the sunlight and the church entrance in the background is thrown into deep shade. I did crop this one to cut out distracting detail around the sides of the frame and to emphasise the bride as the focal point of the composition. I’d like to think it successfully captures the feeling of the moment.
Canon EOS400D, 1/640 at f7.1, ISO400.
In Valencia, as I discovered last June, it’s very much the done thing for newly married couples to have a photoshoot walking around the city centre – and as it’s such a beautiful city I can understand why. Over the space of a couple of days I saw two couples wandering around with a photographer rushing ahead of them or posing them in front of a fountain to get the desired shot.
The image I’ve chosen has the couple centre frame, walking along one of the main shopping streets, with the bride looking in my direction, and both of them beaming, but I really picked this one because of the woman in front of them, totally unaware, and the man behind them glancing in their direction. I chose a black and white conversion as in colour the clothes of the two others distracted attention away from the bride and groom.
This is one of my favourite images from a family wedding last August. We have two pairs of people waiting outside after the ceremony while others are taking photographs and talking. One pair are closely watrching something happening away to the right, the other pair are both looking down: the composition works well by emphasising this difference. In fact the groom, on the far right, and the other guest are examining the groom’s shoes. This picture works because I’ve manage to be quite unobtrusive. Finally, I’ve converted this image to black and white as otherwise some of the colours would have distracted from the essence of what the picture conveys.
In November I took part in a two day workshop on wedding photography run by Steve Gerrard (www.stevegerrardphotography.com) at his studio in Birningham’s Custard Factory. So it was back to Birmingham again and a trip to the Digbeth area with its trendy galleries, railway arches, arty graffiti and £3 car washes. The scene of occasional trips to drink rough cider at a shilling a pint in my student days.
I joined eight others looking to break into wedding photography or gain some fresh insights to apply to their existing businesses, so between us we had a wide range of experience. True to his pre-course notes, Steve gave us a thorough grounding in how he goes about his art, what equipment he carries, some other photographers who inspire him, and much more besides, and above all he made it fun for all of us. Tthe sandwiches and cakes were pretty good too. As darkness fell at the end of the first day we went out into the surrounding streets or a session of painting with light.
On the second day we were joined by Steve’s friends Anna and Simon, (www.annaclarkephotography.com) who had agreed to pose as bride and groom so Steve could demonstrate his approach to a bride and groom shoot and give us the chance to take what shots we could ourselves (in my case, far too many). Much credit to Anna and Simon for braving the icy cold winds for more than two hours. We visited some half dozen locations close by the Custard Factory – plenty of gritty urban backdrops . Then back to the studio to get warm, have some lunch and look at a selection of Steve’s own images from the shoot and watch him demonstrate his post-production workflow. There was just time at the end for him to show us techniques for outdoor portraits using available light.
All in all, a most instructive couple of days in the company of a great bunch of people. Here are some of my favourite shots from the second day.- a laid back bride and groom with attitude.
Images that tell a story 