For this month’s image, I’ve gone back to look at some pictures I took at a family wedding back in September 2009. This was in the evening, with some of the bride’s family getting together and making music. Something appealed to me about the balance of the composition, the fact that everyone is looking in a different direction, concentrating on the musical instruments, the mundane details of glasses and bottles. It’s understated, and yet captures the feeling of the moment.
The ‘Societies’ Convention 2013
I’ve been busy working on my website the last week or so, and I had meant to post something about The ‘Societies’ Convention, but I’ve only just found the time…..
It was the first time I’d been to anything quite like this – in all, it was several days of seminars and workshops and a trade show – I made it down to London (the Hilton Hotel and Convention Centre, Edgware Road) for the whole of Saturday December the 12th. After an overnight stay in Covent Garden on Friday, I was at the venue at the unearthly hour of 8.00 for a seminar with Kevin Mullins (as it turned out, the high spot of my day). I then flitted to and from several other seminars throughout the day, grabbed a quick sandwich lunch, and spent a couple of hours wandering around the trade show – spread over several floors.
I did find it useful to see and talk with a number of suppliers I would like to consider using in future, particularly for insurance, management, website hosting and albums and similar products. I picked up plenty of brochures and a few free photography magazines, which can’t be bad. All in all it’s something I would consider doing again, but it did give me a useful insight from mingling with other photographers and looking through the trade stands.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Illumination
This week I found the opportunity to post on the blog in response to WordPress’s weekly photo challenge. The theme was illumination. I’m always looking for a theme where wedding photography can brought to bear, and this week I just about had time to prepare and post an entry. It also allowed me to tinker about with the hue and saturation controls in Photoshop to experiment with presenting a black and white image.
This was taken last April at an evening reception at Sprowston Manor Hotel near Norwich. I love taking pictures of children at weddings, and many of my favourite images from last year have children as the subject. Here I liked the expression on the girl’s face as she was obviously enjoying herself – with the boy sitting next to her totally unaware. The disco lighting from the right illuminates them quite softly. I prefer to use black and white in this particular case as the colours behind her head were a little distracting. Compositionally, there’s a left to right diagonal leading the eye out of the frame towards the focus of their attention.
Canon EOS 400D, 1/80 at f2.8, ISO 400.
Two favourites from 2012
I’ve been debating whether or not to choose a favourite image from the weddings I photographed in 2012. There were many to consider, ranging from images of the brides and grooms to all sorts of images of wedding guests in a variety of settings. Some that appealed to me greatly at the time have lessened their impact a little since then, and it’s been far from easy to pick just one image. So in the end I have fudged the issue somewhat and picked a closely related of images – as I rather liked the similarities and differences.
Here are two photographs of three bridesmaids from a wedding in June at the Old Rectory in Great Melton near Norwich. We had been wandering around the music room with a couple of other members of the family while the bride’s preparations were underway, and I was in the process of taking pictures of them wandering around the room exploring the musical instruments and generally relaxing and enjoying themselves. Some of the pictures I took in this room are among my favourites from the wedding (I find children often make the best subjects and they were no exception).
In both pictures the girls are posing for someone else off camera to my right. In the first one, they aren’t fully settled in to their poses and still show fairly natural expressions – admittedly each one is different. In the second picture, taken a couple of minutes later, they are posing and their expressions are quite different. I prefer the first one – but taken together, they tell something of a story and I think they have much more meaning than if they had been looked at separately. Just a small point, maybe, but for me it’s an interesting one nonetheless and that why I have made these my favourites from 2012.
Lomography
According to Wikipedia, Lomography defines a community of photographers who advocate creative and experimental film photography. The name is inspired by the former state-run optics manufacturer Lomo Plc of St Petersburg, that creator and producer of the 35 mm Lomo LC-A Compact Automat camera, now the centrepiece of the lomographic movement. This November the Lomographic Society International celebrated its twentieth anniversary. The LC-A+ camera was re-released as a special edition and the online magazine section ran articles about some of the best lomographic shots of the last twenty years.
Most lomographic cameras are designed to produce photographic effects such as over-saturated colors, extreme optical distortions, rainbow-coloured subjects, unusual exposure, blurring and alternative film processing, all things normally considered bad practice in photography. For example, the lomography fisheye camera I own features a built-in wide angle lens, and shoots fish-eye-distorted images.
