An Italian wedding in Vieste, Puglia

Posted on October 20, 2013 by Ian Coldicott

Here is some street photography from an October wedding in the town of Vieste in Puglia, Italy, where we happened to be on holiday. After the service at the Chiesa Santa Croce, a beautiful small church in the town centre, and a gathering outside, two white doves were released before the couple were showered in confetti. Dozens of cars with wedding guests drove around the town honking their horns. Happening across all of this by chance, I took some photographs, and here are some of my favourites.

An Arabic wedding in Berlin

Posted on October 1, 2013 by Ian Coldicott

This is a case of exploring the boundaries between wedding photography and street photography! I’ve always taken the view that what you learn from being a street photographer can be applied creatively to weddings. It’s the matter of immersing yourself in the action, looking for new angles, not being reluctant to focus on how people interact, capturing something real and dynamic.

Well, I had the chance to put some of this into practice in June this year while having a short break in Berlin. Wandering around the Neukölln district of Berlin one afternoon and heading nowhere in particular, in fact feeling rather bored, I heard a commotion down Fuldastraße and went to take a closer look. This turned out to be a wedding celebration in full flow: firecrackers, a red and white costumed marching band, and someone firing what looked like a starting pistol – I got into the thick of it and followed the wedding group along the street, trying to dodge the firecrackers and take pictures at the same time. This was great fun – even though I wasn’t entirely sure of the identities of the bride and groom, they didn’t seem to be together much, though I’m fairly sure the bride wore bright blue.

After about 300m the group came to another building and – after more noisy and exuberant celebrations in the street – went inside. My final pictures were of the wedding car parked outside.

In the end, I was really pleased to have captured some dynamic images in the street that I feel really capture the atmosphere of this occasion. I went up to a group of men and they told me they were Arabic; I didn’t know.

Murmansk brides and grooms

Posted on September 17, 2013 by Ian Coldicott

This summer we spent a day in Murmansk, on Russia’s White Sea while on a cruise to Norway and Russia in search of the midnight sun. Not only did we see the midnight sun, along with the milky white waters around the Solovetski Islands on some of the hottest days of the summer, we were able to visit Arkangelsk and Murmansk for a chance to look around two industrial cities largely unbtouched by the tourist industry.

Murmansk itself – the world’s biggest Arctic city with a port kept ice free by the gulf stream – features a good number of monuments and museums set in an urban landscape of Soviet era architecture rising above the bleak port area.

While our excursion group were visiting the memorial complex – home to an Orthodox church, a memorial lighthouse, and a memorial to the Kursk submarine – a bride and groom arrived for some post-wedding photography at this fine vantage point looking across the city and the post, closely followed by a second couple. Naturally I – along with several of our excursion party – took the chance to capture a few photographs of them. Here are some of my favourites.

Crondon Park wedding photography – Abi and Alaric

Posted on August 27, 2013 by Ian Coldicott

A wonderful wintry wedding on a snowy day in March, from the bride’s house in Danbury, Essex to a service at St Margaret’s Downham, emerging into an absolute blizzard and then on to the reception at Crondon Park Golf Club. A white wedding in more ways than one, so here are a few images from the day; there are others in the wedding gallery.

All taken with a Canon EOS 400D with Tamron SP AF 17-50mm F/2,8XR lens. Click on any image to see a larger version.

Congham Hall wedding photography – Jackie and Steve

Posted on July 30, 2013 by Ian Coldicott

I had the pleasure of being asked to photograph Jackie and Steve’s wedding in June at Congham Hall, near King’s Lynn in Norfolk. As luck would have it the early summer weather didn’t disappoint and the venue itself was immaculate. I arrived around mid-day for some establishing shots around the house and grounds and a coffee, followed by a few photographs of the final stages of bridal preparation. After the ceremony there was time to mill around in the grounds for a while until I left shortly before everyone sat down for a meal. Al the staff at Congham Hall were most helpful and I’m sure all concerned enjoyed the day immensely. Here is a small selection of favourite images from the day.

“We have looked at the photos and are very pleased with them, you captured our special day perfectly. Will definitely recommend your services if we know anyone who is getting married” – Jackie and Steve

2012 in five images

Posted on February 10, 2013 by Ian Coldicott

A brief review of my year in wedding photography, limited to just five images…..

I’ve decided to pick just five photographs I haven’t used in this blog or on my website before, converted to black and white, to sum up my photographic year as a documentary wedding photography. This wasn’t a particularly easy exercise, but here are the results and I hope you enjoy looking at them.

The first is from a Norwich wedding in April. This was in the church before the main wedding service itself, well before the bride’s arrival. The wedding was a fusion of a Zimbabwean and a British wedding – here some of the guests are clearly enjoying themselves quite uninhibitedly, though the small boy isn’t quite sure what to make of it

The second is also from April, at the reception in St Andrew’s Hall in Norwich. I think it was the lovely interaction between the two women that appealed to me about this image, with the way their arms are linked together in the same angled shape.

The third is from a June wedding at The Old Rectory, Great Melton near Norwich – one of the bridesmaids is having her hair done while another bridesmaid waits, reflected in the mirror. This is a beautiful country house venue, though apart from bridal preparations much of my time was spent outside, dodging the summer showers while photographing a woodland wedding.

The fourth is an image from a wedding in Florence in June. I just happened to be outside the beautiful Chiesa Di San Miniato Del Monte overlooking the city when the wedding party spilled out of the church after their ceremony, so I merged with the crowds and took some documentary shots: here I captured some of the interactions between guests while the couple were posing for photographs in the background.

Finally the fifth image is also from Florence, and taken on the iconic Ponte Vecchio while a couple walked up and down being photographed – I just took advantage of the circumstances and took some pictures. It’s a pleasant combination of bride and groom and (separated from them) a number of passers by.

Image of the month 11

Posted on January 28, 2013 by Ian Coldicott

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

Posted on January 27, 2013 by Ian Coldicott

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.

Two favourites from 2012

Posted on January 6, 2013 by Ian Coldicott

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

Posted on December 13, 2012 by Ian Coldicott

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.

Images that tell a story

Documentary photography by Ian Coldicott

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