The philosophy behind lomography is summarised in its motto ‘Don’t think, just shoot’. This motto is accompanied by ten golden rules which are supposed to encourage spontaneity, odd angles, and taking photos anywhere, while minimising considerations of formal technique. Typical lomography cameras are deliberately low-tech and simple to operate. Some cameras make use of multiple lenses and rainbow-coloured flashes, or exhibit extreme optical distortions and even light leaks.
I’ve found it difficult to get the hang of operating my lomo fish-eye camera, but I’m determined to persevere and make the most of its creative opportunities. I’m going to be more adventurous and make occasional use of it for giving a different slant to may wedding photography next year.
Image of the month 10
When thinking about what I was going to use for this month’s featured image, I made the decision to go back and look through images from a wedding photoshoot in Norwich in April, and look through some images for something I hadn’t really noticed first time through.
This is a shot of the bridesmaids together in the church before the beginning of the wedding service. I did crop it somewhat to bring out the focus on the small group as the key element of the picture, and decided to keep it in colour after looking at black and white conversions as I felt the purple dresses stood out really well.
I decided that what I liked about this picture was the relaxed and happy attitude of the bridesmaids and the range of their expressions – the two on the left looking towards the camera, the other two looking at each other; along with the clasped hands and (technically) the placement of the subjects on a slight diagonal. It’s a simple and straightforward image, of course, but one that I felt deserved a second look.
Image of the month 9
This month I’ve gone back to a wedding I photographed in June to look at some of the pictures I didn’t really rate at the time as among my favourites, in case they appealed to me. I do think that’s a useful exercise, as it’s all to easy to be drawn to certain images and skip over many of the others without thinking about their full potential. To some extent it’s just a question of numbers and trying to keep the process manageable.
For this month’s selection I found a shot of the bridesmaids sharing a happy moment with relatives quite early on in the day and as soon as I saw it I could see the potential. A crop to remove some of the distractions in the foreground and to the right of the group (plastic bags, clothes, a rucksack), and a black and white conversion to remove the distraction of the red bridesmaids’ dresses, with a fair amount of contrast, gave me the image I was looking for. The composition of the group is tight and balanced, the mirror helps to pull the elements together. Not quite all the distractions can easily be removed, but for me the spontaneous emotions of this scene make the shot a good one – and one that is true to my style.
Brides and grooms in Paris
On a trip to Paris last week, I kept coming across brides and grooms with their photographers and assistants posing for shots against typical Parisian backdrops. As one does. Naturally I had a camera to hand and managed a few shots of my own. Whether they were actually married in Paris, or just taking the opportunity of a classy photoshoot, I never managed to ask. Does Paris hold a particular appeal for those from the Far East? There’s no doubt that Tour Eiffel is a pretty spectacular background for anyone’s wedding photographs, though wandering around the Place du Tetre in Montmatre mingling with the tourists is a very different kettle of fish. Whichever way you look at it, there’s something romantic about Paris and its appeal never fades.
Wedding cakes!
Last Sunday I called round at a nearby wedding fair held at the Oakllands Hotel, in Thorpe St Andrew, Norwich, just out of interest. I’ve never really felt the desire, as a wedding photographer, to exhibit at wedding fairs but I thought I would quite like to see how things looked and the sort of things couples might be attracted to.
I’ve always had a soft spot for really creative cakes and so it was fascinating to look at the beautiful cake displays of two wedding cake suppliers:Time 4 Cakes www.time4cakes.co.uk and eventISS www.eventiss.co.uk
Here are four of my favourite photographs:
Image of the month 8
This month’s image is from a wedding I photographed (in my usual documentary style) earlier this year. This one left me in something of a quandry when it came to editing – as to whether to convert to black and white, after carrying out a quick fix of contrast and levels, or leave it in colour. The red object she is carrying is rather distracting, as is the rim lighting around it. I could have adjusted this, but decided to leave it as it was. The reason the image appealed to me was the way the light strikes her forehead, her concentration on what’s happening out of frame, and the narrow depth of field. The picture has its flaws, but I rather like it the way it is.
Images that tell a story 